I usually steer clear of the natural disaster horror films that make their way to the Syfy channel, but after the blast I had with last year’s Sharknado 2, I’ve changed my tune a bit. These made-for-TV films are actually upping their game a little bit and Jonathan Winfrey’s Icetastrophe proves itself as another worthy entry into the sub-genre.
It’s Christmas time and the small town of Lennox has gathered to celebrate the holiday and the changes coming in the new year, when a meteor crashes through Earth’s atmosphere, splitting into two. The meteorite starts to threaten all living things as it begins to flash freeze, causing everything in its path to turn to solid ice.
Originally titled Christmas Icetastrophe, this film aired around Christmas time of last year on the Syfy network. I must have completely missed this one because I had no idea it even existed until I found out about the home video release, now with a shorter title. I had no expectations whatsoever going into Icetastrophe, but I actually ended up having a pretty good time with it.
The acting was actually a whole lot better than I expected. With Victor Webster leading the cast as Charlie Ratchet, the man who turns out to be the new town hero, every performer did a great job. There was none of the horrible cheesy acting that we’ve come to expect with a lot of these made-for-television disaster/mash-up films and I didn’t find myself annoyed with any of the characters, which also tends to happen quite often. I didn’t recognize any other actors that appeared in Icetastophe, but I’ve caught a few episodes of the sci-fi series, The 100, so it was nice to see at least one face that I recognized in Richard Harmon, playing Webster’s son, Tim.
The main attraction to films of this nature, no pun intended, is always going to be the effects; How well can the creators of this film pull off what they are trying to portray? In this case, I was pleasantly surprised by all of the effects actually. The breaking up into small frozen chunks could have been better and some of the bloodier moments could have looked a little more realistic, but overall everything else looked impressive. I loved how all of the freezing sequences were done and it was actually pretty awesome to see people frozen solid within seconds.
If you’re a fan of the myriad of natural disaster or strange mashup films that have been released over the past few years — Sharknado, Snowmageddon, Volcano Zombies — chances are you’ll enjoy Icetastrophe. Jonathan Winfrey and his team managed to take a seemingly silly idea and make into a film that is worth your time. It is available now on DVD and VOD from Alchemy, so be sure to purchase a copy today!
I give this film an overall rating of 3 sticks of dynamite out of 5.
