Although it may resemble "The Thing" and "The Last Winter" the resemblance is superficial; those both relied on the audience feeling things (paranoia and dread, respectively)

Actually its closer to "Ghost Rig" and "Deep Freeze" and surpasses both easily. Gorehounds will probably be satisfied with many cringe-inducing scenes of which some almost enter gross-out territory. With critters burrowing into people that should be expected.

The characters however are almost caricatures and it quickly becomes apparent, with one exception I'm not spoiling, who will survive or die. That made the story kinda predictable but if you're into splatter flicks it might be worth renting.

Thirty minutes in and it's obvious how this will end up. It starts off with promise, but quickly deteriorates into a predictable mess. There's a deadly parasite. No one seems remotely concerned about catching or spreading anything. It's a free for all touch infected nastiness, and getting up close for a better look. The lack of common sense and logic is staggering. The scares primarily come via the gross out factor. Plenty of puke, oozing sores and bodily fluids in the name of entertainment. I felt compelled to stop watching about three quarters of the way through, and was glad when it ended. Garbage.

Val Kilmer again plays an environmental scientist (as he did in The Chaos Experiment) this time doing research in Canada. Apparently the glaciers are melting quickly. A polar bear he and his crew are tracking is found lunching on the brains of the corpse of a mammoth no less, that is surfacing thanks to the thawing.

Later his crew is getting sick and crazy. He is filming some type of a confessional.

Meanwhile some students are sent to study with him and his daughter goes along for the ride- even though he begs her not to go. When the kids arrive, no one is at the base camp except for the body of the bear. The kids spend the night but problems surface. The helicopter pilot is bitten by something, and so is one of the students- all over her body. Suddenly one of Kilmer's colleagues appears but she is ends up dying in a few minutes.

The kids realize that there is some prehistoric bug that is infecting everyone. It went from the mammoth's brain to the bear to the crew and now to some of them. And from here things get annoying as the daughter takes charge of sorts since the males are as usual completely useless romantics. All sorts of fights ensue. The kids find Kilmer's research and tapes and discover that the helicopter has been disabled by someone and have to call for help. But they have to survive until help arrives.

Suddenly Kilmer shows up...but he has different plans than the kids. The ending is neat. And actually the ideas behind it of radical ecologists perpetuating eco-bio-terror is very interesting. The problem is the annoying teenies. Had this movie been cast with adults, it could have been a striking movie. Instead we get the usual teen team led by some girlie who's of course much tougher than the guys- so much so that when a guy can't hack someone's arm off she rushes to grab the meat cleaver. Hollywood's warped political/social agenda is undermining their own artistic work. When will this annoying fad be over? Overall, the movie is well done, has good special effects, somewhat of an original story that is pretty interesting, but is more interested in furthering grlpower than its own aims.