BallWubba
Wow! What a bizarre film! Unfortunately the few funny moments there were were quite overshadowed by it's completely weird and random vibe throughout.
DipitySkillful
an ambitious but ultimately ineffective debut endeavor.
Ariella Broughton
It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.
Rainey Dawn
Miles Creighton passed away and was frozen cryogenically by the wishes of his mother Marion. One night his cryogenic chamber malfunctioned and he started thawing out. The security called for an emergency and Miles was rushed to the hospital, his mother notified and after some time he was revived - he lives again after 10 years frozen! He becomes the president of his father's company and he changes everything about, from policies to firing people. His personality is completely different - he's become very abusive, violent, hateful and willing to kill - he's downright horrible. The big question is: "Did Miles' soul/spirit reunite with his body after being dead for 10 years or is it someone else's soul/spirit within him?" I liked this film. It's a slow movie that feels more like a film from the 1970s than the mid-80s which is something I really enjoyed about it.7.5/10
metalrage666
Business man Miles Creighton, played by Michael Beck is cryonically, (not cryogenically - yes there's a difference), preserved for 10 years due to a medical transplant not being possible at the time of his death. One night his tube malfunctions and he is taken to hospital where his mother arranges for the procedure to be undertaken.The operation is a success and his mother is just happy to have her son back in her life and tries her best to continue life as normal and returns her son to the family company as CEO. To everyone else, Miles is just not normal and appears emotionally distant and ruthless with his decisions in the company and with people in general. The only one who dismisses this is his mother who brushes aside the nay-saying as simply a result of his long time in stasis and the impromptu revival. However it becomes clear that Miles has indeed changed and sparks the debate of whether a deceased person once revived is also revived with a soul. Miles becomes violent and sociopathic towards most people and only when he tries to kill the family priest by running him down with his car does the mother finally realise that what has been returned to her is not her loving son.Miles ends up being re-frozen in a large walk-in freezer and is then shot dead by his mother after he attacks a police officer revealing his demonic eyes to his mother just before he dies. The movie ends back at the cryonic facility with sirens sounding as more cryo-tubes start to malfunction.Chiller can be described as one of Wes Cravens' weaker efforts as this tries to go for a more atmospheric suspense over blood and gore. And as this was made for TV, the violence is quite low-key so even for 1985 it would be hard to consider this a horror movie and is instead more of a thriller. The quality of picture and sound is quite low, so in watching this you can be forgiven for thinking that this came out in the mid- seventies. Most of the cast performances in this are not the best but I felt that Michael Beck did a good job of portraying a soulless psycho where killing or hurting people isn't given a second thought. Chiller also came out at a time when cryonics was starting to regain interest in the early/mid eighties after the failures and legal scandals of the seventies, so the ethical, spiritual and moral implications were being discussed vigorously by religious, family and legal groups and whether cryonically frozen people should be brought back and this movie does briefly touch on that point. As yet a successful revival is still beyond the current technology levels so Chiller is pure fantasy and remains scientifically impossible. It's not the greatest movie by any means but if you manage to catch this on late night TV, then it's at least worth a look.
callanvass
This is a fairly decent little flick, however it's a bit too slow paced at times, and after a great start, it becomes a tad tedious,and a bit too silly for my liking. It has some creepy atmosphere at times, and the score is good, however, it can't rise above average, due to the slow pacing, and, unlikable characters. This was another movie i got from a DVD called Psychotic Connections. The Directing is decent.Wes Craven does a decent job here, great use of colors, some decent overhead shots, a very effective stalking scene at the beginning,some pretty cool zoom in's however the pace, is awful at times, and extremely inconsistent. There is no gore. The Acting is so so. Michael Beck does a decent job here, and seems to be having fun with his role, and was sort of menacing. Beatrice Straight is good as the Mother, and was okay in the dramatic sequences. Laura Johnson is very pretty and does what she has to do well. Dick O'Neill is okay here, and did what he had to do adequately. Paul Sorvino is so so, here and terribly miscast,he was amusing at times though. Jill Schoelen is beautiful!, and does great here, and is one of the great horror scream queens!. Overall worth a rental, but not much more, since it's only average at best. ** out of 5
rsoonsa
With this endeavour, director Wes Craven will not, in all probability, please many enthusiasts of his other films, the majority of which involve a good deal of violence and bloodletting, but he does a workmanlike job with this account of storage cryogeny which goes awry. Wealthy Marian Creighton (Bernice Straight) has kept her son Miles (Michael Beck) in cryogenic suspension for ten years since his death from a liver disease, and when a computer failure results in his sudden thawing, his mother decides upon immediate liver transplant surgery for him, a procedure not available at the time of his demise. Although this surgery is successful, and Miles resumes his former station as CEO of the family corporation, an issue arises as to how one might know of the possible lack of his spirit, or soul, whereas the other two elements of life, body and mind, have plainly been restored. The destructive behaviour of Miles is such that his mother and her clerical friend Reverend Penny (Paul Sorvino) begin to doubt that they should thank a higher power for delivering Marian's son to her, and a metaphysical inquiry becomes dominant in the film. Beatrice Straight gives, as ever, an excellent performance in her role, Paul Sorvino is tastefully nuanced as the troubled prelate, and Michael Beck obviously savours his part as the fulsome Miles, but Craven cannot seem to distance himself from his cinematic terror bromides, most of which become red herrings for a scenario which largely focusses upon ontology.
