Freeze, Arctic Horror

Before space exploration was a thing, polar exploration captured all our imaginations.  The two poles may have well have been distant planets.  From 1890-1910, us humans were done wondering...serious efforts got us to the poles.  Cold and lifeless...perfect settings for horror stories.  H.P. Lovecraft even penned a frightening Antarctic story.  Today we have a H.P. Lovecraft type of story in the 2022 film "Freeze," directed and written by Charlie Steeds.

A rescue mission heads north.  Captain Streiner (Tim Cartwright) and his crew went up north to find the Pole...but never returned.  Captain Mortimer (Ricardo Freitas) sails up there to rescue his old friend.  Uh oh...Mortimer's ship gets stuck in the ice.  We meet the crew. Of note is Barnabas (Johnny Vivash), the only one who is familiar with Arctic exploration.  Also of note is Redgrave (Jake Watkins).  Redgrave is chronicling the mission in drawings.  He's also hiding a babe stowaway, Carmen (Beatrice Barrila)...a babe.  Soon after the ship is trapped in the ice, the creatures attack.  They are a cross between gargoyles and the gill man from "Creature From the Black Lagoon."  They are mean and hungry and begin chomping on the crew.  An "Abandon Ship" order is given and only a few survivors make it onto the ice.

But wait!  Mortimer knows a lot he is not telling.  He has an ancient book (think Necronomicon) which Streiner left behind.  The book, filled with maps and drawings of the monsters, leads the survivors to a cave.  Uh oh, again. The cave is filled with these fiends, which are called Ichthyoids!  What a great name for monsters.  The monsters feed on the survivors.  The babe Carmen mans up and gets a really big gun.  Wouldn't you know...Streiner is now master of the Ichthyoids.  Guess what.  Streiner wants Mortimer's ship to bring the fiends to Europe and to take over the world.  Gore and madness follow.  Now Mortimer gets the sense that all must die so the creatures never make it to civilization.  Carmen continues to use her big gun.  War and more gore ensue.

Have the Ichthyoids ever seen a European babe?  Does Streiner have plans for Carmen's arrival given that his creatures may be a little frisky?  Will Mortimer succeed in preventing Streiner and his monster army from reaching Europe?  A very cold film with more than a tip of the hat to H.P. Lovecraft.  For some neat Arctic terror...see "Freeze."