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The Last Winter in Iceland
July 15, 2008

New York-based independent filmmaker Larry Fessenden, whose socially and environmentally horror films include No Telling (1991), Wendigo (2001) and Habit (1997) and took his filmmaking habit on the road for his most recent movie, The Last Winter (Genius/The Weinstein Company, Street: July 22). And where did that road lead him? Wouldja believe Iceland!?

 

“Shooting in Iceland was quite an experience,” Fessenden told us in a recent interview. “It was a 34-day shoot—and it was a tough shoot!”

 

Written, produced and directed by Fessenden and starring Ron Perlman, James LeGros and Connie Briton, The Last Winter concerns an oil company’s advanced team establishing a drilling base in the Arctic region of

North Alaska and the subsequent terror that begins when something rises out of the ice and begins picking off the team members one by one.

 

The majority of the film was produced in Iceland, which Fessenden told us has a much

more active film community than Alaska.

 

[Our producer] found [executive producer] Sigurjon Sighvatsson, who’s a native Icelander and a Hollywood player,” Fessenden said. Iceland was very good for us—we had an all-Icelandic crew and, believe me, they know how to shoot on their natural terrain.”

 

The Last Winter is an effective low-budget exercise (though not as low as the $50,000 that the Internet Movie Database incorrectly states) and Fessenden is content to work within the budgetary confines of indie filmmaking—and he feels that horror films can certainly work within those parameters.

 

I’m lucky that I’m not obsessed with huge budgets--and I like the resourcefulness that comes with a low budget,’ he said. I like to think that my films are a celebration of the incredible range of tones that horror can embody.”

Posted by Laurence Lerman on July 15, 2008 | Comments (0)