Now that the horrible winter of 2009-10 has passed into the record books to become fodder for future stories, it’s safe to look at a recently released title that captures all the things wrong with the season: large amounts of snow, spotty electricity and no escape route. Oh yeah, and another group of stupid young people waiting to get killed in horrible, nasty ways.

NECROSIS, on DVD from Brink, tells a story that has been told many times before: several friends trapped in a remote location by forces beyond their control start dying one by one. The survivors go through stages of disbelief, paranoia and finally madness as they struggle against their tormentors. In this case, there are spirits of the cannibalistic Donner Party lurking around their remote, snowbound cabin, and maybe they’re still a little hungry. Or maybe it’s just in the minds of one or more of the stranded pals…

The cast is made up of a combination of familiar faces and actors just beginning to make a name for themselves. HEROES’ James Kyson-Lee, 7TH HEAVEN’S George Stults, former pop star Tiffany and a cameo-ing Michael Berryman are joined by Penny Drake, Danielle De Lucca, and Robert Michael Ryan (who wrote the script with director Jason Stephens) as the tasty morsels waiting to be killed or succumb to insanity. The shots of the surrounding countryside are absolutely breathtaking, but beautiful scenery alone is not enough to make up for the mostly wooden performances. It almost feels as if this movie’s creators were writing the script as they went along, and the results are not pretty. The pacing is also relatively slow, which is a big mistake even in the case of a 77-minute movie.

The DVD’s special features are decent, with a behind-the-scenes look at NECROSIS’ production proving to actually be more interesting than much of the film itself. It’s nice to see more location shots, and when the actors let down their guard and you get to experience along with them the full force of Mother Nature during the shoot, your admiration for their fortitude increases dramatically. Stephens also provides a solid commentary track about the making of the film which quickly becomes a how-to on creating a low-budget feature under adverse weather conditions. There may be better movies to come from Stephens, but this one unfortunately fails to deliver.

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Reviews - DVD/ Blu-ray Reviews