The Chilling
The Chilling
| 01 January 1989 (USA)
The Chilling Trailers

The bodies at a cryogenic centre are defrosted by accident and turn into cannibalistic zombies.

Reviews
Cathardincu Surprisingly incoherent and boring
Inadvands Boring, over-political, tech fuzed mess
Twilightfa Watch something else. There are very few redeeming qualities to this film.
Ketrivie It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.
sol ***SPOILERS*** Former blond 1960's teenage heartthrob Troy Donahue looking at least 15 years older then he really is, at 52, plays the crazed and greedy Dr.Miller who runs a cryogenic center outsider of Kansas City city limits. Conning his clients that he's keeping their loved ones in cold storage until a cure is found for what put them there Dr.Miller is really involved in the black market human organ trade selling off the frozen stiffs body parts for tens of thousands of dollars to the highest bidders.It's when on Halloween night a lightning storm hit the center and struck the steel containers containing the bodies of the frozen, with liquid nitrogen, cryogenic clients that they suddenly became "Zombiifies" and came back to life. It's Mr.Miller's assailant Mary Hampton, Linda Blair, who was suspicious of what her boss was really doing with the stiffs he was handling when she noticed that one of them bullet riddled bank robber Joe Davenport Jr, Ron Vincent, wasn't in the container meant for him. Joe Jr together with his mom Mrs. Ilene Davenport, played by Suzanna Camp in a non speaking non breathing and non living role, were put on ice by Joe Davenport Sr, Jack Derieux, in order to have them brought back to life in he very near future. As things turned out they came back to life a lot sooner the he as well as Dr. Miller expected them to! But not as living and breathing human beings but walking and cannibalistic dead zombies dressed in what looked like aluminum astronauts or space suits!With the cryogenics zombies running amok it's the center's it's the handsome, with a full head of hair and beard that Bruce Willis would envy, security guard Sgt. Vince Marlow, Dan Haggerty, who takes it upon himself to stop them. While all this is going on Dr. Miller with his secret illegal human organ operation about to be exposed tries to get all the evidence, names addresses phone numbers and money transactions, of his crimes out out the center and burn them is himself attacked by the zombies and placed into a steel cryogenic container and frozen stiff for future study. It's later revealed that Dr. Miller's body was later donated to science in the study of Mad Cow Disease which he was suspected of having!***SPOILERS*** As it turned out in what brought the zombies back to life a jolt of electricity it's the opposite that put them back in their place, dead & buried, liquid nitrogen! With Vince Mary & Joe Davenport icing them into suspended animation with the some two dozen fire extinguishers available to them at the center. Mary Hampton later realized what a fool she was by working for the by then late and frozen Dr. Miller and being involved unknowingly in his crimes against humanity as well as,in trying to bring the dead back to life, nature. And she ends up making amends for what she did by marrying Vince Marlow who turned out to be the hero of this turkey of a movie! Happy Thanksgiving!
Backlash007 ~Spoilers~ Jack Sunseri, one of the driving forces behind Brett Leonard's 1989 zombie opus Dead Pit, decides to make his own 1989 zombie opus...and fails. The Chilling is high on concept, low on budget. It's a shame too because the plot is ripe for fun. On Halloween night during a particular nasty storm, a cryogenics lab is struck by lightning and all of the Popsicle "corpses" are transformed into Reynold's wrap-wearing, flesh-eating C.H.U.D.s that can only be stopped by Grizzly Adams. That's right, before fighting Nazi Elves, Dan Haggerty had it out with the undead (or cryonoids as they're sometimes called). Linda Blair is also running about in this farce. And by running around, I mean running around. That's all she is given to do; a shame really. I really do think that there was the potential for a good B movie here, but there's no talent behind the concept to pull it off.
kohl_caked So, it was corny... extremely corny. I loved this movie, though. It has been given horrible reviews by pretty much everyone who has seen it. This, however, has been one of my favorite corny horror movies for many years. It is worth many laughs.The zombies in it are the most creative I have seen in any horror movie, and I have seen a lot of them. The whole idea and plot are trite, but I think that it embodies the B movie... right down to Linda Blair playing a main character. In short, and I know this was already short... watch this movie or I'll make you watch it.
ecto216 The combination of Dan Haggerty (Elves) and Linda Blair (Exorcist) is enough to make any horror fan excited about this movie. And once you see the cover art to this film of a frozen zombie coming out of their cryogenic chamber, you'll think you were in B-Movie Horror Heaven. At least that's the way I approached this film. But boy, was I in for a shockI love horror movies. I love B-Movies as well. Nothing makes my day more than a cheesy little film about zombies, monsters, murderers, that sort of thing. But to say that this movie was lacking, is an understatement. This movie was pure trash. You'd think the zombies would look somewhat like what the cover-art of the box displays, but instead, you get actors with masks that are clearly sold at any Halloween display counter. Furthermore, the script is beyond pitiful. Our main character, Joseph, suffers the loss of his wife and son and seeks solace in the warm-hearted Mary, played by Blair. Not once do you see any sign of sadness or discomfort on the part of Joseph's character. Instead, we see the head of the cryogenic labs, a man named Dr. Miller, eager to get the dead bodies and experiment with their organs. There is no emotion or anything to make you believe you should give a damn about anyone in this film.All and all, very disappointing. All the elements to make a great horror film were there. You had your zombies, your decent actors, and your story. But the lack of good writing and little if any sense of direction screwed this one up royally. Overall, 4 out of 10