This independent, low budget Canadian horror film is the sort of movie that critics will appreciate, but general audiences will likely find it strange and slow. The storytelling isn't very good. It reminded me of a person telling someone about their weird dream. It jumps around sporadically, it leaves out details, it raises questions without answering them, and while it has moments that are interesting, it ends abruptly before completely telling the whole story. It's definitely a slow burner. It's a creepy movie, but it's hard to call it scary. The archeological element is interesting but not explored satisfactorily. While many critics will admire this movie as a piece of art, it's a bit of a mess in terms of storytelling. If watching some guys smoking a lot of cigarettes while mentally breaking down sounds interesting to you, give this movie a shot. Otherwise, the creepiness of what's uncovered in the ice isn't interesting or frightening enough to thrill most viewers.

On the positive side, I thought that director Nick Szostakiwskyj made very good use of the Canadian northern wilderness as a setting. It was bleak and snowbound and foreboding. It leant the proper atmosphere to the movie - there was a tension to this almost from the very beginning. The story revolves around a team of archaeologists who discover an unusual structure of some sort buried underground and under the snow. It's mysterious. It's very old and there are items discovered that don't belong anywhere near this area. And after the discovery, strange things begin to happen, starting with the pet cat of one of the team being discovered killed. Then the rest of the movie shows a slow descent into what appears to be madness and violence among the team.

The atmosphere was effective; the story - to me - less so. The basic question once the madness began was whether this was a form of cabin fever - madness caused by the isolation the team was facing - or whether there was a supernatural element involved in all of this; something to do with this strange structure that the team uncovered. I'd lean toward the latter, but it wasn't entirely clear and the possibility of mass hysteria was certainly present.

The story is set over a period of about six weeks. i will confess that at times the story seemed to bog down and drag a little bit, so that the six weeks started to feel a bit literal at some points. But overall the movie was mildly interesting and the performances from the cast were decent enough, although I'm not sure I'd give this many marks for originality. It was - at best - OK. Nothing special, but not bad. (5/10)