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Released by: Image Entertainment
Released on: September 27, 2005
Director: Eric Stanze
Cast: DJ Vivona, Ramona Midgett, Angela Zimmerly, Todd Tevlin, Jason Christ, Tommy Biondo, Joseph Palermo, Tracey Hein
Year: 1999
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The Movie:
In 1994 Eric Stanze finished up his debut feature, Savagae Harvest, - a gory little Evil Dead inspired horror movie that proved to be a fun ride but that isn't going to win a lot of points for originality. Five years later, he'd go in the exact opposite direction with the release of his second movie, Ice From The Sun, a trippy little movie chock full of good things like nudity and gore but that has a pretty interesting (if at times slightly difficult) storyline to it underneath the seemingly nasty exterior.
The rather abstract storyline goes a lil' something like this - in an alternate universe (which exists encased in ice that was chipped off of the surface of the sun), a wizard's apprentice known only as The Presence (DJ Vivona of I Spit On Your Corpse, I Piss On Your Grave) turns to evil in a big way. He's so evil, in fact, that even Hell is kind of wigged out by this and so they call a truce with Heaven in hopes of getting this guy sorted out before he ruins it for everyone. The Presence's powers have grown at an alarmingly fast rate and by the time we're really introduced to him, he's become one of the most powerful entities in the universe. With me so far? Good. A well to do entity known as The Vision (Jessica Wyman) deduces that if she's to bring back a woman named Alison (Ramona Midgett) from the dead (she recently killed herself) she might be able to stop The Presence - Alison is down with this as, as all good Catholics know, those who commit suicide spend eternity in Hell.
Alison is whisked off the the universe in which The Presence resides and at or around the same time this is going on, six other humans experience the same phenomena. The Presence isn't too happy about t his, however, especially as ceratin aspects of the chosen six strike a serious nerve with the evil entity - aspects of them remind him of they way he used to be. The Presence figures the best way to carry out his evil plan is to lay waste to the chosen six… and why not take down Allison why he's at it in case she decides to get in his way?
Reading the plot description kind of makes it sound a bit like some whacked out Dungeons and Dragons dorkfest but it's anything but. Stanze's film is put surrealist art project and part flat out horror film - it's a mix of the weird and the strange, a blend of the obscure and the obtuse. The story definitely makes sense of you pay attention to it and if you've got a decent attention span you won't have any problems there as once it hits the fifteen or twenty minute mark the pacing really cranks up. Some of the imagery might be a little more than some people are used to - the violence is pretty explicit and it sometimes borders on the tasteless - but the end result is a truly unique film that sticks in your brain long after you're done with it.
As far as the production values are concerned, well, make no mistake - this movie was shot for very little money and as such, there are some of the usual flaws associated with low budget filmmaking in here if you want to concern yourself with them. While most of the performances are very solid, one or two moments do flirt with awkwardness. Thankfully there aren't enough 'ouch' moments to hurt the movie much but they are in here as they are in every other low budget movie. Most of the effects work comes across really well on camera, but again, there are one or two short bits where what you're seeing falls out of what most of us would deem as realistic effects work.
That being said, Ice From The Sun is an extremely ambitious project for what it is. The opening credits sequence is over four minutes long and is incredibly well edited and some of the costume and effects work really does capture your attention (the eyeball guy is a perfect example). Watch this one for its exploitative elements (the nudity and gore), stay for the story and the atmosphere (everything else).
Video/Audio/Extras:
Considering the low budget origins of this Super 8 production, Wicked Pixel has done a pretty good job bringing it to DVD. Improved over the previous single disc release that they put out on their own through Sub Rosa, the colors are stronger here and there's considerably more detail present in the background of the image. There aren't any problems at all with mpeg compression artifacts and only some mild line shimmering is present in a few spots. For the most part, Ice From The Sun looks really good here.
The only audio track for the film comes in the form of an English language Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo track. Some distinct channel seperation will surprise you in a few spots and the mix does a nice job of handling both the dialogue and the background effects. The score is mixed in properly and well balanced so that it doesn't drown anything out and there's just enough power in the low end that you know it's working properly. There's not much to complain about here in terms of audio representation - the movie sounds very solid, and again, things are slightly better in this department than on the last release.
DISC TWO:
The second disc starts off with Todd Tevlin and Jason Christ's feature length look at the origins of the film, On Thin Ice: The Making Of Ice From The Sun. At ninety minutes in length, this one covers pretty much everything that you'd ever want to know about the making of the movie. Tevlin and Christ went to the efforts of interviewing pretty much everyone involved with the production, from writer/director Eric Stanze to pretty much all of the performers including DJ Vivona and Tommy Biondo, and even Wicked Pixel producer Jeremy 'sexy pants' Wallce. There's a whole lot of behind the scenes footage in here in addition to the interviews, as well as some really interesting 'how they did it' effects footage. While a ninety minute 'making of' might sound like it'd get really old really fast, this one is well put together and extremely comprehensive and ultimately proves to be a pretty interesting film in its own right.
If that weren't enough behind the scenes action for you, Todd Tevlin and Jason Christ appear on a commentary track for On Thin Ice, in which they not only cover their involvement in the feature but also in the documentary. While there's definitely some cross over here between what's on the commentary track and what's on the feature, there's also a lot of fun, anecdotal material in here as well which makes it an interesting track to listen to. There's also a Music score featurette, some auditions footage, three music videos, trailers, as well as a pretty massive still gallery or promotional artwork and production photos.
The Final Word:
Rarely has such an off the wall and 'out there' independent film been so well represented on DVD. Ice From The Sun looks good, Ice From The Sun sounds good, and the extra features are literally a crash course in how the movie was made from start to finish. This is a very nice set not only for fans of Stanze's work but for anyone into underground films, period.