SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

FeistyUpper If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Matialth Good concept, poorly executed.

Kien Navarro Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Prichards12345 What a terrific little film this is. Made in 1973 on what was presumably a very low budget, this two-hander about a pair of research scientists experimenting on apes in a remote mountain science station is a lean and mean horror-thriller, put together with maximum conviction, a haunting atmosphere and stratospherically good performances.Robert Culp and Eli Wallach brilliantly portray the disintegrating relationship between the two men, as each comes to suspect the other with tampering with the heating systems, despoiling the food, and generally fouling things up.Having discovered the previous lone occupant of the research outpost frozen to death, it seems something very sinister is haunting the men. What could it possibly be? I won't spoil things by revealing the solution to the mystery - it works extremely well, and the moment when the nearly frozen Culp manages to get back into the station and confronts Wallach, axe in hand, is one of the classic scenes of horror, t.v. or otherwise.It's a film which draws you in gradually, relying on small moments to unsettle and rivet the viewer. This in its own way is as good as Spielberg's Duel. A treat for a first time viewer.Please, please, please somebody somewhere get this released on DVD. One of the best things ever produced by the medium, it deserves remastering preservation on a grand scale.

CatTales What could be so frightening and irrational that a scientist would choose to freeze to death rather than confront it? You'll find out.While we think of scientists as being unflinching heroic seekers of truth, they can be pretty nutty people in denial of reality (it's true!). The movie is about two different types of scientists who are trying to complete some research involving monkeys in a remote freezing mountain environment. The experiment was left uncompleted by the death of a scientist who seems to have gone insane, and died freezing to death. Regardless of the fact that the audience can more-or-less figure out who the culprit is, the last 30 seconds are incredibly chilling to see. Imagine characters debating if a shark was involved in the deaths in JAWS, but only in the last minute of film you finally see a fin circling the hero. Or a ventriloquist who insists his dummy is alive, and at the end you see it move. Worth watching in the dark for the very creepy climax. Kudos for the director's long-takes and Gil (Andromeda Strain) Melle's unsettling score.

JackmanWulf I remember when I was a kid saw my first horror movies in the late 70s, this one scared me to death. It's full of atmosphere, like if you know John Carpenters "Thing", but there's no Monster or Alien which kill one after another, the horror is more like "real life". The loneliness of the place where these scientists are working with the apes is more than claustrophobic and the more you stand by the cast and going through that story the more mad you'll get. The score give it's parts perfectly to it, old 70s synthesizer - sounds bring mad and scary atmosphere. I really hope this will find it's way to DVD ! A real underrated classic !

Gary-161 This vintage TV movie offers profound insights into the human condition and the implications for our exploration of outer space. NOT! What it does have is a darker buddy buddy relationship than we have come to expect from Spelling and Goldberg and good production values, probably because it was a two hander with more room to spend elsewhere.The problem is the audience guesses quickly who-dunnit, thus stretching credulity to the limit when the scientists are less quick off the mark. Okay, so fans of the genre automatically look for the sinister, whereas the characters in the 'real' world are reacting as events unfold. Nevertheless, when Dr Enari is forced to apologise to Dr Jones, the penny should have dropped there and then. Altitude is blamed to a certain extent, but professionals in the same field will probably be niggled at the near basket cases presented here before any real investigating gets under way. Funnily enough, although the who was obvious, the why never really entered my head. The out of left field answer will either amuse or frustrate. Culp gives a strong performance as a man pushed to mental and physical limits and I actually winced when his head took a dunk into some frozen water.Although daft, this movie haunted me for several hours after I saw it so I give it a qualified thumbs up.