Horror Movie Review: The Chilling (1989)

The Chilling is a 1989 sort of zombie horror directed by the Deland Nuse and Jack A. Sunseri, the latter of who also wrote the screenplay. It stars Linda Blair, Dan Haggerty and Troy Donahue.

A low-budget movie that borrows heavily from far more beloved horrors and churns out trash. It’s hard to think of a single praiseworthy thing about this movie which is no easy thing to say when Dan Haggerty is involved.

The plot is unnecessarily contrived but the basic outline centres around a cryogenic lab. What makes this one special is that it freezes terminally ill or injured humans. Ones who will be brought back once a cure/life saving procedure is invented.

Then one stormy night lightening strikes, the capsules bust open and out walks the dead. It makes no sense so stop trying to work it out.

A mind-numbing story is one thing but mind-numbing characters? Somehow The Chilling manages to combine both for a mind-numbing watch. These characters are so one-dimensional that even Haggerty’s rough and tough hero security guard is tiresome.

Those drawn in by the Linda Blair name will be very disappointed. She’s a minor character and barely trying. Another in the long list of bad movies she has under-performed in.

Then we have the ‘zombies’ and the effects. Where do you even start? This is school project levels of rubbish. People in foil suits with the most embarrassing of looking green masks. They look less like zombies and more Halloween store alien masks.

Maybe gore could have saved The Chilling but there is very little. The zombies are less tear you apart and more shake you to death. How terrifying.

It’s a painful watch. The way in which it drags its decaying feet over cliché after cliché. Tripping and stumbling around as it desperately tries to find sure footing but continues to fall over the place. That might be entertaining for some but even they would be lying to themselves about the overall quality of this dross.