‘The Chill Factor’ (1993) - Christopher Webster.

‘The Chill Factor’ aka ‘Demon Possessed’, while initially receiving a decidedly chilly, ‘blink-and-you-will-miss-it’ debut on VHS in back in ‘93 was honourably salvaged from undeserved slasher obsolescence with a beautifully restored Blu-ray presentation in 2018. The dazzling Arrow edition is a welcome improvement over the rather inauspicious-looking DVD-R bootleg!

The viewer bemusedly discovers via a soothingly monotonous prologue that during a fatefully frosty sojourn with fellow snowmobiling chums, blonde-mopped orator, Jeannie (Dawn Laurie) had been very much in love with her dreamily handsome collegiate beau, Tom (Aaron Kjenaas). Reciting blandly that ‘...the year 2000 was just around the corner, and maybe we were all a little crazy! I was young, and I was pretty, and I could drive a sled better than any of them!’ This exquisitely prosaic opening gambit might seem incongruent to some, but for reasons bizarre I enjoyed it immensely!

Following some enjoyably acid sniping, our querulous clique of speed-crazed snow-bunnies discover their daredevil Snowmobile race has brought them fatefully to an eerily desolated, ice-bound expanse known as Friars Lake. To compound their miseries night falls especially inclemently forcing them to seek shelter in a spookily abandoned chalet. None of these snowbound adrenaline junkies could ever have imagined that the coming storm would be occult-born, and the terror tempest unleashed within this isolated, eminently Slasher-worthy lodge would freeze their blood into plasma popsicles!

What bloodily ensues is some evilly icy, Ouija-spawned, Satanically slashing murder mayhem. Director/producer Christopher Webster takes a curiously dry, largely humourless, yet appropriately glacial approach to all the celluloid carnage. It is this apparently deliberate lack of irony which frequently lends the wonderfully kooky, low-budget slasher some additionally dramatic gravitas few might have expected.

While the ‘actors’ performances are earnest enough, their lack of subtlety frequently allows for unintentional levity, but overall the standard of filmmaking is solid. ‘The Chill Factor’s’ three snow-glistering highlights are the spirited, demon-raising soundtrack by, John Tatgenhorst, the exceptional lighting by gifted DOP, Joseph Friedman. Friedman’s expert lensing maximizing the lurid crimson punch of splashy SPFX by no less credible makeup artist, Jeffrey Lyle Segal, and the chillsome, sinisterly spooky, cabin interiors have an atmospherically Raimi-esque quality.

‘This ice-blooded killer will wrap you up snugly...in a body bag!!!!’