BootDigest Such a frustrating disappointment

Voxitype Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Jenna Walter The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Yash Wade Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

callanvass This is a fairly decent little flick, however it's a bit too slow paced at times, and after a great start, it becomes a tad tedious,and a bit too silly for my liking. It has some creepy atmosphere at times, and the score is good, however, it can't rise above average, due to the slow pacing, and, unlikable characters. This was another movie i got from a DVD called Psychotic Connections. The Directing is decent.Wes Craven does a decent job here, great use of colors, some decent overhead shots, a very effective stalking scene at the beginning,some pretty cool zoom in's however the pace, is awful at times, and extremely inconsistent. There is no gore. The Acting is so so. Michael Beck does a decent job here, and seems to be having fun with his role, and was sort of menacing. Beatrice Straight is good as the Mother, and was okay in the dramatic sequences. Laura Johnson is very pretty and does what she has to do well. Dick O'Neill is okay here, and did what he had to do adequately. Paul Sorvino is so so, here and terribly miscast,he was amusing at times though. Jill Schoelen is beautiful!, and does great here, and is one of the great horror scream queens!. Overall worth a rental, but not much more, since it's only average at best. ** out of 5

kraavitz Interesting topic. Pathetic delivery - script and direction. Our hero, Miles, thaws out and has his emergency world-first life restoration surgery. This is where the fun begins. The underlying issue is that Miles has NO SOUL!!! This is used to explain his quasi-erratic behaviour of being indirectly responsible for two deaths (I believe this to be the total number of deaths in 104 minutes). On the livlier side, Miles prefers the odd glass of brandy, blazing fireplaces and his young, maturing female cousin. The finale does indeed do justice to this film.Some thoughts: 1. Producer $$$ were parted with to create this tripe. J.D. Feigelson was the script writer and a (or sole) producer. Looks like he did not learn a lesson on "how not to bring an interesting idea to life" when one views his other writing credits. This will support the credibility of this script.2. Now available on DVD!!! This IS truly scary. Should be forever "Bottom of the Shelf" in VHS format.3. A re-incarnated human without a soul will default to an evil entity. 4. The score offers minimal support. Not even an in-form Jerry Goldsmith could save it.5. Deserved the 0230 time slot on TV and a touch more entertaining than the infomercials + test patterns it was competing against at the time of my viewing.6. Thankfully did not spawn any sequels ala Wes Craven's "Nightmare" franchise. Chiller Too: The Return Return of Miles, or something like that.Despite my rating of 1, I still recommend this movie as a great example of how to kill an acting or script-writing career. This should apply to directing, however Wes Craven will eternally be exempt due to his sole good piece of "A Nightmare on Elm Street" 1984.

Backlash007 ~Spoiler~Wes Craven has had one of the most unusual careers of any genre director. He started out pretty late in life (33 maybe), made some classic exploitation and horror films, and then jumped into the dreaded realm of made for television flicks. Why I wonder? To pay the rent I suppose. The story of Chiller begins in a very atmospheric cryogenic chamber setting and it really got my hopes up. It was a creepy beginning and it was Craven at the helm. So why didn't I like the movie? Production values for starters. They really hindered this project. Also, the made for TV quality was really hard to get past. The story was lacking something too. I think Craven was exploring ideas here which would have been more suited for the big screen. In the story, Michael Beck (The Warriors) awakes from a cryo-sleep after being dead for quite some time. Many can immediately tell there is something different about him. But his mother, the one who put him in stasis, refuses to believe them. A priest (Paul Sorvino from Goodfellas) becomes our hero and the question of the human soul comes into play. Beck's character is quite evil and we are presented with the possibility that he lost his soul when he died. Not a bad premise, but nothing is ever resolved. Many questions the film poses go unanswered-which may or may not be a good thing. I think the film's main message is "Don't play God" or maybe just "Let sleeping dogs lie." Scream queen fans may appreciate an early appearance of Jill Schoelen who went on to star in The Stepfather, Cutting Class, Popcorn, and When a Stranger Calls Back. On another note, this features some of Stan Winston's early F/X work, and it's quite good. The DVD has a funny trivia game to make sure you were paying attention to the movie. Sadly, that's about all the DVD has to offer because the transfer (what transfer?) is horrible. While I don't think you should go out of your way to see it, Chiller was certainly better than Vampire in Brooklyn.

James Miller Miles Creighton, ten years after his sudden death, thaws unexpectedly from cryogenic stasis and is returned to the living, in mind and body but, according to the film's presumption, missing his soul. As his behaviour slides from the obnoxious to the abominable, a family friend, the Reverend Penny, ponders the whereabouts of Miles' better third, and experiences a crisis of faith. Good or evil, altruism or selfishness, existentialism or abstinence - these are the dilemmas given to us in the exchanges between the Reverend and the Sociopath.This film is as detached, cold and humourless as its protagonist, but does provide a few shocks, and the acting is fine. I thought a chance for a droll swipe at Corporate America (or wherever) was missed, in that his employees noticed so quickly how appalling his new policies were - this was the Eighties, after all, and the lack of a soul was considered a prerequisite for success in some quarters. Gordon Gecko himself might have taken a dose of the liquid nitrogen, if he thought it would give him an edge.Although, unsurprisingly, the metaphysical questions posed by this film are not answered, it did make me think twice about the rent on Uncle Vern.