The biggest issue with this movie isn’t that it’s bad so much as it’s afraid to take more risks than it already has (anyway) to be good. Granted that if a movie like this was done today (or even in the late 10s) it would be done with more interest. But these were the late 2000s, if you weren’t a Ring knockoff, sadistic grind-house homage, found footage or even based on a Stephen King novel directed by someone with too much skill then you were barely capable of being a good horror movie if not one that broke the mold. Yes: this is yet another alternative to The Thing’s official prequel in spirit. It’s just also the equivalent of getting an empanada with salsa verde instead of one with chimichurri because the latter’s name sounded too hard to understand even for the people who initially included it in their @#-.-$% menu to begin with!

I admit that the comparison between the food item and the movie may have stemmed from the illegitimate bias of a minor grudge, but I really wanted this movie to be more than the sum of its parts given the wealth of creativity this idea still inspires (especially as far as natural horror seems to go).