IT’S not nice to fool Mother Nature, because eventually she’s going to get even – good and even. That’s the message in “The Last Winter,” an environmental horror film by East Village indie auteur Larry Fessenden.
The setting is a pristine area of Alaska, where a corporation called North Industries is preparing to drill for oil.
Corporate loudmouth Ed Pollack (Ron Perlman) is determined to get drilling equipment to his small, snowbound base. But there are obstacles, including environmentalist Hoffman (James LeGros), who has been assigned to the base to keep North Industries honest.
In the process, he beds second-in-command Abby (Connie Britton), who used to bestow her favors on Pollack. (Messy, messy.)
But there are bigger problems. Mother Nature has seemingly gone bonkers. When crew members start to die in unpleasant ways, Hoffman blames a mind-altering “sour gas” unleashed by global warming. Then a small plane crashes into the base, electricity and communications go down, and the crew finds itself cut off from the outside world.
It’s difficult to watch “The Last Winter” and not think of the 1951 sci-fi classic “The Thing From Another World,” in which an Arctic expedition digs up an alien creature frozen in the ice.
But Fessenden is no copycat. He updates “The Last Winter” to the age of global warming, and throws in a few CGI demons for good measure.
The gap-toothed Fessenden is an underrated director (“Habit,” “Windigo”) and actor (a stalker in the new Jodie Foster thriller, “The Brave One”).
“The Last Winter” – which he directed, produced, edited and co-wrote – is his most expansive directorial effort yet. While the slow buildup won’t bowl ’em over at suburban multiplexes, the film should please Fessenden’s loyal followers and win him new ones.
vam@nypost.com
THE LAST WINTER
-Snow fooling.-
Running time: 100 minutes. Not rated (disturbing images, male nudity). At the IFC Center, Sixth Avenue and Third Street.