The latest offering from the prolific Charlie Steeds blends the monster mayhem of his earlier film The Barge People, and an old-school seafaring adventure with The Descent.

An expedition being undertaken by the crew of ship Innsmouth to find a lost vessel, The Eibon and its captain become stricken when they enter the Artic and become ice-locked. When they find a system of caves, the frozen landscape is the least of their problems.

Steeds doesn’t waste time bringing his creatures to the screen, and the action romps along at a nice pace from the start. Kudos must go to the art design, which really lifts the movie above its independent roots. The creatures themselves are a mix of The Wizard of Oz’s flying monkeys and the Gill-man and manage to provide a few fun scares.

Freeze has the feel of the classic Kevin Connor costume adventures such as The Land that Time Forgot and Warlords of Atlantis. The ensemble cast of those films replaced by relatively unknowns (although it’s great to see Johnny Vivash (Walking Against the Rain) in a prominent role) but they hold their own and sell the action well. The story might be a little over-ambitious for the budget, but it makes a decent fist of Lovecraft lore, which is more than some more luxurious productions have done.

Freeze is released on digital on December 12th and DVD on January 23rd.