College friends – three guys, three gals – spend the weekend in an upscale cabin on Donner Mountain, home of history’s first cannibal dinner party. They were warned not to go up there by that weird guy in town. The caretaker warned them the generator was operating intermittently. The weather report warned that a freak snow storm was on its way, even though it was supposed to be nothing but sunshine and balloons. And the spirits of the half-eaten Donner party are showing up to warn them they’re not gonna make it back off the mountain. (That’s the problem with a college education—you think you’re smarter than ghosts.)
The caretaker’s body is found frozen in a position of “aiyeeeee!,” which wrecks the mood for any weekend snuggling. His body later vanishes as though taken away by ghosts or coyotes or ghost coyotes.
The one character of ethnicity (an Asian dude) is chosen as the guy to drink from the six-pack of paranoia and do The Shining (1980) bit on his friends. The ghosts appear with evenly paced frequency, and only the Asian guy can see ’em. They look like overly ripe bananas, have axe scars on their faces, and cause you to make yellow snow.
In flashbacks we see ’em eating the living. No indication on what they had for dessert, though after chowing down on face steak, how could there be room for any?
One couple finds a snow tractor and tries driving off the mountain for help. That leaves the Asian guy, who finds a loaded rifle and ghost-busting ammo plenty of time to slide down the insanity pole. The ghosts never actually do anything except exacerbate the man’s mental decay.
The acting and fight scenes are as stiff as the frozen caretaker. What little blood shown is at least the right color. And the guy going mad needs to watch The Shining a few more times to learn how to freak out in style and really sell it.
The abrupt, pointless ending of Necrosis (2009) is both dumb and welcome. A better plot would’ve been to have the Donner party ghosts and the college friends have a snowball fight, then later sit around the fireplace, tell stories and drink hot chocolate. Boring yes, but not as much as this movie.
Drinkin' & Drive-in 