An ambitious subzero sci-fi slasher awakens from streaming stasis to split opinion straight down the middle

For a lot of people, the sci-fi slasher is never going to get any better than the bonkers Friday the 13th sequel Jason X, which is perfectly fair and completely understandable when it’s a demented dollop of cheesy cosmic fun. However, there’s plenty out there who hold last year’s Cryo in the same – if not higher – regard, but that’s enough to generate a debate in itself.

Co-writer and director Barrett Burgin’s subzero story does boast an interesting central conceit, but critics and audiences ended up being split down the middle. On one hand, a Rotten Tomatoes critical approval rating of just 20 percent would lead you to believe that the film doesn’t maximize its own potential, whereas the 78 percent user score would have you thinking it ticks all the right boxes.

Regardless of where the truth lies – something you’ll need to decide for yourself – one thing that can’t be argued is that Cryo is currently one of the most-watched feature on the Google Play global rankings, per FlixPatrol. At-home audiences are drawn to sci-fi and horror in equal measure, so when you combine the two and plunge a disparate cast of characters into immediate danger, it’s always going to find at least some favor.

In this instance, the narrative finds five scientists awoken early from their cryogenic stasis, only to discover that not only do they have no memory of their individual or collective pasts, but they have no clue where they are, either. Naturally, things take a turn for the murderous when they discover there’s somebody else lurking in their underground facility with a taste for blood, who’s making it their mission to hunt them down and take them out one by one.