Frozen

Written & Directed by:  Adam Green
Starring:  Shawn Ashmore, Emma Bell, and Kevin Zegers


While Snowpocalypse was in full swing last week, I decided to have another viewing of Adam Green's Frozen.  Seemed fitting, watching a movie about 3 people freezing their asses off while I sat in my warm bed and watched the blizzard out my window.

Don't Look Down!

 Frozen is commonly compared to another stranded film, Open Water, except it is much better.  One of the things I liked most about it is that it has something new to offer, a ski horror film.  Having been skiing since I was a little kid, it immediately caught my attention since the idea of it has always been in the back of my head.  It is about 2 best friends, Dan and Lynch, who take their annual 'guys weekend' to go skiing.  Dan (Kevin Zegers, Dawn of the Dead) decides to take his girlfriend on the trip, Parker (Emma Bell), much to the chagrin of Lynch (Shawn Ashmore, X-Men Trilogy).  Since they spend all day babysitting awful Parker, they decide to make one last run while the mountain was closing.  After some confusion, a new lift operator comes in and shuts down the ski lift while the gang is still on it, hanging high off the ground.  Knowing the mountain is closed for the next 5 days, they must decide how to get down or freeze to death.

Once they get stuck on the lift, ideas start going through your head immediately about how they should get down.  One could argue they didn't always make the right choices, but I usually give people in life-or-death situations the benefit of the doubt.  This movie does a good job at putting you in their position, freezing alone up in a mountain with limited options to survive.  Another thing I liked about this movie is that they filmed on location.  It made it seem so much more real that they were actually on a ski lift while it was constantly snowing and hailing.  Kudos to Adam Green for this, since I don't think it would have had the same effect in a green room with CGI snow.



Speaking of Adam Green, the man has a good sized cult following after making Hatchet I & II.  While I didn't enjoy the first movie as much as others did, I have slightly higher hopes for the sequel (which is currently in my queue).  Hatchet II had a controversial release last year, the MPAA refused to lower it to an R-rating, so he had to release it to theaters as an Unrated cut.  After only 3 days, AMC Theaters decided to pull it from all their screens without even telling Mr. Green.  Needless to say, he was upset and is not in good terms with the MPAA or AMC.  Good thing you can always count on AMC to show trash like The Roommate (opening at 5% on Rotten Tomatoes)!



The acting was good for a horror movie as well.  Kevin Zegers plays a decent pretty boy in Dan, while Shawn Ashmore nails the pot-head who longs for a girlfriend.  Emma Bell is probably the weakest of the bunch, but still not as bad as most female leads in horror movies.  In fact, she is going to star in Final Destination 5 (should have stopped at 2). 



I would recommend this movie to horror fans, or anyone who has ever been skiing/snowboarding and wondered what would happen if they got stuck on the lift.  There is a little amount of blood and gore, but not much.  What do you expect out of a movie that has only 3 people in it?  Overall, the production value was great and the acting was good.  While taking place in only 1 spot for the majority of the movie, it does a good job at not boring you to death.  It is one of those movies where you can easily put yourself into their shoes and think about what you would do if you were in that situation.  The reviewer for Blu-Ray.com calls it 'one of the scariest movies ever made,' which is going a bit far, but it is definitely worth checking out, especially on a miserable winter day.  Is it summer yet?

Total Score:  6/10

Buckets: 1.5/5