Frozen (2010)
Studio: A Bigger Boat/ArieScope Pictures
Release Date: January 24, 2010 (Sundance Film Festival)
Directed by: Adam Green
Starring: Emma Bell, Kevin Zegers, Shawn Ashmore
Reviewed by: Britt Hayes

Adam Green is known best to many horror fans for his directorial work on Hatchet, a bloody slasher film starring Kane Hodder as the titular killer. His latest effort, Frozen, isn’t premiering until next year’s Sundance in January, but at last weekend’s Ain’t it Cool/Alamo Drafthouse-sponsored Butt-Numb-A-Thon 11, Adam Green stopped by to give us the world premiere of his new film.

Frozen is a much, much more grown-up film in comparison to Hatchet. Instead of focusing on blood and kills (which, let’s face it, is immature – but still fun), Green composes a more character and situation-driven film. The plot is so simple: Parker, her boyfriend Dan, and his best friend Lynch, all head up to a ski resort for the weekend. After hitting tamer slopes all day with Parker, Lynch is ready for more of a challenge, but the resort is about to close. The three of them manage to convince the ski lift operator to let them get on one last time; however, after some poor communication issues, the trio are forgotten as they sit high above the slopes stuck in the ski lift. The resort shuts down and won’t be open until the following weekend. What are they going to do?

I wasn’t sure how Green could make a movie out of such a simple plot device, but it’s typically the more basic plots that focus heavily on the characters that are the most effective. That is definitely the case here. It doesn’t take long for Frozen to start throwing punches, and the audible reactions from the audience were a clear indication of how potent the film is.

To say anything that the characters do while stuck in the ski lift would only spoil the film. What I can tell you is that Frozen is the fun sort of scary film that you need to see in a theater, with an audience. Hopefully after Sundance, Anchor Bay will distribute this to theaters; unfortunately, as was the case with the phenomenal Paul Solet film Grace, Anchor Bay will most likely send this straight to DVD. Green’s Frozen and Solet’s Grace seem to have a bit in common: Grace premiered at Sundance where Frozen will premiere in January, both have Anchor Bay as a distributor, both elicited strong audience reactions, and both had an audience member faint during the screening. That’s right kids, at the premiere of Frozen, a young woman actually fainted and had to be taken to the lobby.

To say that Frozen is a stressful and intense film is an understatement. When I get scared or anxious during a movie, I do this T-shirt Ninja thing where I pull my shirt up over my mouth and nose. It’s like I’m hiding, but not really. Actually, I’m not sure what that accomplishes, but it seems to be my scary movie habit, and I found myself in that position almost throughout the entire last hour of Frozen. Some are comparing it to Open Water (a film I did not care for at all), but I think Cabin Fever is a fair comparison. While it doesn’t have the same comedic tone that Eli Roth’s debut film did (pancakes!), it still has those WTF moments that elicit nervous laughter from the viewer. There are certain…happenings…in the film that are very tense, nerve-wracking, and….well, gross. And there’s something about that audience unity, sitting in a theater, going through the same emotions as the guy next to you, screaming “WOAH” and “NOOOOO!” at the same time as everyone else, cheering on the protagonists and hoping everything turns out all right, but not in that cheesy, unbelievable way.

The actors deserve some recognition here, as well. While Green is the composer that brought everything together, the actors are the link between him and the audience. Emma Bell, who I have not seen in anything I can recall, was perfect as Parker. She wasn’t too girly or overly whiney, which is typically the case in horror. The girl is usually put in some misogynistic role, where she’s either taking her top off, or she’s a cliché of a girl who, with a little dumb luck and strong running skills, manages to get away. Here, Bell’s Parker is reacting like most girls would, although I wish she would’ve been given something a little stronger to do. At times I felt like she was leaving most of the responsibility up to the men. Shawn Ashmore (X-Men films, The Ruins) and Kevin Zegers (Dawn of the Dead, Wrong Turn) did fine work as the two male leads, neither one over-acting or making their characters into caricatures.

The score is not distracting at all, which is in the best interest of the plot. Without a loud and obnoxious score hinting at the next big scare, the film does its job more ably, giving you moments of acceptance before shocking your system again.

Adam Green made sure to inform the audience that he did not use green screens or CGI of any kind. When you see the film, you’ll understand how impressive this is. The three aforementioned actors deserve so much credit for sitting in a ski lift, high above the ground, in the freezing cold, while it was snowing. And Green did a fantastic job of capturing all of this on camera, and shaping it into the great scary film that it is. The snow and the landscape provide the perfect backdrop for the developments between the characters, while also providing an additional danger.

Frozen is a cutting and harsh film, filled with moments of great tension and little relief. It’s easy to understand how a girl fainted, with just how disquieting and stressful the film is. There seems to be a certain trend emerging in horror with films of this nature – The Strangers, Vacancy – and while those other films feature killers that provide a human threat (and Frozen does not), they do provide similar feelings of agitation, anxiety, and distress.

I hope Anchor Bay gets their shit together and gives Frozen a wide theatrical release. With proper marketing, they can make money on this film, and it is in your best interest to see it in a theater with a big audience if possible.