Post by StevePulaski on Oct 10, 2010 10:42:04 GMT -5
Our three protagonists in Adam Green's latest Horror film Frozen.
Rating: ★★★½
Adam Green's previous film Hatchet sent us back to the 80's where Horror films were a work of art. It was an 80's throwback with all practical effects, no CGI at all, and a classic slasher with something we don't get usually, a back story to why he's killing. Frozen is a completely different film as it does not have a killer, the killer is the below freezing temperature. It's another one of those films I dub "a perspective Horror film" which is where you really need to put yourselves in the shoes of the characters to get the full enjoyment. Most won't understand it, but it really helps if you learn to do it.
Frozen is by far, the best Horror film of the year and really shows how scary cold can be. You can tell director Adam Green wanted the most miserable, darkest, grueling, unfortunate events to happen to these three innocent people. He wanted no bright side in sight and just wanted them to have the most miserable experiences of their life. There is no light at the end of the tunnel in Frozen, only frostbite and hypothermia awaits.
The story follows three College kids and long time friends Joe (Shawn Ashmore), Dan (Kevin Zegers), and Joe's girlfriend Parker (Emma Bell) who are spending their Sunday skiing at a resort. After scamming for cheaper tickets and ski down the slope about four times they decide to beg the worker to let them go down once more. After a series of events occur which I won't spoil, the three become stuck on the ski lift on their way up and the resort closes leaving them stranded. They are around fifty to sixty feet off the ground so jumping would result in serious injury or death, a storm is brewing, and a pack of wolves are below them. It's hell in a hand basket for these kids as the resort doesn't reopen until Friday which may leave them stuck for five days.
This movie was a relief because of the fact it didn't create a subplot or go back and forth from the location to something else. It stayed with these characters and didn't go back to the town to watch them put up missing person signs or have their families worry, no, you're stuck with them. If they don't make progress you don't either. You are screwed as much as them. Most recently, the film Devil should have utilized the same concept. Keep the film almost 85% in the elevator. Don't go in and out as it just ruins the whole suspense aspect. I don't feel like I'm trapped with the characters, I feel like I'm bouncing around playing a game of follow the leader.
Open Water did the same thing as Devil, but from my memory a lot less which still made it effective in the area of "feeling like you're there". Frozen is a well made Horror film indeed and well worth the long wait it has put me through since January. Adam Green's Hatchet was definitely another well made film depicting the classic never tiresome genre of slasher villains with weapons and having helpless people getting picked off one by one. Now Green decides to do a not-as-touched-upon genre of Horror like the perspective type and he does a magnificent job. Frozen had me not moving very much either, that's how in depth it and realistic as much. I felt I was on the ski lift with these three and was forced to make small movements. If a Horror film puts you in the environment and has to make you say to yourself "I'm here and they're there.", then the Horror film is doing it's job.
Starring: Shawn Ashmore, Kevin Zegers, Emma Bell, and Kane Hodder. Directed by Adam Green.
