Filmmaker Adam Green takes an ultra-simple premise and crafts a survival horror gem with “Frozen.” This is not the popular Disney flick with the same name. This version premiered at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival and saw multiple audience members faint due to the extreme tension. Fact or myth? You can decide that for yourself.
A trio of college kids go skiing. Through a series of events, they get stranded in a ski lift chair, 50 feet above the ground. It’s dark. It’s perilously cold. Help is not imminent. What would you do?
The characters are likeable enough.
Dan (Kevin Zegers) and Joe (Shawn Ashmore) are lifelong best friends and avid snow sport enthusiasts. Parker (Emma Bell) is Dan’s girlfriend; a novice skier and unintended third wheel on the bro’s day of fun.
While the characters are typical annoying college aged people, I enjoyed the drama between best friend Joe and girlfriend Parker, the latter of which has seemingly replaced the friend. The blame game that erupts as the situation escalates is also quite believable. The beautiful Rileah Vanderbilt has a minor role and should have been more involved.
Adam Green does a masterful job at delivering the tension. There is no CGI. The story was shot on location at an abandoned ski resort in Utah.
The actors are really in the cold and in the chair, legs dangling dozens of feet off the ground. Distance shots show us how impossible the situation truly is. It’s old school style and the movie is better for it. Less is more, and the filmmaker demonstrates that.
Flaws
It’s far from perfect. I found some dialogue less than organic. And there are several unbelievable elements and character actions that will leave you in disbelief. You’ll yell at the TV with how you would behave though to be fair, composure is easier said than done.
Its 94 minutes would have been better served cut to 84. Reviews have been polarizing (pun intended) but I found the flaws easy to overlook whilst watching as the gripping tension overshadows the obvious defects.
“Frozen” succeeds with its harrowing and realistic situation. The discomfort plays in lieu of jump scares. Whether you are claustrophobic or acrophobic, or simply hate the dark. Its all covered here. It’s a film overshadowed by its name, but definitely worth checking out as we celebrate the Vertex of Halloween.
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