Four out of
Five stars
Running time:
94 mins
Impressively directed and genuinely suspenseful, this is a hugely entertaining thriller with a superb script and terrific performances from its three leads.
What's it all about?
Directed by FrightFest favourite Adam Green (Hatchet), Frozen stars Kevin Zegers as Dan Walker, who annoys his best friend Joe Lynch (Shawn Ashmore, playing a character named after Green's FrightFest partner-in-crime) by bringing along new girlfriend Parker O'Neill (Emma Bell) to their planned skiing weekend. However, the low level bickering quickly turns out to be the least of their problems when the trio gets accidentally stranded on the ski lift at night, during sub-zero temperatures.
When the ski lift doesn't get turned back on the following morning, they realise that the resort is closed until the following weekend, meaning that they'll have to make their own way down or risk death by frostbite-slash-starvation. And as if the freezing cold temperatures and potentially fatal drop weren't bad enough, a pack of ravenous wolves start gathering on the ground below.
The Good
Essentially, this is Open Water (where a couple get stranded in the middle of the shark-infested ocean during a diving holiday), only on a ski lift; rather astutely, the tag-line notes that Frozen “will do for skiing what Jaws did for swimming”. Like Open Water, part of the reason Frozen works so well is it forces the audience to wonder what they would do in the same situation; one would hope, for example, that a real life ski resort wouldn't force its customers to leave their mobile phones in lockers.
The performances are excellent, with all three actors generating a likeable rapport that ensures we care about them right from the start. The script is equally good, balancing realistic and often funny dialogue with subtle tensions within the group that play out nicely throughout the film.
The Great
As a director, Green makes the most of his unique location (the actors really were up on a ski lift) and there are several excellent set-pieces as well as some superbly executed gross-out scenes to keep the genre fans happy. Highlights include the aftermath of one of the group's first attempts to reach the ground and a particularly grisly warning against the dangers of leaving a gloveless hand on a frozen metal pole.
Worth seeing?
Frozen is a hugely entertaining thriller that wrings the maximum amount of tension from its deceptively simple premise. Highly recommended.