REVIEW: ‘Frozen’

Watching “Frozen” brought back fond teen memories of riding my bike to the local VHS rental store and choosing which gross-out horror flick was going to be my Friday night feature. These were independent genre films with poor acting and great death scenes. I did not watch “Frozen” on VHS but would gladly have done so. “Frozen” was suspenseful and original schlock. I mean that in a very good way.

“Frozen” Rated R • 93 minutes Starring Emma Bell, Shawn Ashmore, Kevin Zegers Written and Directed By: Adam Green RCC Rating: Worth Seeing At A Matinee

Writer/Director Adam Green’s canon includes the likes of horror gems “Cheerleader Camp”, “Hatchet” and “TiVo” (seriously – it’s about a killer TiVo). It is not likely that, in twenty years, Green will look back and call “Frozen” his “Driving Miss Daisy”, but it may end up being his personal best. Green has a talent for making good bad movies.

The script was thin and the acting weak. But that’s okay because, after the first act, there was very little need for either. After the three main characters are stranded while suspended on a ski lift in a dark snowstorm, the film takes the viewer on a tour of the macabre. It is not ironic that one of the film’s preceding trailers was for a remake of Wes Craven’s masterpiece “A Nightmare on Elm Street” (1984). My theater experience watching “Frozen” was much like that I remember seeing the original “A Nightmare on Elm Street” when I was a teenager. The entire audience was jumping, cringing and covering their eyes during all the right parts. All of that with static shots of three actors in the woods. There were no supernatural monsters in this film, but nature does play the part of villain very well.

I give Green major kudos for delivering us from studio-made horror films made with millions of dollars and not an ounce of suspense or originality. My meter for deciding if a movie is ‘good’ is whether the filmmaker effectively conveyed his message to me, the viewer. He did.