Frozen
Frozen
(2010)
A Review by Grant Kanigan
Directed by: Adam Green
Written by: Adam Green
Starring: Shawn Ashmore, Emma Bell,
Kevin Zegers
Rating: 14A
Release Date: February 5th 2010
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Emma Bell, Kevin Zegers and Shawn Ashmore go for a ride in Frozen
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Frozen follows three plucky college students in their mid to late twenties. Wanting a day of skiing but not being able to afford the astronomical price of a lift ticket, our three protagonists, Parker, Dan and Joe, (Emma Bell, Kevin Zegers and Shawn Ashmore, respectively), convince the ski-lift attendant to let them ride for a discounted price. With a hundred dollar bill and some sex appeal, the trio are able to ride the entire day for a third of the price they would have paid otherwise. Joe, cheesed at the fact Dan's significant other Parker is holding up their skiing time, convinces the other two that they can make one last run on the chairlift on the largest run on the hill. With the sun and temperature dropping, they plead with the lift-attendant to have one last run. He reluctantly agrees, and allows the trio to ride. However, after a miscommunication between three tired lift attendants, the lift is shut down and our protagonists are stranded in their chair, fifty feet above the ground, on a ski hill that doesn't open back up until the next weekend.
At first glance, the premise of Frozen sounds absolutely ridiculous. Having worked in the ski industry for a time, there are countless safety measures, communications and double checks to make sure guests of the hill are never stuck on a chair. For something like that to happen, so many checks would have to fall out of balance it's highly unlikely. Yet, as Green shows, the safety checks at this hill aren't up to regulation, (the first hint of that being the lift attendant taking bribes to let riders go up the hill for free), and the couple of checks that do take place don't work because of a lack of communication between lift attendants. What happens in Frozen is decently plausible, and as far as most horror films go, it's easy to suspend disbelief. Later on, when rabid wolves and ridiculous decisions come into play, it's even more realistic. Yes, wolves are generally peaceful animals, but if you're in their habitat or they feel threatened, there's no question they will attack you - especially if they're infected with a disease like rabies. The illogical situations the trio get themselves into, (they continue to have skin openly exposed in sub-zero temperatures), are equally believable. These people aren't Aron Ralston, they're from the city, haven't spent much time in the cold, and don't have the necessary experience to survive for long periods in the exposed winter wilderness. Ultimately, the decisions that force the trio into a life and death situation are somewhat implausible but totally believable.
The moments where the trio are stuck in the chair are some of the best in the film. Tapping into the psychological horror that comes with being helplessly stuck in a dire situation, the writing and the cast deliver some pulse-pounding moments of terror. Their decisions make their situation worse and worse, and their vocalization and reasoning for such decisions leave the viewer in an equal state of helplessness. For the first time in a long time, I found myself yelling at the screen, telling the characters what to do. It's a completely enthralling, largely psychological horror film that taps into our most primal fears - being lost, the inevitability of death, and self-sacrifice.
While most of the film is absolutely terrifying, there are a few moments of miscalculation. A scene of desperation focusing on actress Emma Bell, the weakest member of the cast, stretches the patience of the viewer. As well, the addition of wolves is a little unbelievable. In the brilliant The Grey, wolves were more of a metaphor for the purgatory hard working men find within the monotony of their lives. In Frozen, they add to the tension, but their insistence on trying to kill the protagonists stretches the believability of the film. With psychological horror taking place on the chair, they aren't all that necessary, either. However, these are minor flubs in an otherwise taut and squirm-inducing thrill-ride.
Overall, on what was surely a minuscule budget, (the film was actually shot on a chair 50-feet above ground), Frozen succeeds because of mostly decent acting, (Ashmore is fantastic, Zegers is hilarious and charismatic, and Bell is more good then bad, especially when it counts), a brilliant script and an original idea. As far as low budget horror goes, this is one of the better genre pieces of the decade.
Grant's Rating 3.5/5 Stars
Emma Bell, Kevin Zegers and Shawn Ashmore in Frozen "Where's He Going?!"
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