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Frozen
(SCREENER)
What would you do if you were trapped on a chair
lift, in below freezing conditions? The answer to this question, in this
case, is given to us by three teenagers in that very situation, in
Frozen.
Three students, childhood friends Dan (Kevin Zegers)
and Joe (Shawn Ashmore), along with Dan’s girlfriend Parker (Emma Bell),
spend their Sunday on a mountain ski resort. After a day of doing runs
on the bunny hills, they decide to go for one last run in the late
evening, before leaving. With the mountain almost deserted and bribing
their way back onto the lift, the mountain is shut early and the lift
stopped, with the three trapped on it, with a harsh storm approaching.
What follows is the fear that comes with being trapped, with no one to
help you, but yourself and the real fear of almost certain death
approaching.
Frozen is an excellent
example of low budget film making. Director Adam Green makes great use
of the single location, with Frozen not being to dissimilar from
other low budget, single location horror films, like The Evil Dead and
Saw. You see the constraints of the budget, which causes filmmakers to
use a single location setup and forces them to be more creative with how
the film is shot, edited, designed etc. The young trio make for
believable leads, with their reactions to their situation real and
believable. Their decisions they make are justifiable. Who of us
wouldn’t think that jumping would be a good idea? It all makes for a
more realistic film. The downside of the film being the stupid and
unbelievable elements involved. These three college students, trapped on
this chairlift in freezing cold temperatures, them all wearing heavy
clothing and coats, but they aren’t buttoned or zipped up all the way. A
harsh snowstorm, bombarding them and they haven’t put on their goggles
they have. And the silliest of all, they don’t even huddle together to
share body warmth. These small elements stick out, but they are
forgivable.
The scariest kinds of horror films are the ones we
can relate to, meaning the ones where the events that happen in the film
could happen to us in our real lives, like - backpacking in a foreign
country and being abducted and taken to a place where people pay to
torture and kill you (Hostel, Hostel Part II). Coming home from a
party, only to be stalked and tormented by murderers outside, the only
reason being “because you were home” (The Strangers). Driving
across the country and winding up in a small, isolated town that happens
to be home to a family of murdering psychopaths with chainsaws (The
Texas Chainsaw Massacre) and now Frozen can be added to this
list. It isn’t the highest quality film, but it is a tense,
psychological little film, nonetheless and a perfect example of low
budget horror. |
