DVD Review: Frozen

Frozen.  Written and Directed by Adam Green (Anchor Bay Films, 2010)

It's easy to take the high-concept route here and categorize this movie as "Open Water at a ski resort" (the filmmakers themselves seem well aware of the inevitable comparisons: early on, the main characters ponder the worst possible way to die, and "eaten by a shark" is immediately offered as a response).  Still, such paralleling perhaps does an injustice to Frozen, which is a frightfully good film in its own right.

Female protagonist Parker (played by Emma Bell, who can also be seen these days on AMC's The Walking Dead) joins her boyfriend Dan and his lifelong-friend Joe on a skiing/snowboarding outing at a winter resort.  Joe is hardly thrilled that Parker is cutting into his and Dan's guy time, and some sparks fly between the threesome at the outset.  Frozen deserves credit for taking the time to develop its three leads, establishing the individual personalities of these characters as well as the complexities of their relationships with one another.  The viewer can relate to these figures as human beings, which makes the predicament (being accidentally stranded up on the chairlift when the resort closes for the night) they soon find themselves in that much more compelling.

Unlike the campers in The Blair Witch Project, the trio here grow frantic but not irritating to behold when they find themselves in dire straits (you'll be rooting for them to survive, not to be silenced by death).  And the plot certainly gives them plenty to contend with: the freezing temperature, snowstorms, the local wildlife, the rickety quality of the chair, even their own body functions.  The tension is further ratcheted by the fact that Parker, Dan, and Joe have been stranded on a Sunday night, and the resort won't be opening again until Friday.  So if they choose to just sit and do nothing, they will die from exposure.

I'll be honest: Frozen made me flinch like no other horror movie has done in years.  There are some unforgettably grisly moments, all the more harrowing for their plausibility.  I don't want to give too much away, but one scene here makes the infamous hobbling in Misery seem like the world's greatest foot massage.

Personally, I've never had any desire to go skiing, and Frozen only redoubles my conviction to stay away from the slopes.  But that is also the terrible beauty of this film: it will tap into something primal inside anyone who has ever been transported up a mountainside while suspended from a cable.  Face it: Frozen does for riding chairlifts what Psycho did for showering in roadside motels.  Such experience will never be the same again after watching the movie.

One final note: the Frozen DVD includes a series of "the making of" featurettes that are well worth checking out.  You'll discover that the filmmakers' decision to shoot on location rather than on a soundstage not only created a vital sense of realism, but also made the production of the film as nearly a grueling ordeal as what the characters undergo within the film.