The Super Network

3.5/5

Frozen surprised me, I wasn’t sure what to expect, all I knew was that this was about three people stuck on a chairlift. Who knew that that could make for compelling and at times very frightening viewing? The quote on the poster from bloody-disgusting is correct, this film certainly does for skiing what Jaws did for swimming . I have never been skiing, and I’ve been on a chairlift twice, and after seeing this film I really don’t care to do either of those! As I said the premise is simple, three friends go skiing and they get onto the chair lift as the last ones, and they get forgotten about. The chairlift gets stopped, and no one is going to be around for five days. The three characters are left with impossible choices and decisions as they are stuck, clinging to life. It is a lose-lose situation, they are stuck high up, it’s freezing cold, and the wolves are around. What would you do?

I really love films like this, it takes something so simple and turns it into a truly terrifying situation. I can’t imagine what I would do if I was stuck up there, I probably would just cry and freeze to death. This film really made me think, and it did scare me, when something can do that I know I’ve stumbled upon something good. Adam Green is the director behind one of my favourite recent slasher films ‘Hatchet’ and here he has gone in a completely different direction and for me anyway he succeeded. He is one person, I’ll be keeping an eye on, if he can continue to deliver horror films of this caliber, I’ll be very happy. The film not only had the character’s in such a dire situation, but the look of the film was fantastic. I was actually shivering with cold, even though it wasn’t all that cold, the film made me feel it. Cinematography was fantastic, the look and feel of it was quite authentic and I liked that a lot. This all came together really well, and I felt every second of it.

Performance wise I thought our three leads were all really good, I liked Shawn Ashmore (as Joe Lynch) the best. I am not sure what it is about Ashmore (either brother really) but everything I see him in he always sticks out and he is always likable. Despite playing mostly annoying characters, I thought Emma Bell (as Parker O’Neil) and Kevin Zegers (as Dan Walker) put on good performances. All of their reactions seemed very natural and normal considering their situation. However my problem was that I didn’t connect with Parker and Dan, as a couple I just found them annoying. So when things got really bad, I needed to care more but I didn’t. I can’t imagine I would react any better then Parker if I was in the situation though.  For example I felt something for the main characters in ‘Wolf Creek’, so when bad stuff started to happen it really hit me hard. Here, it didn’t hit me as hard as it should have, and I really disagreed with some of the actions the characters took in regards to getting out of that situation.

Over all I thought this was a really impressive film, despite the issues I had with it, I got a lot out of the film. The pacing was perfect for this type of film, it built up the tension really well. For the most part it was quite engaging, I didn’t lose interest and I wanted to see how things would turn out. I felt some of the plot devices were a little predictable and convenient but the film did need those, so I could look passed that. Definitely recommending this one, if you want to see a good film and get put off chairlifts, this is the film for you.

Frozen was part of my Horror Films For October, you can find the entire list here.