“You’re gonna be okay, baby. You’re gonna be okay.”
The setup for Adam Green’s Frozen is a horror lover’s dream: two snowboarders and one skier, trying to fit in one last run before they head down from the mountain, find themselves stuck on the chair lift. It’s night, it’s dark, it’s freezing, and it’s Sunday on a mountain that won’t open up until Friday. When Frozen is working, it works very well, and I’m having a hard time thinking of the last time I squirmed this much. There’s something so terrifying, on a primal level, about being trapped. It’s the same reason movies like The Strangers or Funny Games work. The downside to Frozen is that it doesn’t always work, but please, stick it out.
What I’m trying to say is: the first thirty minutes of this movie are clunky as hell. From the early-00s jock jam that accompanies the opening shots, to the dated wardrobe and dialogue, I very early on began to dread that I was in for a real crappy movie. This came out in 2010 and for some reason everyone dresses like it’s 2003, and act about the same way. Our group of doomed heroes is Joe (Shawn Ashmore), Dan (Kevin Zegers), and Dan’s girlfriend, Parker (Emma Bell, in a role that really seems like it was written for Sarah Polley). Joe is a bit resentful of Parker, a neophyte snowboarder, has, in his mind, horned in on guy time. There’s supposed to be tension between them, but it all feels so forced. To say nothing of Parker’s relationship with Dan; sometimes Dan seems like a nice guy, but most of the time he is just a condescending jerk. Later on he will be depicted as a saint. That’s indicative of the script problems overall, actually; the movie also doesn’t know what to do with Joe. At times he’s a slightly sleazy womanizer, then at other times he’s an awkward nerd who can’t get a girlfriend.
So yeah: the first third of this movie is rough. Scenes seem to go on for hours, and if the dialogue wasn’t improvised, then it needed some serious revision. But you really should stick with it, because the parts about Frozen that work…well, they really work. I won’t go into too much plot detail, because Frozen is tight enough that the logline for the movie basically spells out everything you need to know. Green’s direction is brutally effective as we see the reality of the situation dawn on the characters, about the same time as it dawns on us. It’s tricky to shoot a movie in one central location, but thrilling when it’s pulled off correctly (see: Alien, The Thing). These three might be outside, but they’re still trapped several stories above hard snow.
And this is where the cast really starts to work together far better than they had in the film’s beginning. Zegers is a bit bland, but so is his character; either way, Dan is never a character so much as a way to drive a wedge between Parker and Joe. Bell and Ashmore fare much better in their roles. Bell has a genuinely heartbreaking monologue in which she breaks down about what will happen to her dog if she dies on the ski lift. It’s a great little detail that will stick with you. It shows that Parker has a life outside of the film’s confines, and her death here will impact that. Ashmore acquits himself nicely, but Joe is better suited to anger than pathos. He explodes on Parker with a pretty vicious speech that leaves her in tears, but ultimately brings them closer together, and the scene ends with them hugging and apologizing. It’s the most human moment of the entire film.
Frozen isn’t so much scary as it is tense. And you will see things happening to bodies that might turn your stomach. Bones sticking through skin, wolves eating a man’s face, lacerated hands, frozen skin peeling off the safety rail of the lift. It’s tempting to say that the characters make stupid decisions because they’re in a horror movie (which is fair), but the reality of this situation defies any genius ideas. Sure, it’s dumb for Dan to try to jump off the lift, but when watching the scene I found myself wondering what I would do in his situation. So what you see is a series of unavoidable bodily harm and tragedy, forced to reconcile yourself with the knowledge that you would in all likelihood suffer the exact same fate.
The movie stumbles a bit in its ending, wherein it tries to include a message about perseverance or something, and expects us to have been very invested in Parker and Dan’s relationship, which is a big ask. Maybe I’m biased because of my love for bleak, nihilistic horror films (sometimes I feel like I’m in the minority here, but who cares, this isn’t the space for navel-gazing). My dissatisfaction with the ending – and, well, the beginning – notwithstanding, I have to praise Frozen. It’s been a while since a horror movie made me physically uncomfortable the way that this one did. If you have the stomach (and the patience) for it, Frozen is absolutely worth your attention – and so is Adam Green.
Thursday, 10/1: Phantasm
Friday, 10/2: Frozen
Saturday, 10/3: Suspiria
Sunday, 10/4: Suspiria (2018)
Monday, 10/5: Emelie
Tuesday, 10/6: Castle Freak
Wednesday, 10/7: Session 9
Thursday, 10/8: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2
Friday, 10/9: We Are Still Here
Saturday, 10/10: The Changeling
Sunday, 10/11: The Bad Seed
Monday, 10/12: Verotika
Tuesday, 10/13: The Legend of Hell House
Wednesday, 10/14: Lake Mungo
Thursday, 10/15: Puppetmaster
Friday, 10/16: Marrowbone
Saturday, 10/17: A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master
Sunday, 10/18: Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers
Monday, 10/19: Sweetheart
Tuesday, 10/20: Girl On the Third Floor
Wednesday, 10/21: Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon
Thursday, 10/22: Triangle
Friday, 10/23: Dog Soldiers
Saturday, 10/24: Noroi: The Curse
Sunday, 10/25: Train to Busan
Monday, 10/26: Tales From the Hood
Tuesday, 10/27: Mandy
Wednesday, 10/28: Sometimes They Come Back
Thursday, 10/29: Veronica
Friday, 10/30: The Wicker Man
Saturday, 10/31: Child’s Play
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