Director Adam Green is probably best known for his sophomore effort Hatchet. Billed as “Old School American Horror”; the film received over the top praise as being the next big thing horror had to offer. Personally I couldn’t disagree more, however although I found Hatchet to be more of a popcorn horror comedy, I saw that there was talent there. The question was however; can Green put his wacky sense of humor aside and make a serious film? Can he make a film that can put you on the edge of your seat and bend you over backwards?
Frozen starts off with typical Green humor. Three college aged people trying to con their way onto a ski lift to get them up the mountain for half the price then the normal skier would pay. Dan (Kevin Zegers) and his best friend Joe Lynch (Shawn Ashmore) convince Dan’s girlfriend Parker (Emma Bell) to hit on the ski lift operator and bribe him with some cash to let them on. Parker works out the deal and the trio head up the mountain for a day of fun all while cracking wise jokes and developing into your typical horror film characters. However, when we’re just about to think that the film’s characters are going to be cliché, the trio convinces the ski life operator to let them go up the mountain one last time before the place shuts down for the week. Halfway to the mountains peek, the ski lift operator decides to ask a co-worker to shut down the lift after three more skiers make their way down. Yet, the three skiers are not our characters. Dan, Parker and Joe are trapped fifty feet above the ground with no place to go. At first they think that it’s your typical lift stop, as it does happen from time to time. However, when the lights go out, and the temperature drops, they soon realize that they are stuck and help is not going to come. With the cold weather bearing down on them and the forces of nature attacking them from all around, the three must try to find a way off the lift before they freeze to death or other elements of nature decide to make prey of them.
I really don’t want to give to much of the story away. However, Frozen is a film that once all the jokes and innuendos used by Green are established (Naming a character after Wrong Turn 2 Director Joe Lynch, mentioning friends names in the film and some Star Wars references.) the film begins to take a major turn and become your not so typical thriller. Green writes a film that would make Hitchcock proud. You have these three characters that seem like your normal everyday college kids, but then you become their friends up on that lift. The audience becomes the forth friend on that lift and you go though hell with the films characters. While watching this film my mind was racing. What would I do in this situation? How would I survive? All of my ideas were later crushed when I learned while watching one of the many great featurettes. During Green’s research while writing the film, my idea of using a ski pool or snowboard to slide down the lift cable would have killed me, as the cables are kept sharp to grip the lift chairs. According to Green they are so shape they can cut though a steel chain. There really is no way to escape getting stuck on a ski lift without injuring or killing yourself.
One of the hardest things about filmmaking is getting everyone together to realize your vision and make it happen. Green and company made it happen on a small budget and give us a well polished film with great visual and special effects, wonderful on location set design and an overall well made film from its technical aspect. None of what you see in this film was done on a sound stage or in front of a green screen. It was all shot on location, in the freezing cold. Because of the rough working conditions, I think the acting shined and the performances were enhanced. The three leads in the film where all very good in their performances, and when the director has you fifty feet up in the air in below zero temperatures; I’m sure you will give him what he wants.
The Blu-ray disc has some great features. There are two sets of audio commentary, the first being with writer/director Adam Green and the films lead actors Kevin Zegers, Shawn Ashmore & Emma Bell all talking about their experiences on the film. The second commentary is with Green and Cinematographer Will Barratt and Editor Ed Marx. The Disc also includes three featurettes Catching Frostbite: The Origins of Frozen, Three Below Zero: Shooting though it, and Beating Up the Mountain: Surviving Frozen. All three films were directed by a friend of mine, Adam Barnick. Need less to say, I learned a lot not only about how the film came to be, but learned a lot of the in and outs of making a film in such a cold and miserable location, how the filmmakers pulled it off, and not to mention how great of a cast and crew worked on this film. The featurettes are both informative and even educational in that we learn the do and don’ts if you ever get into a situation like this. The disc also includes deleted scenes and the films trailer.
Frozen is a film that I can honestly say truly scared the crap out of me. I felt like I was right there in that lift with the characters. In the films 93 minute span, you become friends with them, and you want to survive with them in a situation where not many can. If Adam Green was ever going be defined by the films he makes, I would hope that many would remember Frozen as being one of his best. Few filmmakers can bring such intensity to a film like Alfred Hitchcock did many times over. Some people have compared this to Open Water and Jaws, and in their own right those are great films, but they are not Hitchcock like films. Frozen is Adam Green’s Lifeboat, I just hope his talents let him make a Rear Window, Vertigo, Psycho and The Birds. I have always been a fan of Hitchcock, his style of filmmaking is a hard act to follow, yet after all the funny antics and establishing is done, Frozen turns into a masterpiece worthy of Hitchcock’s approval right up the films conclusion. I think the master of suspense, if he was alive today, would approve.
– Horror Bob
- Interview with J.R. Bookwalter - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
