FROZEN (2010 - Cert 15)

I've never been skiing. It's not that I'm against it in any way, it's just that it all seems a bit too much like hard work to me. I believe that a holiday is when I should be relaxing, putting my feet up. Not chucking my self down a mountain on two planks of wood knowing that one wrong move or piece of bad luck could break a bone. I prefer the beach. Anyway, I'm getting off the point, even though I haven't been skiing before, the chairlifts do freak me out a bit. They are high up and the 'safety' bar is more a token-gesture bar. Plus they always look a bit shoddy, what if they break down, I find myself wondering. Stuck in the freezing wilderness on an elevated cushion.

It's that final fear that forms the central idea of this very decent, simple, low-budget horror film. Three friends head up a mountain for a day of skiing, then as the day draws to a close they bribe the lift attendant for one last run just before it shuts down. A contrived plot development later and they are stuck on the lift, lights off, freezing cold knowing that the slope won't open again for another 5 days. That's the set-up, and I won't go into too much detail but what you are effectively left with is Open Water, with two exceptions - the water is frozen and the sharks are wolves.



The director and writer Adam Green has made a couple of horror films prior to this, nothing high profile, but you can tell he s not a complete novice. The film opens with the camera following the moving parts of the chairlift mechanism, clunking along. It's a clever little trick, highlighting the machine that so much trust is put into. He builds the tension nicely, with zero fuss, there's no frills here and he bravely shows facial expressions of others instead of close ups of gore and violence. It could have been the result of budget constraints but using sound and facial expressions gave one particular scene much more impact. He also respects the device of characterisation taking the time to explore how people might react in this situation, blame is apportioned, the characters open up to one another. It's well done and clearly isn't there just to fill gaps between set pieces. Some credit should also go the cast as well. Often with these types of films money is saved on casting and consequently you get some of the most irritating screen performances possible, you actually want them to meet a grisly end. However, Emma Bell (The Walking Dead), Shawn Ashmore (the X-Men films) and Kevin Zegers (Dawn of The Dead - remake) are all perfectly good, not amazing but steady. They make the quieter, more dialogue heavy moments at least bearable, I even managed to feel pangs of sympathy with their plight - not something you can often say of low-budget horror.

The simplicity of Frozen is the main reason it is so watchable. You can easily imagine it happening in reality, it is actually plausible, and it plays on this fear and it has enough unpredictable moments to keep you hooked for the 88 minute running time. A terrifyingly simple premise, executed well, making for an interesting, although far from perfect, chiller that is a pleasing diversion from all of the overly violent torture flicks being churned out on the back of the success of Saw and Hostel. It may even put you off your next trip to the Alps.