REVIEW: Frozen

Frozen ***

Three skiers, Dan (Kevin Zegers), his girlfriend Parker (Emma Bell) and their friend Joe (Shawn Ashmore) unable to afford lift passes, bribe a ski-lift worker. Pushing their luck for one last ski before the lift closes for the night; the three are stranded on a chair, when the ski-lift is shut down due to incoming bad weather. No one knows they’re up there and the ski resort closes for a few days. How will they survive the freezing temperatures and the wolf pack that is circling them below..?

The best thing about Frozen is the premise; it’s a simple idea and has been done quite well. The script is serviceable; with fairly believable characters and pretty good dialogue. However it is also filled with convenient moments to help the story along and manufacture tension.

Frozen is the second feature from Adam Green; his debut was the retro-slasher flick ‘Hatchet’, a relatively successful movie that has gained a decent cult following on DVD. Frozen is not like that movie, it’s not a horror film in the same vein as Hatchet and the inevitable Hatchet sequel which I’m yet to see. Described by one reviewer as “Will do for skiing what Jaws did for swimming”, that’s a lazy comment as Frozen has far more in common with ‘Open Water’. It’s an old fashioned thriller, man against nature, survival against the elements.

The young cast are good, Shawn Ashmore (X-Men 1 and 2, The Thaw and TV’s Fringe) is well cast as is Kevin Zegers (TV’s Gossip Girl); but it is Emma Bell, whose character has more of an arc and emotional range to play with, who is particularly good. They all act and react to the elements convincingly, not surprising as the movie was shot at night in Snowbasin, Utah during the snowseason.

Overall, Frozen is well made, and although riddled with inconsistencies and odd, illogical choices by the stranded kids, it does work and is a fun diversion for an hour and a half. Well worth the effort on DVD.

Quality: 3 out of 5 stars