Frozen (2010) - Review

This is one of those cheapy, probably straight-to-DVD, people vs. nature kind of horror movies.  And for what it's worth, it's actually pretty decent at what it does.  It's certainly better than the animated Frozen (hello controversy, nice to see you again), but that's neither here nor there.

The film is pretty simple.  Three friends go skiing and get stuck in a ski lift while the lodge closes down for the weekend.  That's it; there's not a lot to it.  Most of the film takes place in the ski lift itself, and it's generally just tension or character development (of which there is little - but it IS there).  It's a simple little movie, but thanks to the strong acting and the well-established setting, it works.

Iceman, you should have no problem with this

Now let's get one thing straight: there are measures put in place to make sure this kind of thing doesn't happen.  Never in a MILLION ZILLION FLOBBITYGILLION years would something like this ever happen, ever.  But it's basically like "do you want to watch a horror movie or not?" kind of situation.  If you're going to nitpick things like this to death, then you shouldn't watch silly B-movies.  Not that this movie is particularly silly... well, except for the completely unnecessary wolves that wait at the bottom of the ski lift to eat the people.  Yeah, that's a bit ridiculous.

Being a three person film basically, you have to make sure the acting is solid, and it is.  Shawn Ashmore is absolutely terrific; you wouldn't think it, but he actually does a lot more with his material than he had to.  He's the only likable one of the three, but the other two actors do fine as well.  Ashmore is a great actor though -- elevating (no pun intended) a movie like this with a very middle-of-the-road script can't be easy, but he nails it.

It's too bad that the end is so dumb that it kind of destroys the good stuff that happens on the ski lift.  The film just kind of goes "oh yeah, I remember they can climb down!" and they do.  I guess that's why the wolf element was there, but whatever, it's still stupid.  Overall, not a great movie, but worth a watch just for Shawn Ashmore, and you could do worse with (probably) straight-to-DVD B-movies.