In the vein of Open Water, writer/director Adam Green offers Frozen, a minimalist horror film with a small cast and a central location. Whereas Open Water was set in the Atlantic Ocean off the Bahamas, Frozen is set in the snowy mountains of Utah.
Best friends Dan (Kevin Zegers) and Joe (Shawn Ashmore) make a regular pilgrimage to the ski resort of Snowbasin. This time around, Dan has brought along his girlfriend, Parker (Emma Bell), much to Joe's consternation. To Joe, Parker has been taking up far too much of his BFF's time and is now the third wheel on their ski trip. He's even more upset that Parker is a snowboarding beginner and they've been stuck on the kiddie slopes with her.
The guys want to get in one good ride before the resort closes down for the night and cajole the operator to let them on for a quick run. Through a series of minute events and a shift change, the trio is left stranded. The ski lift shuts down while they're still on it, suspended high above the mountain. Dan, Joe, and Parker try to convince themselves it is simply a malfunction, but their worries turn into panic once the lights turn off. Hours pass, the night grows colder, and they are subjected to fury of snow that feels like needles on their skin. They try to flag down a passing Snowcat driver to no avail.
They are now left at the mercy of the elements and the hungry wolves on the ground below. Each individual attempts to hatch their own desperate plans to escape and seek help.
Frozen works as a refreshing departure from the usual horror flicks with an axe-wielding maniac chopping his way through a pack of horny teenagers. Sort of ironic considering Green's debut film, "Hatchet," was just such a film. Frozen avoids being a gorefest, but there's just enough gruesomeness to accentuate the terror that befalls the protagonists. A grimace inducing leg break almost puts Joe Theismann's infamous injury to shame. In another scene, Parker accidentally loses her glove and later finds her bare hand stuck on the safety pole. When she pulls it off, don't expect the same comical tone as A Christmas Story.
While the movie has a strong concept at its core, its premise remains too thin for a feature length film. Before the lead characters are stranded, Green spends the first twenty minutes of the film getting to know them. This is the obligatory introduction period as we learn a little bit of their backgrounds and the relationship dynamics. However, the characters are just as thin as the premise. The dialogue is utterly bland and instantly forgettable. Parker complains that Dan doesn't call her by a pet name like, "sweetie" or "honey." That's about the highest level of complexity for these people. The fact that they are so whiny and entitled makes it difficult to eke out even an iota of sympathy for their ordeal. In Open Water, the couple is left alone in the middle of the ocean through no fault of their own. In Frozen, the friends are left alone on the ski lift because of their own stupidity.
Frozen cheats several times when it comes to ignoring some blatantly obvious things the characters could have done to prolong their survival. Conveniently (or inconveniently), nobody has a cell phone with them. As explained in one of the commentary tracks, many skiers and snowboarders won't take their phones with them for fear of breaking them. Okay, I'll buy that. Yet, nobody ever thinks of simply buttoning up. Isn't that something we've all been taught by our parents? Even with frostbite settling in on their faces, no one bothers to cover themselves up despite wearing thick hooded jackets and wool hats.
Frozen does not live up to its intriguing premise, stretched thin in order to fill out ninety minutes of runtime. The film is at its best when it focuses on the terror that the main characters endure. The weakest scenes involve the cardboard characters simply being their boring selves.
Rating: * ½
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