(96 MINS, CERT: 15)
Director: Adam Green
Starring: Emma Bell, Kevin Zegers, Shawn Ashmore, Kane Hodder
Directed by American producer, writer and actor Adam Green, 2010′s Frozen is one of those typical stranded scenarios, placed around one setting and containing a minimum of cast members for the duration of a usual 90 minute running time.
Starring newcomer Emma Bell, Kevin Zegers and Kane Hodder, Frozen centres around the story of three college students and childhood friends, Dan, Joe and Parker. After spending a typical Sunday at the ski resort, Dan and Joe feel they need one final rush on the slopes before closing, bribing the resort attendant to let them ride the slopes one final time before shut down. Agreeing with slight hesitation, the attendant sends Dan and his friends hundreds of feet above on a chair lift. In an unrealistic turn of events, with the attendant having to be elsewhere, the ski resort operations are turned off, leaving Dan, Joe and Parker suspended feet above the snowy slopes below them. Unbeknown to anyone, Dan and Co soon start to realise they have been left behind, with no one coming back to rescue them for what could be a very long five days. Taking matters into their own hands, it is up to the threesome to save themselves, before they too become victims of the cold, which could soon freeze them to death in only a matter of days.
Although the concept and realism Frozen provides on-screen is on form, the generic storyline has been seen numerous times before. What Open Water did for diving, and Castaway did for Tom Hanks, the stranded elements within cinematography is no longer a guessing game. The situation may seem simple, and at times makes you wonder why the hell they haven’t tried to escape sooner. With aspects of both gore and psychology combined, a close relationship with realism is what seems to get you hooked from the very beginning. The whole ordeal is realistic, just some of the factors to provoke this are not…Would jumping onto snow really snap both of your legs? Or would anyone really get left behind in the first place? Surely there has to be some secure checks, or the basics such as CCTV?
Frozen is not a flop by all means, and I surprisingly enjoyed the events as they were presented on-screen, but it was just too obvious. I knew what was coming next. And when I sit down and watch a film, this is the one thing I do not want to happen.
Thomas James Mitchell 