James Cameron once called his first film, Piranha 2: The Spawning, “the finest flying piranha movie ever made.” Adam Green (Hatchet), director of the new movie, Frozen, could as well call his film, “the finest ski-lift horror movie ever made.” I haven’t seen a ski-lift horror movie like it, I’ll say that much.
The plot centers around three friends (2 snowboarders and 1 skier), Parker (Emma Bell), her boyfriend Dan (Kevin Zegers), and Dan’s best friend Joe (Shawn Ashmore), who con their way into a ski-lift for one last run at night, but wind up getting stranded on a hanging chairlift in the middle of the mountain, with everybody already gone home with the resort shut down for a week. It is dark, it’s a long way down from the lift, and as the temperature gets frosty, the three must find a way to get down, survive, and go home. Oh, and there are also wolves around.
Needless to say, this is one of those “what-if” scenarios that every snowboarder or skier have wondered about--I certainly have. There are various possible solutions to this problem (Should they jump down? Climb the cables?) and the characters try some of them out with dire results. (I do have one possible solution but I'll leave that at the end of the article under *spoiler*) It is interesting that a feature-length movie is made from this one premise, as it probably could've fit in a 30-minute Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode.
True, it is highly unlikely something like this would happen. The coincidences and perfect setting for all this to occur are much like the events you’d see in a Final Destination film (although not that wild). Despite this, Adam Green fleshes out his characters in his script, along with little moments, sometimes unrelated, to make their relationship more dynamic. We find out, for example, Joe has resentment toward Parker because he feels she’s coming between him and his best friend, Dan. Joe also gets a number from one of the girls he bumps into. Even on the lift, there are moments of dialogue where they talk about their fears, pasts, and dreams that make them feel real.
The actors all do an excellent job. Emma Bell isn't the typical blonde chick, but comes off quite sympathetic, constantly adjusting to her new surroundings. Shawn Ashmore has some great geek-moments of dialogue. They aren’t the usual cardboard characters you’d find in many teen flicks. Green seems to understand that you have to like the characters before you can make the tension work. For a good half of the movie, this works, but unfortunately, there’s only so much you can do with a premise like this.
Green’s direction brings some good moments of tension and occasional gore, but nothing really new. Once again, the whole “battle against nature” reminded me of the Final Destination films, sans the supernatural element. The premise was rather novel (at least an interesting after-movie conversation piece) and the characters kept my interest, but the suspension of disbelief was mostly lost on me. I found it about as scary as many survival adventure movies I’ve seen, like Vertical Limit or even Into the Wild. I did, however, care what would happen to the characters. There were little moments where I pondered if Joe would ever call that girl, or if Parker will get home to feed her dog. Still, I couldn’t help but think it could’ve been great if they were in a scarier movie, had a better premise, or if the situation was a little more fantastic (at least have the film take place outside the ski resort). With that said, I think Adam Green could make a fun teen comedy if he wanted to. As for this film, this may well be the “finest ski-lift horror movie ever made.” I give this film ** ½ out of **** stars.
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(**SPOILER** Now, for my thoughts--personally, my solution to the situation given would be... to take off the pants and jackets, tie them together to make a rope and use that to slide/climb down into the ground. You'd be freezing for a little bit, but since it's a ski resort, shelter should be close enough to ski or run for it)
Comments
I saw this film as Open Water but in a ski lift instead. Good review, maybe i will watch it since I myself was a sucker for Open Water.
I had always missed those days where low budget horror meant the writer actually had to write something that stirred the imagination, as opposed to just showing everything. Twilight Zone comes to mind.
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