Sundance 2010: Adam Green's FROZEN

[With Frozen about to screen in Sundance, now seems like a good time to re-post Rodney's earlier review from the film's Butt-Numb-A-Thon appearance.]

Adam Green's Frozen scored a midnight slot at Sundance in 2010, but attendees of Butt-Numb-a-Thon in Austin, Texas got an advance sneak preview in mid-December. This intense horror film is done in the style of Open Water, but shifts the scenario from the shark-infested sea to the snow-capped mountains. Open Water comparisons are easy, but Frozen is simply a better movie that takes a similar situation to another level.

Dan (Kevin Zegers), Parker (Emma Bell), and Lynch (Shawn Paker) are college students on a quick Sunday ski-trip in New England. Instead of paying for lift tickets, the trio successfully bribe the lift operator (using Dan's girlfriend Parker as bait) so they can get on the lift without passes. After a series of shift changes and communication lapses, the lift stops and the lights go out before lift gets to the top of the mountain. Faced with an impending snow storm and the possibility of being stuck for an entire week, the students are forced to make some severe choices.

This was obviously a complex shoot for a small genre film. Most of Frozen takes place on a real ski lift under extreme weather conditions. As might be apparent from the description, the characters are on the lift for most of the running time, and these scenes look like they were shot from the ski lift chair directly in front of the actors. Additionally, there are events happening on the ground while the actors are suspended in air.

Frozen benefits greatly from a setup that spends a bit of time fleshing out the characters. Dan and Lynch are best friends. Lynch thinks Parker is a third wheel who interferes in his dude-bonding with Parker. Getting this all out in the open necessarily involves a lot of talking that might frustrate A.D.D. types, but it pays off by bringing an added sense of logic and tension to the survival scenario. Once the survival scenario does kick in, Frozen delivers the nastiness. Imagine all the stomach-churning possibilities could arise from three desperate people stuck on a lift in a snow storm; Adam Green explores puts them on screen in excruciating detail. Some shocks flow directly from the scenario, but the film also drops in some real surprises.

Frozen is being released theatrically on February 5, 2010. This film deserves all the praise that it will inevitably receive.