2010 Month of Horror: Frozen

Now I love Halloween. Trina and I have a difference of opinion on how to celebrate Halloween. I think Halloween is a tacky (totally in a good way) holiday, that needs to be celebrated with tacky decorations, tacky pranks and gimmicks, and tacky parties. She understands that it is tacky, but prefers the fall harvest aspect of decorations as opposed to the horror themes. So with my love of the tacky, and the horror, I love horror movies. I know fully understand that most horror movies are garbage and not worth the price of admission. However, once in a while you come across one that is worth a good viewing in the dark, in your man-cave, and preferably by yourself.

So I saw a brief review of the movie Frozen on Ain't It Cool News and figured I would go pick this up to bring in this year's Halloween season. Boy was I in for a shocker. It's been a long time since I have seen a truly good horror movie. This one blew me away by 45 minutes in.

The story is a simple one. Three skiers go skiing on a Sunday at a resort in the Northwest U.S. and end up getting stuck on the ski lift as the park closes. To make matters worse, there is a storm coming in and the park does not open again until the next Friday. Emma Bell, Shawn Ashmore, and Kevin Zegers all hand in totally believable performances. The writers succeed in taking the audience through a progression of isolation, fear of heights, etc. The odd thing, and what really makes the movie work, is that the story does a great job of making you care for the characters. It makes good use of the isolation to get to know the characters, which makes the movie all that more gut-wrenching.

While I was watching it, I could not help but think of similar situational movies like Lifeboat, Open Water, and other movies that isolate the main characters. If you have ever been a fan of those types of movies, and enjoy feeling uncomfortable during your horror movies, then this is a must see.