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Massawyrm loves FROZEN
Hola all. Massawyrm here.
No film this year will be second guessed more than Adam Green’s third and most mature effort FROZEN. Green is a horror filmmaker, there’s no doubt about that – but in an effort to avoid being further boxed in, he’s scheduled his projects in a way to showcase the full range of his abilities. HATCHET showed us his campy, tongue in cheek side in which he embraced his love of 80’s slasher films but in turn wanted to stick to their darker edge – fun but not dumb. SPIRAL (which just hit Blu-ray this week and was co-directed by AVATAR’s Joel David Moore) showed us his ability to generate high tension on a low budget while developing layered, interesting characters. FROZEN takes his skills to a new level, giving us single location horror with a looming threat but without artificial scares.
The set-up is incredibly simple and plays upon the natural born, often pondered fears people have of being trapped, suspended in a gondola and asks: what would you do? There’s no supernatural threat, no big twists, no crazed killer toying with them to turn the emotional knife; it is the story of three kids, none of them particularly bright or talented, who push the envelope a little too far and end up stuck exposed to the elements with no food, water or way to call for help. If there’s one film it invokes and is most reminiscent of, it is OPEN WATER – that is if OPEN WATER had likable characters, a satisfying ending and I didn’t walk out with the urge to punch the movie in the throat.
Key to the success of the film is its shot structure, replete with lofty, floating camera swings that keep the audience suspended 50 feet above the ground along with the cast. Green didn’t cheat the audience with a lot of green-screen work. Instead the gondola is really up there with the actors in it, dangling in freezing temperatures. There’s nothing about the film that looks or feels artificial. And that authenticity drives the fear of the film. It is claustrophobic without leaving the comfort of the wide open wilderness.
But when the tensions begin to rise, and terrible things begin to happen to our cast, Green relishes in it just enough to fuck with the audience and tighten your gut, but never so much that he seems to be really enjoying it. This isn’t about gore. This is about effect. When grisly things happen, they happen in very disturbing, emotionally resonant ways; it is deeply affecting. People have been questioning the validity of feinting and illness at various screenings of this and while I cannot attest to subsequent screenings, ours had one genuine fainter and a few who felt physically uneasy. It gets under your skin.
The performances here are solid, but standing out is Shawn “Iceman” Ashmore, who has thus far managed to slip under a lot radar. He’s a great actor finally given something to chew on here and really runs with what he’s given. While Kevin Zegers and Emma Bell both do very well with what they’re given, I get the feeling Green responded more to Ashmore’s character Joe Lynch - named after a fellow horror director and best friend – than he did the other two. Ashmore is charismatic, likable and the person you most feel for in the situation, despite it being just as much his fault as anyone elses. Also appearing in a bevy of cameos are a slew of Green’s regulars, including Kane Hodder, Joel David Moore, Rileah Vanderbilt, Green himself and I think I even saw the aforementioned Joe Lynch.
FROZEN hits all the right notes, building tension then releasing it in white knuckle scenes of brutality that will have you writhing in your chair and stomping on the floor.
But that’s not to say that everyone is going to love this film. As I said at the very beginning, people are going to second guess the ever loving shit out of this film. What people know and what people think they know about the way things work is going to come into play hard and fast here. After all, Green is deriving the bulk of the power of this work from real world tension and fears, and in doing so needs to at the very least maintain the illusion of real world physics and interactions. And for the most part he manages to. Even he admits he cheated twice (in small ways that I never heard a single complaint about) but there will be at least one person in every theater who is going to call bullshit in one way or another, whether they know what they’re talking about or not.
Compounding the problem here is that Green chose to frame the story around every day characters – your typical, average, everyday pretty people common to horror films – allowing the audience to more readily identify with them and their plight. The problem with this, especially at our Butt-numb-a-thon screening is this: if you’re an AICN reader, odds are pretty good that you’re rocking something better than a 100 IQ, making you smarter than the characters in this film. This may lead to the occasional “well, that was stupid,” decision that will cause you to turn to your friends and say “No, what you’re supposed to do in this situation is X” before being summarily shushed and elbowed back into silence. The characters aren’t particularly dumb, but like most people, they have little to no survival training and don’t have a completely firm grasp on the laws of physics.
That said, when all is said and done, what few conflicts might exist are forgivable for the sake of the narrative. This isn’t a documentary, it’s a high grade suspense film predicated upon an unlikely but feasible series of unfortunate circumstances. How Green deals with the pacing, characters and story all drive this towards being a truly great entry into what one can only really call survivalist-horror. And come on, on a geek level, you have to at least love the ironic joy of watching Iceman threatened with freezing to death. This comes Strongly Recommended.
Until next time friends, smoke ‘em if ya got ‘em.
Massawyrm
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Still not totally sold, but may be waivering....
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coooooool
first? -
Apparently they're calling it 'ice'. Crazy bastards.
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Though the dumb characters may ruin it for me.
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I'll be seeing this.
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Yeah. I wonder if they at least had some edible panties to eat.
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the AICN crowd that attends screenings and those who frequent the site must be two completely different sets of people. as for the movie, i'll check it out when its on tv but is this anchor bay's first original production? i always thought they were just a studio to release catalogue titles.
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if one of the people trapped was a religious nut who kept insisting that god was gonna save him. And then he dies.
I would laugh and laugh... -
I remember in Hatchet they spent a lot of time making one of the two actresses a real person with hopes and theatrical aspirations and then she gets her face taken off with a belt sander. On the one hand the characterization was a nice touch, on the other, it was a colossal waste of time.
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I remember in Hatchet they spent a lot of time making one of the two actresses a real person with hopes and theatrical aspirations and then she gets her face taken off with a belt sander. On the one hand the characterization was a nice touch, on the other, it was a colossal waste of time.
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That's a slippery slope there Massa. I have heard criticisms from pple who haven't seen the flick yet, and I think that's what you were attempting to assess in your review... But it may have been just a tad too much and it started sliding into premature defense/apologist mode. I really want to like this movie, but I get this feelin it may just make me angry. I hate when characters are made idiots for the sake of the plot. Hope this isn't the case here.
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tv dinners.Especially the Luine Cuisines pizzas.Not bad yall, not bad at all
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I hate when I feel like an entire movie could've been avoided with some common sense. I'd rather have the 4 geniuses from Big Bang hanging up there trying to figure out what to do.. because if they can't what the fuck chance would Joe the Plumber have?
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AICN reader has an average IQ.
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Is it better than Open Water 2? Your answer will be the decision maker.
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gonna check this one out,,i do feel tho that the geek websites r playin this up a little bit juss cuz adam greens pals wit most of them,,most of time they lambast the stupid shit characters do in horror movies buit it seems lk everyone is makin excuses for this one,,either way looks lk it could be an alrite flick n ya gotta support original horror flicks
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Haven't seen FROZEN yet, though I'm really looking forward to it, but the three-character, fixed-location horror movie dynamic was done *amazingly* well in the 2007 Australian crocodile horror pic BLACK WATER. Gender mix reversed there -- two girls, one guy -- but similar situation: going boating in Australian mangrove swamp, they get lost and then trapped in the trees with a hungry crocodile swimming around. Brilliantly done, would work great as a play, and has incredibly realistic special effects -- they couldn't afford animatronics, so actually shot real gators and then composited them very convincingly into scene. One of the few horror movies of recent years that has freaked the bejeebers out of me.
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I didn't catch his cameo.
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His was the voice on the radio talking with Kane Hodder.
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Everyone hyped that movie up to high heaven as being a "realistic" movie where the characters acted in ways that everyone else would, ways that were totally believable. And so I watched the movie. And everyone was a fucking moron. Do you seriously expect me to believe that a boyfriend, after leaving in the middle of the night in a small town, would come back and hear his obviously TERRIFIED girlfriend cry about how someone had been knocking on the doors and coming inside, or whatever it is she was scared of, and then NOT believe her? I threw my hands up in disgust at that moment. No one is going to tell someone "oh you're imagining things" in that kind of situation when the girl is obviously scared beyond belief.
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if one of the people trapped was a liberal nut who kept insisting that government was gonna save him. And then he dies.I would laugh and laugh...
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A socialized government can save us from our own stupidity.
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All AICN Readers > 100 IQ
All AICN Readers < 120 IQ
Just ever so slightly above average, with a grossly over-inflated opinion of their own intelligence. Exhibit A: Massawyrm. -
Feb 05, 2010 11:43:09 AM CST
Massa, I'm shocked you liked it (but I did too!)
by the reluctant austinite
Massa, many times with regard to the horror film genre, you seem to be the most cynical SOB on earth. I was at that BNAT screening too, and I would have pegged you as one the guys hissing and booing at "Frozen". I'm pleased that you enjoyed this one as much as I did. Granted, I wanted to scream at the screen and the characters on numerous occasions, but ultimately that ended up being part of the fun. I agree with the accessment that most people assume they are "superheroes" when it comes to stuff like this situation ("Ah, I'd just jump down. It's only 50 feet. I'd just tuck and roll."), and some people are going to snub their nose at this film the first time they have to suspend disbelief. But it works on a primordial level. I've been on a mountain lift before and you're mind immediately files through all the worst case scenerios. This film is best enjoyed with a packed audience and not alone in your room.
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Feb 05, 2010 11:48:01 AM CST
Musician Moby is also related to Herman Melville
by randomwordrandomword
That means you're related to Moby, Massa
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Saw it last night- LOVED IT. Why do Mass and Harry say the characters were not bright? They did absolutely nothing wrong- it was the MOUNTAIN employees who messed up and put them there. Everything they do is completely just and normal and all of their decisions come in the order that real people would have made them. I found myself constantly saying "I'd do _____" and then they would do it- with bad consequences... and I could say "Oh, no, no- that was stupid. Instead I'd try ______" and then they would do that with bad consequences. The problem is- in the movie you can't hit reset on your X-Box everytime you die and say "No, no, what I should have done was _____ ." Best thriller I've seen in years. What a home run! Audience was CRYING. Crying at a thriller!
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This movie seems to really depend on the three people, so it probably benefits from having them be "real." But I still can't get over how much time Peter Jackson wasted setting up all the crewmen in King Kong who just get stepped on by dinosaurs later on.
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Feb 05, 2010 12:53:34 PM CST
I cried during Zombie's Halloween --probably for entirely differ
by wickedjester
HOW COULD HE DO THIS TO HALLOWEEN!?
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Unlike the bevy of AICNers here, I enjoyed "Open Water", this sounds good, but will I pay $12 for it? Most likely I'll be adding it to my Netflix list. Also sounds like a hard sell for the wife. I think I'll be angling to see "From Paris with Love". However it does sound like something I would like.
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Feb 05, 2010 12:56:24 PM CST
The Strangers was a great tip of the hat to horror.
by dr. samuel loomis
The score done by Tomandandy was single handedly one of the best out there. I was on the edge the whole time in theater and it was all because of the tension built music.
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Then again, where I live, The Strangers wasn't hyped up at all, so I went into it expecting a nice B grade horror flick.
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but no repeat value at all.
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I don't really know. But I do dig their music from The Rules of Attraction. That said, Samuel Loomis, The Strangers was hyped everywhere, here on AICN included, I believe. But I think that is a flick where expectations matter. The characters still acted stupidly, though =P.
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Wyrm, I gotta say first that of the two or three people who's movie opinions I really tend to agree with on here. I agree with you the most, so when I see that you've enjoyed a flick I'm excited about it makes me that much more excited (case in point, I 100% agree with you on edge of darkness, it was amazing) this makes me really look forward to seeing frozen...now i just have to convince my movie friend to go with me (he doesn't want to because he hated Hatchet) oh well...we'll see what happens.
-Moe -
what's up with the girl's hand? there's a shot in the trailer where she's staring in horror at her hand. was she dumb enough to leave her bare hand gripping a metal pole in freezing temperatures? and do these kids not even have gloves? or POCKETS?I'm all for suspending disbelief, but even I have a line. I'd love to know just how dumb these characters actually are. because being stuck in freezing darkness and not having enough sense to put your hands in your pockets is borderline retarded.
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All the reviews I have seen so far give this movie 1 star. All but Massawyrm, of course!
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Not doing a visual check of the chairlift before leaving. Not raising alarms when there's one car remaining in the lot. Falling asleep with an ungloved hand able to freeze to metal. Thinking you can jump 30 feet and be okay. NOT BRINGING YOUR CELL PHONE.
As full of holes (real-life, not movie holes -- the movie explains nearly everything, just not in a way that makes sense in the real world) as it was, I still enjoyed it quite a bit. Very tense, well-shot, well-acted movie. -
.. that Nikita Khrushchev has been right all along.
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Feb 06, 2010 6:05:24 PM CST
Translated review: Green makes another movie with idiot plot
by reflecto
The characters act stupid and do stupid things no one would do, but we're only saying that because (wait for it)....AICN READERS ARE TOO SMART!!! Hatchet was a piece of shit, Spiral was pretentious as hell and featured Amber Tamblyn playing the dumbest woman alive, and this doesn't sound muich better. Here's my question: Why do AICN reviewers, most geek site reviewers for that matter, throw their entire HEART AND SOUL not into judging their brethren's work like they would ANY OTHER PIECE OF FICTION, but rather into DEFENDING IT ALL COST AS THOUGH YOU WERE SHILLING FOR JERRY'S KIDS OR THE MARCH OF DIMES? "People are going to be DIVIDED AS HELL you guys...aw shit man DIVIDED AS ALL HELL...but dude, it was awesome...hey, it reminded me of that scene in The Thing, do you remember...?" I don't know why we geeks work up such PASSION for syncopanthy.
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