Frozen

★★★

(2010)

Frozen is a short and sweet thriller gimmick from Hatchet director Adam Green in which three college friends get stranded on a ski lift late on a Sunday night. It’s a taught and un-complex set up but one which digs its heels in once the trio are stuck allowing the simplistic nature of the tension (and the howling from the woods) work it’s own magic.

Our characters aren’t heroic or smart, not one of them is even that likable but once the night sets in Green works well to get them back on side and even makes you, in the end, itch for their escape. Though the dialogue, amongst paint by numbers stories about dogs being left at home, endless top tens, girls, boys, parents and heavy handed back story shading, is sometime wincing, there are some admirable moments of sweetness very rare in horror films.

Frozen isn’t psychologically harrowing or tremendously gory. It doesn’t have really have a monster hook or a lot of atmosphere to it but for it’s budget and self imposed restrictions it succeeds on a lot of levels where similar films fall flat on their face.Though no where near the caliber of 127 hours or the very very excellent Buried it offers up a more calmly asked question of “What would you do?” and throws enough spanners in the works to keep you changing your mind.

At it’s best it’s a very taught and creative set piece and at it’s worst is a little bland and hollow on the character front. The being said Frozen is also a fun to watch and very enjoyable chiller about being trapped to add to an ever growing list of films about being trapped.', 'Frozen', '