[Panic Fest Article] Celebrating Adam Green's FROZEN

If a horror movie can scare you or make you feel uncomfortable, then it has done its job. There aren’t many horror movies that make me feel so uncomfortable that it haunts me years after but there is one movie that I haven’t been able to watch again since its release ten years ago. I saw FROZEN when it was released in 2010 and its ten year anniversary screening was in my city for Panic Fest and I told myself I’d never watch it again. Here’s why…

But first, FROZEN isn’t the movie with the magical princess and the snowman that’s in denial, no this one came first. This was written and directed by, in my opinion, one of the best members of the horror community out there, Adam Green. Joe Lynch easily ties for first as he is one of the kindest celebrities I’ve ever met, but I digress. FROZEN was released in 2010 and follows a couple and their third-wheeling friend. While on a skiing/snowboarding excursion at a resort, they reach the lift right as it’s going to close but they bribe the lift worker to let them go once. It doesn’t work out for them as another employee shuts down the lift, leaving them high in the air as the resort closes for the week. Left in the air and freezing to death, they have to choose between the elements and the wolves that smell them dying.

I love Adam Green’s films. I am a diehard lover of Holliston, Digging Up the Marrow is fantastic and I was at the tour for Victor Crowley. There is no question that I’m a fan but I can’t watch this movie and it’s the biggest compliment to Adam Green. As someone who was mildly afraid of wolves before seeing this movie, now, years later, the sound of a wolf gives me full-body goosebumps. There’s a scene in the film where SPOILERS the boyfriend jumps down for help, breaks his leg and has to pull his hat down over his eyes so he doesn’t have to watch himself get devoured by the pack. That scene has haunted me for a decade.

There are some familiar faces with Emma Bell (The Walking Dead), Shawn Ashmore (The Dark Pictures: Man of Medan), Kevin Zegers (Fear the Walking Dead) and Kane Hodder (Victor Crowley). They all do an amazing job at causing me severe anxiety watching this film. The effects are simple and effective as you watch the trio slowly begin to freeze to death and acquire the symptoms of frostbite and hypothermia. There are moments of eye-rolling dialogue and character choices but overall, this film is scary as hell.

If the tenth-anniversary screening of FROZEN comes to a film festival near you, I definitely recommend watching it. For most people, this is a fun idea for a movie and a neat little jaunt at what happens when you make a dumb choice out of impatience instead of just waiting until the next weekend. To me, this is possibly one of the scariest films that I have ever seen and I get anxiety just thinking about watching it again.