528. Frozen (2010)

Starring: Shawn Ashmore, Emma Bell, Kevin Zegers

Director: Adam Grenn

Running Time: 93 mins

Frozen is an American film about three students who, after finding themselves stuck on a chairlift at a ski resort abandoned for a week, must face the impossible dilemma of escaping the lift in the face of huge dangers, or stay put and freeze to death.

No, it’s not the magical musical masterpiece Frozen that Disney brought us, instead it’s a harrowing, suspenseful and terrifying film that leaves you on the edge of your seat while cowering behind it too. (I don’t know how that’s possible, but that’s what watching this film feels like.)

Despite appearing like your average teen thriller, this film manages to shake off that reputation relatively quickly, and bring you into a hugely exciting survival story that, although it takes a whole lot of exaggeration with reality, manages to be pretty enthralling and intriguing from start to finish.

I have to say that, although I enjoyed this film a lot, it is completely and utterly preposterous. This film manages to come up with some of the most ludicrous and impossible situations to spur its suspense, and although that works, the nagging feeling you get in the back of your head that none of this could have happened is often a little distracting and annoying.

All ski resorts have surely got electronic trackers on their chairlifts, and although this film manages to do a good job in convincing you that there could be some sort of mix-up leaving three people on a chairlift for however long they’re on there, it’s all ridiculous.

The only other problem I have about this film was that, at first, it just isn’t lonely enough to make a footing for a strong survival story. It seems as if the three are stuck only a few hundred metres from their ski resort, and are suspended only about 12ft above the ground, so it doesn’t have that classically solitary feel that make these survival films so great, at least at the beginning.

And that’s because, as the film advances on, it gets more and more shocking, more and more exciting, and more and more and more horrifying to watch. What initially appears like a situation that would be relatively easy to get out of is turned into one of the most frustratingly difficult scenarios ever, leaving constantly trying to predict that, as it gets ever colder, and the insanity begins to creep in, will these people jump, or what?

That’s definitely one of the best things about this film: its unpredictability. Unlike 127 Hours, All Is Lost or Buried, where it’s a bit more of a waiting game, this survival story presents the characters with countless escape routes, but with countless hazards standing in their way, making it completely unpredictable.

Finally, this film does a brilliant job of just being unbelievably horrific. Not only is it quite graphically terrifying, but it develops into a story of horrible emotional turmoil that left me squirming in my seat by the end, showing how deeply affecting it becomes by the end.

Overall, then, this gets a 7.5, because despite all its problems with realism, it’s a hugely exciting, horrifying and unpredictable story that will either greatly shock or entice you.