Frozen
2010 · Directed by Adam Green
Original language: English
- thriller
The story
When three skiers find themselves stranded on a chair lift at a New England ski resort that has closed for the next week, they are forced to make life or death choices that prove to be more perilous than staying put and freezing to death.
What it’s like
Flat, pale daylight on a white-out mountain, then the blue-grey chill of a stalled chair lift hanging over empty trees, with the cold made visible in breath clouds and frosted gloves. The camera stays close and mostly still, lingering on faces and small hands while wind moans through the cables and the score is sparse and low, with long stretches of ambient hush. The mood is bleak, claustrophobic and tense rather than cosy: the suspense builds slowly over the first hour, then turns to hard, unflinching survival horror in the final stretch, with bloody injuries, a grim animal attack and some frank, grisly moments that land with real physical discomfort. Expect strong peril, wounds and fear throughout, with blood and gore present but not wallowing in splatter; there is no sexual content, and the cruelty is mostly situational rather than gratuitous. The pacing is patient and slightly stagnant on purpose, which suits a tense, isolated night in with the lights low. It's for viewers who like cold-weather thrillers in the vein of "The Grey" and want a grim, nerve-fraying watch without anything gentle about it.
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