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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mel O&#039;Drama" data-source="post: 423858" data-attributes="member: 23">Frozen (2010) <img src="https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2F1.bp.blogspot.com%2F-4SQ0wmMV08U%2FT05liLppOxI%2FAAAAAAAAACE%2FpNs0W-ATMJ4%2Fs1600%2FFrozen_Quad_Final.JPG&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=18ccb0930e9318b5c90e509de8a8b68de4482fc346cbfca5040d00fa3320227a" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="width: 786px" /> This isn't a film I was aware of before last night. I added it to my watchlist along with a few others and opted to watch it simply because it wasn't overlong and didn't look too challenging. The overall vibe was of a decent TV movie. There's an intimacy and the performances are decent, and much of the film rides on this (it stars Iceman from the X-Men and Emma Brown/Ryland from NuDallas who gets an "And introducing...." credit here). This air also meant my expectations were in check so that I could be pleasantly surprised (well, unpleasantly, really, given some of the scenarios here). On the surface, the premise is a simple one: three young people are trapped in a chairlift, overlooked and forgotten as the ski resort closes down for the week. The "I can't believe they forgot us" element reminded me very much of Open Water, and I suppose is a key element of a number of such survival films. Plenty of mileage is gained from the incredulity that follows the realisation. Then comes the decision to take risks or freeze to death. And the subjectivity of the direction really sells the underlying horror of such unpleasant choices.  Scenes are also long and dialogue-heavy, which adds to the sense of entrapment. Almost as much as for the characters, there's no relief for the audience. For all its intimacy and perceived simplicity, the situation is an embarrassment of riches when it comes to milking tension, unnerving or creating horrific moments, and no fear or phobia is left unexplored. We're at a great height. In the dark. Freezing. Isolated and far from anyone in an overwhelmingly huge open space (despite its beautiful-on-paper location, there's actually very little to look at in this film. All we see in the grey gloom are trees, snow and other empty chairlifts. It quickly becomes oppressive which works wonderfully to create a sense of claustrophobia). In a rickety chair (in the film's latter stages, much is made out of a bolt working its way loose, which is imagery that's been seen in everything from Seventies disaster movies to the Final Destination series). Later comes the threat of predation and being eaten alive (one specific scene as the chair's occupants scream in horror while trying to avoid seeing and hearing such a thing happening feels lifted almost directly from 2007's Black Water) , and there's also much body horror with graphic detail of frostbite and broken limbs with protruding bones (according to Wikipedia, there were numerous faintings at Sundance, but I'm glad I didn't know this beforehand as it would have oversold the film to me and I might have been mildly disappointed that I remained conscious throughout). And just in case you're not convinced this film has everything, I ask you: where else can you see Emma Bell sobbing with angst whilst simultaneously peeing onto her chair? It's not a perfect film. That "made for TV" vibe was never quite shaken (though that's not necessarily a bad thing), and the dialogue is occasionally a little iffy and at times just a little too earnest. It's also (presumably) unintentionally  funny at times, such as the moment where there's a guttural, chilling wolf howl echoing round and the girl calls out to her boyfriend to ask if that was him. Still, the sincerity also proves to be an asset and there were moments of reflection or pain that I found genuinely touching. Death actually means something to others in this film, and that's pretty important.</blockquote>

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