20131215: Horror Review--The Frozen

The Frozen

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. American live action feature length film, 2012, PG-13, 94 minutes, horror.  Spoken word is in English.
2. IMDB: 4.0/10.0 from 889 audience ratings.  Estimated budget, 250,000 USD.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 'No reviews yet,' and 6% liked it from 43 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 3.1/5.0 from 128,341 audience ratings.
5. Written and directed by: Andrew Hyatt.
6. Starring: Brit Morgan as Emma, Seth David Mitchell as Mike, Noah Segan as The Hunter.


2. Setup and Plot
1. Emma and Mike go for a trek through winter snow in Colorado.  They discuss their relationship, not always amicably.


2. They have a snowmobile accident far from contact with other people.


3. Will either of them survive?




3. Conclusions
1. The reviews looked pretty bad, especially from viewers with experience.  The story was lifted (conceptually) from the Twilight Zone, where the story was told better.
2. One line summary: An old theme (the dead admitting they are dead) not done all that well.
3. Two stars of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 7/10 If you love winter snow and ice, this will be a feast for you.  The backgrounds are often washed out, and now and then there is camera shake.  Still, there is a lot of beautiful footage.


2. Sound: 5/10 There was some creepy music, but on the whole, the sound was not a factor, which is disappointing.  The sound levels were ridiculously bad.  When I had the volume up for conversation, the ending credits came out blaring.


3. Acting: 3/10 I liked Brit Morgan in True Blood, but not so much in this one.  Seth David Mitchell was one of the producers, and I wished he had kept to that exclusively.  Noah Segan might as well have been a piece of cardboard.


4. Screenplay: 2/10 The two main characters die fifteen minutes in.  That is where I started to lose interest. The next 79 minutes did not add much of anything; bickering can be found just about anywhere, as can footage about incompetence.  The conceit of the film is that 'you are not dead until you realise you are dead' is old and tired.  This remake was not an improvement over older, better works on the same theme.