Frozen review (DVD) ★★★★★

Review by Stuart O'Connor
Stars Emma Bell, Shawn Ashmore, Kevin Zegers, Ed Ackerman, Rileah Vanderbilt,
Kane Hodder, Adam Johnson, Chris York, Adam Green, Joe Lynch | Written by Adam Green
UK Certification 15 | UK RRP £15.99 | DVD Region 2 | Runtime 93 minutes | Directed by Adam Green

Three young college friends – Parker (Bell), Joe (Ashmore) and Dan (Zegers) – spend their Sunday in a mountain resort, skiing their little hearts out. Come the evening, they're keen for just one last run before the resort closes for the week and they have to return to their normal, humdrum lives. Even though it's now dark, and there's some nasty weather moving in, they manage to pursuade the chairlift operator to let them head up the hill for one last, final run... but a mix-up leads to them being trapped halfway up, with the lift shut down and the resort closed until next Friday.

It's a simple setup, as so many of the best films are, but the execution is terrific. The fear of being trapped – whether it be in a lift, a car, underwater or even underground – is strong in all of us. At first, our three friends think it's a temporary glitch, that the lift will start up again at any moment. There's no panic, and they even kid around – going as far as discussing the worst ways in which to die (getting eaten by a shark is mentioned, giving a nice shout-out to the film Open Water, which is clearly an influence here). But as time goes on, and the lights of the resort are switched off, and the weather gets worse and worse, they realise they're in some serious trouble here. With no rescue in sight for at least five days, pretty soon they have to deal with frostbite, hypothermia... and the threat of hungry wolves below.

Writer/director Adam Green is one of the brightest new voices in horror today. He paid homage to Hitchcock in Spiral and reinvigorated the slasher film with Hatchet and Hatchet II, but the horror in Frozen is rooted firmly in the real world. The situation is entirely plausible, even possible, and that's what makes it truly terrifying. He ratchets up the suspense all the way through, ably assisted by a terrific cast – particularly Ashmore, who you may remember as Iceman in the X-Men films. The writing, too, is first rate, with Green peppering his script with realistic dialogue that nicely fleshes out the characters and makes their dilemma all that more chilling. Frozen is more than just a simple tale of three kids stuck on a ski-lift; it's a gripping tale of survival that will keep you frozen to your seat until the final credits roll. Don't miss it.

EXTRAS ??? The DVD has four features, including Catching Frostbite: The Origins of Frozen, Three Below Zero, Shooting Through It, and Beating the Mountain: Surviving Frozen; deleted scenes, an audio commentary with writer/director Adam Green and stars Shawn Ashmore, Kevin Zegers and Emma Bell; and the trailer.