.: Roberts' Reviews - Movie Reviews :.

My favorite horror films always had a small cast. Jaws - my all-time fave - was essentially three guys on a boat. Paranormal Activity, two people. Splinter, a handful.

Sure, the Friday the 13ths and Elm Streets gave us countless homicides to which I also fully appreciate, but keeping it simple does have its advantages.

Enter Frozen, the thriller hot off its Sundance screening that pits three hapless individuals left and forgotten high atop a ski lift chair. The three ski bums are Parker, Joe and Dan played by Emma Bell, Shawn Ashmore and Kevin Zegers. When these three mountain snow lovers bribe the chairlift attendant to allow them one last night run down the slopes before the ski slopes are closed for the week. But thanks to a series of plausible events, the chair lift is shut down with the three leads perched so high that they are forced to make life or death decisions while faced with the possibility of freezing to death.

Frozen is about as simple a premise as you can devise. Three people trapped atop a swinging perch. That's the whole movie. And writer/director Adam Green makes the best of it. His three characters make decisions that intelligent people would make. Sure, all their efforts are thwarted and some even lead to gruesome death, but at least they think honestly and smartly about their situation and their limited options.

For instance, who wouldn't think that they could jump and possibly survive and then slide down the mountain for help? Bet you if you were sitting on a freezing chair with no food, dying to go to the washroom and suffering the effects of frostbite on your exposed skin, you would think the same.

And that's what makes Frozen so special. The characters are believable and real. At times annoying, but always interesting in their peril.

There were reports a week before the films release suggesting that audience members were fainting during the screening. Hardly. The two 'bloodiest' scenes take place off camera. The most gruesome of which isn't show at all. Only the screams of the two left in the chair lift give indication to the carnage.

But that is all part of Frozen's charm. A lot is left to the imagination. An imagination that will have audience members trying to determine what their options might be if faced with the same quandary.

The movie does drag, for about 10 minutes when two characters decide to keep their minds of the cold and the grim possibility of their death. But I can understand the Green likely wanted to continue to develop the characters so that the audience would continue in their invested interest.

Frozen won't have the same box office punch as last years Sundance thriller, Paranormal Activity, but it should not be ignored. This is a solid edge of your seat type film that might not do for the ski business what Jaws did for beaches 30 years ago, but anyone that sees the film will undoubtedly think about their situation next time they find themselves being lifted to the moguls.

Three skiers are stranded on a chairlift and forced to make life-or-death choices that prove more perilous than staying put and freezing to death |