Frozen

Frozen (2010)
Directed by Adam Green
Starring Emma Bell, Shawn Ashmore, Kevin Zegers

Simple concept, very cool film, clearly inspired by Spielberg's Jaws. Three friends gets stuck up on a ski-lift chair on their last ride at a ski resort. By twist of fate the lift operator thinks they have already come off the mountain and shuts down the ski-lift; meanwhile the friends are trapped on small steel seat 75ft above the frozen ground in sub-zero temperatures. The friends think its a malfunction until all the slope lights are turned off and the mountain goes deathly quiet. Its only then that the real terror sets in, its Sunday night and the ski-resort is closed for next 5 days.

The film takes place mostly over the 1st frozen night. After a few hours of hours of panic the heroic boyfriend decides he will jump off the lift-chair to the snow below and go for help, injured or not. Of course he snaps his legs in the fall and is immobilized with nasty compound fractures. Within short order Hungry Wolves are baying in the nearby forest, smelling the blood. The worst that you can imagine happens as the wolves have a hot dinner. This death scene is made extra disturbing by the camera mostly staying on the ski-lift and the reactions of the friends while they hear their friend getting ripped apart and devoured, screaming through gargling blood. This is a brutal death from sound alone and it takes a minute or so but it really works - almost turned my stomach.

The death of the boyfriend leads to some reflective dialogue that could have been skipped as the adrenaline is drained from the momentum of the story. Daylight breaks. The two survivors have frostbite, they must get off the mountain. The friend decides to climb along the wire (regardless of wolves below) to a nearby pole. He risks his life twice but finally makes it only to be encountered by the wolves but he fights them off and escapes down the mountain on his snowboard pursued by the wolves.

The girl is left alone on the seat overnight, no one comes to help her. At dawn, almost frozen to death, she attempts to climb down and is tossed to the ground with a broken ankle, but not killed. On her way down the hill (sliding on her belly) she encounters the wolves feeding on their friend, horrific realistic scene. The wolves are distracted so she escapes, makes it to a road and is rescued by a passing car. Thats it. Her escape is so welcome, its the proper ending.

Ok so there are some flaws in this film, acting mainly and some average writing, but overall given how simple the idea is I think the director really pulled it off and created a very suspenseful thriller that at times is incredibly disturbing. Man Vs Nature. Big epic theme in small explosive movie. I was impressed. GO see this in theaters, it just came out.