Day 5: Frozen (2010)

A Month of Horror

Like the genre we are here to celebrate, a sequel is always around the corner.  Horror Movies are full of sequels - from the established classics of the '80s, to today's annual cash-grab installments of the cheap and easy series.  Due to the popularity of last year's Horror Movie-A-Day, I have decided to present 31 all new (or old) horror movies for your enjoyment...

October 5: Frozen (2010)

Adam Green burst onto the horror scene with Hatchet, a throwback to eighties slasher films like Halloween, Friday the 13th, and the texas Chainsaw Massacre staples.  While the Hatchet series is an often over-the-top gore fest (featuring many acting staples from the movies it is paying tribute to), Frozen is a very different film.

One of humanity's biggest fears is isolation and what better way to reinforce that isolation than by setting almost an entire movie on a ski hill at night.  Better still, take it one step further by isolating what essentially amounts to a cast of three in a chair lift high above the slopes long after the ski hill has closed for the weekend.

Shawn Ashmore, Emma Bell, and Kevin Zegers play three college students who weasel their way onto the hill for one last ride.  Things quickly slip out of control and the three are left stranded high above the ground in increasingly degrading conditions.

While not a horror movie in the classic sense, Frozen does a great job of building tension and creating a palpable sense of dread as the three friends first have to deal with their personal issues, and then have to face the fact that their survival will likely depend on extreme measures being taken.

There are three classic paradigms of struggle in literature: man versus man, man versus nature, and man versus self.  This movie contains all three in varying degrees, part has a particular focus on man versus nature and man versus self.

The small contained set, and reliance on just three actors to carry the bulk of the running time makes this a unique and captivating study of how far we might be willing to go to survive the harshest of conditions.

While Hatchet was a fun romp through the gory tropes of the slasher genre, Frozen is a much smaller, yet equally intense study in horror.  With both, it is our underlying will to survive that propels the characters forward, but somehow, the more realistic and grounded approach to Frozen makes for a much more harrowing experience.

Tomorrow, it's sequel time in the season of the witch...

Story-A-Day #80: Icing

ICING

There are pros and cons to the fluctuations in out weather. The pros of minus thirty-degree weather are that you aren’t likely to get much snow, and you aren’t likely to feel guilty for staying inside and hibernating. The cons are more numerous. You are liable to freeze, as are the pipes in your house, the birds in the tress, the car in your driveway, and even the moisture in the air.

When the weather does warm up, and we’re not even talking about above zero temperatures, there are plenty of pros and cons. On the plus side, you barely realize that it is as cold as it is. You can practically leave your toque and mittens at home. It’s a nice feeling. On the slightly more negative side, it usually means that there is going to be an abundance of snow, which means an abundance of shoveling and a severe shortage in space to fling the snowy white stuff. It also means that getting around is a hindrance. Warmer weather also creates ice, a terror on the roads, and an equal burden on your house.

As the heat passes through the roof, the snow starts to melt. This creates off flow, which drips and dribbles over the house like icing and eventually forms long, pointy stalactites of ice. These in turn, pose the risk of breaking off your house or office and impaling someone through the brain.

I once read a book of murder mystery stories and one of them described an icicle as the perfect weapon as the evidence would melt away. I believe that to be true. The ice will also run over anything outside your house and will freeze into a solidly slippery state over night. It will cover your porches, cars, and sometimes, even your outside lights.

Try to break that one off. Go on, I dare you.

You see the problem. That much icy weight threatens to rip the whole fixture right off the house. The bottom supports the top and the top anchors the bottom in a perfectly symbiotic relationship. Break the ice on either side and the equation lies ruined. One half cannot exist without the other.

That is the problem, and figuring out the solution is truly the icing on the cake.