Frozen‘s stripped-down story revolves around three friends stranded on a ski lift. The plot is simple and effective, and it features one of the most relatable final girls in film.
Tubi is now streaming Frozen, one of the 2010s’ most underrated horror films. Starring Shawn Ashmore (The Rookie), Emma Bell (Final Destination 5), and Kevin Zegers (Wrong Turn), Frozen is a gritty psychological thriller; its slow-burn tension reportedly caused audience members to faint during its 2010 Sundance premiere. The film imagined what it’s like to be trapped on a ski lift for two nights, which is every skier’s worst nightmare.
Frozen‘s sequences were so visceral because they were all shot on location, and the harsh weather was the actors’ primary motivation. “The whole movie was shot practically, which means not on a soundstage or green screen, [Ashmore, Bell, and Zegers] always really up there,” director Adam Green revealed (per LAist). “They probably spent about four hours before break, and then five to six hours after break. We kept trying to send up handwarmers to them or hot coffee, but our little rope up to them didn’t really work.”
The Frozen Cast Braced Freezing Weather Throughout Filming
Green praised the cast for their commitment. Despite the cold, they all chose to stay on the lift throughout filming. “They were excited about it because they were in their own element and in the moment,” he continued. “When actors are working on a set they try to stay in their moment but there’s like 50 people around them in the crew who are talking, laughing, and moving around but here they were up there, 50 feet off the ground, where they couldn’t really hear anybody on the ground.”
Green said that “every young actor in Hollywood” auditioned, but “at least 70% of them went running” after realizing it’s all outdoor scenes. Ashmore, who at that point had starred in three X-Men films, joined the project after his long-time friend Zegers endorsed the script. Bell was an up-and-comer at that point; her character was the final girl of the film. “Pretty much everybody who read the script could relate to it because even if you haven’t skied you can relate to the fear of heights and isolation,” Green confirmed. “Normally with the horror genre, there’s an element of fantasy to it, a monster or villain, that lets you distance yourself from it.”
Frozen was a box office success, earning $3.8 million against its $750,000 budget. Critic and audience reviews were mixed, but most credited the minimalist setup. Green said the film caused quite a stir in the ski community when it released; it received backlash from the ski resorts, which insisted that such a scenario “would not happen at our mountain”. Frozen flew under the radar when it released, but it’s now one of the 2010s’ best survival horror movies.
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