Mister Frost

This movie is sadly overlooked and underated. As far as I'm concerned, it's one of Goldblum's better performances (sure beats ID4!). He was okay in The Fly, and okay in Jurassic Park too.

I like Kathy Baker's role, but she herself, I find a little annoying at times. Here she's dead on as a psychologist who begins to lose faith in her field.

Mostly thought, it's the tension this movie produces that won me over. For once I couldn't predict how it was going to end. Would she just quit and walk away from it all? Would she stick to her guns and ignore Mr. Frost's wishes like a "good doctor" should? Would she give in to Frost? I really saw it going any of those ways 'till the end.

I could really have done without Francois Negret-- his character was important, but as a person he really put me off. He was the worst part of the movie. And the performance of the doctor unable to withhold his love for Sarah was so melodramatic and overplayed, it bordered on revolting.

Overall I think this movie was original and cleverly-made.

`You should fit in well here then. We have one patient who calls himself Lucifer and another calling himself Mephistopheles.' `There's one difference. They're obviously insane.' With this dialogue the tension begins to mount in Director Philippe Setton's thriller. Writers' Derry Hall and Brad Lynch have created a perfect showcase for the quirky acting talents of lead, Jeff Goldblum. Goldblum's character is arrested at the beginning of the movie for the savage torture/murder of 24 people. We become aware of these murders as we see the investigators watching the tapes he made. Their reactions intensify the impact more than actually viewing it our self would have. Frost is immediately incarcerated in a psychiatric institute where he begins to make the claim he is actually the Devil and his mission on earth is to cause people to regain their belief (faith if you will) in him. Strange things begin to happen shortly after his arrival, which cause Dr. Sarah Day, played by Kathy Baker, to consider his claim. The movie leaves it to the viewer to decide if Frost is really causing things to happen using Demonic powers or just `brilliantly' insane and everyone, including the hospital staff, is falling prey to his psychosis. It is a well-directed and written story with a standout performance coming from Goldblum. He instills in his character a certain evil slyness, which will cause you to glance quickly behind you when Mr. Frost lays his eye on you.

23 May 2010. Jeff Goldblum insidiously and scarily with intelligence inhabits the role of of the Devil in this occult horror thriller that avoids the usually overt bloody mess of its genre. Instead while there is the narcissistic and pretentious characters, it is never about the movie itself, it is about the mental and emotional conflict between good and evil. This movie is scary in its seductive illusion that evil can be good and funny, cunning, and diverting. But in the end it is nothing to be trifled with. Mr. Frost is a cold, manipulating and debonair creature that fools even the audience in calculating the emotional enrapture in a sinister way that even Hannibal Lector cannot, because Mr. Frost is the essence of evil. The movie is engrossing and wicked in its pacing, eerie music reminiscent of the 60s and 70s that even twenty years later screeches with mystery and fear. This movie is a densely "horrible" movie made all the challenging and impressive by its ability to still evoke terror, hatred, revenge by its omission of the more visceral physical depiction of raw and bloody gore allowing the audience to focus on the deeper, substantive essence of evil.

True, there are plenty of devil-themed movies out there. But what makes "Mister Frost" different is that it looks more at how the Prince of Darkness might try to communicate with humans. Jeff Goldblum plays the title character, in the form of a man who suddenly is living in a villa and admits to having buried 24 corpses in his yard. After two years of silence, he starts talking to psychiatrist Sarah Day (Kathy Baker) and trying to convince her that he is in fact Satan.

This movie is sort of the flip side of stories about people who rediscover their faith in God. Sarah gives a speech detailing the fact that humans have wrought more havoc than the Devil seemingly could, Frost starts complaining that science has interfered with progress; he's trying to renew her faith in his existence. This is one charismatic Devil. That is, when he's not possessing people.

I certainly liked this movie. Far more perceptive than the average devil-is-trying-to-take-over-the-world story, it manages to be creepy without being particularly violent. Each of the characters looks just a bit menacing at some point or other. Early in the movie, Jeff Goldblum looks almost exactly like Michael Jackson in the "Thriller" video. Really good.

Also starring Alan Bates, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Vincent Schiavelli and Charley Boorman (John Boorman's son).

Ranks with THE FLY as Goldblum's greatest performance. He is mesmerising from his opening scenes with Alan Bates as the detective on a real mission impossible.

Way too intelligent for most audiences of the new millennium, here in Goldblum's character and given the ring-melting sequence, there is no real enigma as to who he is - we have "cool" utterly personified.

Awesome in its contemplation even - the Devil's reincarnation as a means to "renew the faith" as it were, Goldblum is hypnotic and absolutely commands attention and respect for every little nuance he projects in his time on screen.

The end is only anti-climactic for the average "boofhead," who would more than likely have switched off long before the final reel anyway. It never was a question of "who won?" There ARE no winners! I have seen this film several times and only ever known it incidentally as "The Deadly Mister Frost" as is titled my own recently-acquired DVD copy.

Rare and thought-provoking little gem.