Frostbiten

If you're expecting a true horror movie, you'll be disappointed. This movie was hilarious. And that is exactly the way it was meant to be enjoyed, as a comedy horror (along the lines of "Shawn of the Dead"). The storyline that follows the daughter is better developed than the one with the mother, and plays for more laughs. I saw it courtesy of the Seattle International Film Festival, at midnight, with a theatre full of other vampire film lovers. My biggest complaint would be that it does take a little too long for the opening sequence (taking place during WWII, German with Swedish and English subtitles) to be explained. It's also the scariest part of the whole film. If you don't like horror films, this is a great one to see. Rent it and have a bunch of friends over.

Over here in Europe, and especially during the annual Horror & Fantasy Festivals all over the continent, "Frostbite" got endlessly praised and acclaimed as one of the most innovating and creative new vampire movies of the last few decades, but you honestly have to put all this eulogy into perspective a little. First of all because European horror critics understandably wish to promote our own stuff as opposed to that uninspired American "junk" and, secondly, because the guys behind the camera (director Anders Banke and producer Magnus Paulsson) used to be involved in the organization of the Swedish Fantasy Festival and thus the critics support each other. Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of the horror-festivals and I'm grateful that I can go and watch a truckload of new cult stuff there every year, but this circle of European Fantasy Festivals is undeniably some sort of elite club. That being said, I don't intend to state "Frostbite" is a bad film or anything … It just isn't as original and refreshing as it pretends to be. Given the North-Swedish setting, the tag line and the synopsis, I was anticipating a sort of predecessor to "30 Days of Night" but it's actually something completely different. The story revolves on an obsessive doctor trying to create the ultimate breed of vampires ever since he himself became one during World War II. He invented these red pills to fine-tune vampirism, but they accidentally end up at a local teenager's house party and all the guests gradually transform into bloodthirsty monsters. "Frostbite" features a lot of ideas and simultaneously attempts to parody the horror genre, but unfortunately it only became a very incoherent, not-so-funny and seemingly finished horror movie. The intro-flashback is overlong and, in general, not a whole lot is happening during the first hour. The last half hour compensates for a lot, though, since the film becomes extremely gory, absurd and tasteless. The actual ending comes abruptly and makes no sense at all, but the foregoing house-party massacre is quite cool to watch. The special and make-up effects are excellent (clearly, most of the budget went there) and the acting performances of the primarily young and inexperienced cast members are more than adequate. "Frostbite" is definitely an interesting and potentially terrific film, but the writers nearly didn't make enough use of the location's possibilities and the polar night concept.

This movie starts with a flashback. A flashback were they talk German, but evidently you can hear (if you're familiar with the German language), that the actors are not Germans themselves. Just a trivia fact, for the beginning.

Because this doesn't hurt the movie, after the flashback you get to the present time and the movie kicks off. And that means it really get's going! It then starts out more as (teen-)comedy, just to evolve into a horror-comedy. The transition is pretty good and many jokes work, but unfortunately in the end (literally), the movie falls short. It just seems, that they run out of ideas or money ... or both, but this movie does not feel like it's finished. It's a shame then, because this could've been so much better, but it's still good!

After Let the Right One In, I was wary about approaching another Swedish vampire film. Surely it couldn't live up to the brilliance of that master piece. Well, it doesn't. But Frostbiten is a different kind of beast altogether. Frostbiten is a wonderful return to classical vampires. They hate garlic, don't have reflections etc. This lends itself well to the comic tone of the film. Even in a foreign language, this is instantly quotable and memorable. From lines such as "Stop throwing garden gnomes at me!" and a girl making an X rather than a crucifix, we have a film that doesn't take itself seriously, but isn't stupid either. The film does well to split up the adult world and the teen world. The teen world is basically filled with drugs and parties, lending itself as the perfect set-up for a massacre. Meanwhile, the adult world is filled with the backstory and the main plot thrust.The score and soundtrack work in perfect harmony. The film opens during the war, and the score has an eerie Gothic sound which seems as though is should be coming straight from a gramophone. The effects are perfect in my opinion. The mix of CG and make-up is almost indistinguishable. It comes across as an old classical stop-motion piece at times. The whole film was enjoyable in the same way as The Lost Boys. Fun, exciting and hilarious. Only, Frostbiten has talking dogs.

When it's finally time for a Swedish horror whit a real budget it turns out to be, well not so good. Its a shame really cause this movie has been under production for many years so one had hoped they would give us , if not great, at least a good film. No luck there.

I have no idea what the director was thinking when he watched the final cut. The whole climax of the movie is horrible edited. We go from one scene to another and after a while you have lost track of what is happening, and you really don't care either. The acting is at times lousy, the one who gets away is Jonas Karlstöm who plays Sebastian. He makes the movie worth seeing.

The effects of the movie are great, nothing to complain about there. What bothers me the most is if this was the last Chance for Swedish horror.