BrianSingleton

As a huge horror fan, a horror filmmaker, and a life-long east coast snowboarder, I can appreciate Frozen from all perspectives. The idea is something that anyone who's ever been on a chair lift will instantly identify with and it's terrifying. And the fact that Green insisted on shooting this entire movie practically with no CGI, green screen or sound stage is the main reason it works so well – simply because you know what your seeing is real. The cinematography is excellent with sweeping arial views of the suspended characters and dizzying perspective shots of the winter surroundings so far below, which keep reminding you where you are and why you're trapped along with them. The acting is tremendous and the talented cast deserves serious credit for enduring the brutal elements and long nights to achieve such authenticity. Despite only having 3 characters and 1 location, the cast does an excellent job of keeping you glued to your seat (so to speak). The actors are do a great job of balancing humour with horror to create moving moments of laughter, sadness, despair, heartbreak and true fear, and the sense of danger in the action scenes is almost unbearable at times. Frozen is completely believable in every respect (contrary to what some critics might say). The jump from the chair lift shown in the trailer is one of the most horrific and painful things I've ever seen on film. The entire audience cringed at the same time. As a snowboarder, I can honestly say the characters reacted exactly as I, or anyone else, might have (though I would have kept my board on to jump!). And from living in small town Canada all my life, I can attest to the authenticity of the wildlife elements as well, which are equally as terrifying as hanging from a broken chair lift. FROZEN is a movie destined for cult status at every ski hill in America, or at least it should be.

This is just another STV "horror" movie that plagues video stores everywhere. There is nothing I want more than a resurgence of good horror movies, but films like "Ghost Lake" do everything possible to ensure this never happens. The movie is garbage from start to finish; horribly written, shot, acted and edited. Even the minimal zombie make-up can't save it. I wasted $6.50 at Blockbuster with this one, and I've done the same thing countless times before out of desperation and a faint hope than someday, somewhere, someone will make a horror movie we've all been waiting for. As a horror filmmaker myself, I say give me the budget for Ghost Lake and I'll show you how it's done.

Speaking as both a horror filmmaker and a true horror fan, movies like Skinned Deep are very frustrating to watch. This movie is very similar to the new Anchor Bay release, "Malevolence". Aside from having titles that have nothing to do with the movie at all, both filmmakers plagiarize countless horror classics and do it shamelessly. The movie is a terrible clone of House of 1000 Corpses with scenes and characters stolen from this, TCM2, Hills Have Eyes, Basket Case, and Wild Angels. One of the most obvious rip-offs is the scene of Brain running through New York City naked just like Dwayne did in Basket Case. Something that bizarre is not a coincidence. Of course, not all films have to be completely original to work. Even the oldest horror premise is still a good one, if done properly, but not here.

All characters aside, the film-making itself is even worse. The directing and editing are clumsy and careless for most scenes, with dialog (and a script) that's practically incoherent. With the exception of good performances by Karoline Brandt and Warwick Davis, the acting is the same as the directing. The make-up and costumes for some characters are well done and the elaborate gore FX are entertaining, but it seems that the FX were the only reason this film was made in the first place? Gabe Bartalos also wastes the budget on an elaborate bullet-time photography sequence for the final "explosion". The maximum effort and minimal result will leave any filmmaker scratching their head (or banging it against a wall). The entire film is mostly painful to sit through, especially the end credits scrolling on a black screen with the lead actress screaming for literally ten minutes straight. Even SAW cut the scream after the first credit. Even Forey Ackerman's brief cameo can't save it.

This entire movie makes me angry is because I know there are better scripts and far better filmmakers out there who are not being given the chance to make a truly excellent horror film that gives this genre, and it's fans, the respect it deserves. Fangoria should have spent their money on a different movie.