• Seasons of 13 Chills button
  • About the Author button
  • Howlin' Wolf Records button

Frozen title banner

Content on this page requires a newer version of Adobe Flash Player.

Get Adobe Flash player

By JASON COMERFORD

The high point of Adam Green’s 2006 slasher homage Hatchet was a gloriously over-the-top 360-degree camera move around a character getting the top of their head ripped off; you may be as surprised as I was to find that the most resonant moment of Green’s subsequent genre entry Frozen was a quiet conversation about a pet dog. Frozen went more or less direct to video, despite a decent reception at its 2010 Sundance Film Festival premiere and a limited theatrical release from Anchor Bay, but it’s slowly getting the attention it deserved. Green’s Hatchet films are goofy, gooey fun, but Frozen is a marked step up the quality ladder, favoring keenly observed characterizations and careful direction over wall-to-wall gore and cackling, unkillable psychopaths.

Collaborating again with Green, composer Andy Garfield took the film’s admirable restraint to heart, contributing a subtle, churning score that skillfully enhances moments of both bittersweet warmth and icy terror. As young skiers Kevin Ziegers, Shawn Ashmore and Emma Bell find themselves trapped on a chairlift with night falling, storms closing in, and wolves circling below, the full extent of both Green and Garfield’s talents emerge, giving all three characters believable motivations and unique reactions to the impossible situation they’re faced with. Many other genre efforts (including Green’s own) cynically set up their characters as disposable slasher bait, but Frozen demonstrates a genuine interest in the people at its center, and generates real tension as they struggle to escape their increasingly perilous dilemma.

Garfield doesn’t skimp on the terror, though, and he does the heavy lifting in one of the film’s key scenes, as one of the trio faces a grisly fate from a pack of hungry wolves. “I’m Pretty Afraid” begins with a blast of rattling percussion as the wolves appear, and proceeds to ramp the tension up to unbearable levels, the strings swirling into a horrific cacophony as the inevitable unfolds. Green lets the worst of the scene play out in the viewer’s imagination, choosing tight close-ups and letting Garfield’s music to rise to a horrific shriek – the scream the viewer feels in the back of their own throat. The score is equally effective in later moments of quiet introspection and elegiac beauty, giving the story an added, welcome layer of warmth and texture, but when it’s time to go for the jugular, Garfield doesn’t shrink from the task. Frozen’s score was recently released in a limited edition of 500 from 2M1 Records; digital downloads can also be purchased from Amazon and iTunes.


 



The Moment in Question:

Click below to listen to a sample from
"I'm Pretty Afraid," composed by
Andy Garfield. [clip]

Waldo de los Rios portrait
......Andy Garfield

Installment Prize:

Prize Info Click Here

What do you think?

Click here to submit a comment
for this installment.

Awesome Websites!

Composer Interview (Bloody Disgusting)

FROZEN Bluray (Amazon)



Next Installment:

James Bernard bares his fangs.
HORROR OF DRACULA

Jason Comerford Bio

READER COMMENTS:

Howlin' Wolf  
The contest period for this installment will run until noon on Sunday, October 16. The constest period for Week 1 installments 1-3 is now closed and the drawing for that installment will be held soon and the winner announced. Any comments made for this installment or previous installments during the second week period will automatically be entered in the drawing for Week 2 installments 4-6. Prize information for the Week 2 installments is coming soon!
     
Jeremy  
oh boy do i really hate these types of "how the crude" are we going to get out of this tough spot. though the musical score brings it all together and thanks for letting us know it finally got released...
     
Calico Skelly
 
I've repeatedly stated that slasher films are a waste of time and energy. If one wants to be horrified one should watch a psychological thriller that could or did actually occur.  Like Amityville Horror.  That's terrifying.  Watching someone's head ripped open in 360 isn't. That's just crude.

   
Howlin' Wolf
 
In this series, the participants run the show ...after of course Jason gives his spin  -so-  if YOU the participants in this series don't say it, then it doesn't get said.  On this rare occasion, I hope you will indulge and permit me as the moderator of this series to add an insight.  The substance and insights of the previous comments here are interesting - What appeals to us in horror?  Horror tends to be a dichotomy between the more realistic and the more fantastical.  It is interesting how different approaches appeal to different horror fans.  I tend to be the type who is more comfortable watching the not-so-based-in-reality films because it becomes a sheer adrenalin rush ...or at least was that prior to watching a million and one horror films.  I am now somewhat desensitised to horror due to an overindulgence throughout the years.  To get my heart pounding these days requires an effectively masterful approach or novel concept.  That said, I still love the genre in all its forms with a passion.  Interestingly as mentioned here, I do get easily unnerved and rattled by films that feel almost "too real" for my comfort zone -  almost like I am watching nonfictional characters going through some horrific event - I agree that it is "terrifying" ...so I guess the more reality-based horror is a somewhat unchartered frontier for me and an area for which I am not quite so desensitized.  Regardless, one thing can be said for certain, the music of horror (both reality-based and fantastical) always interests and excites me. 

On another note, the Week 1 prize winner will be announced VERY SOON.  Composer  Robert Feigenblatt, who composed THE BUNKER,  has agreed to randomly draw our prize winner for Week 1.  Also coming soon is the list of prizes to choose from for Week 2, which ends at noon this Sunday.

Thanks for the great comments - keep them coming!
     
 Basil FSM
 
Yeah, I'm not really into gore/slasher flicks myself, but if it serves as more of a plot device for a psychological thriller (ie The Thing), I'm more than okay with it. I guess I don't really like to see gore when it really has no meaning or substance to it. I like character development, a realistic plot and story, and action to keep me engaged. Frozen looks like that kind of movie where it's more psychological than gory...

 
Jeremy
 
i too agree, i am not a fan all the time of in your face gore... it ruins the idea. i believe it is what made movies like the original halloween so successful, it was what is behind the door kind of scare. now films like frozen, the canyon or open water you have not control of what is next problem. forced into situations that you cannot escape, anyone filmmaker can show you gore, but how many can make you feel unsafe in your own surroundings. heck even the film "speed" you all know what is going to happen, but you still feel your heart pump... well okay maybe it's just me.
     
ScaredyCat  
WoW! The movie Frozen to me is super horrifying ...I am totally scared of heights and getting stuck on a ski lift sounds awful and then you add hungry wolves and cold weather ...now that is scary!



Jonathan

Wow, another movie I got to check out. Preparation for Halloween, I guess.
     
Josh Mitchell  
I can get into most different types of horror films. The exceptions are when real animals are butchered on screen (Cannibal Holocaust and Nekromantik), sado/sexual torture porn (Salo'), and reality death stuff (Faces of Death). Other than that, it's all good! :D
     
Howlin' Wolf  
This marks the end of the second week prize period - composer Robert Feigenblatt is drawing the winners for Weeks 1 and 2.  The Week 1 winner has been selected and is David Kessler (congratulations!) The Week 2 winner along with the Weeks 2 and 3 prize selection list will be announced soon!

All comments from this point forward will automatically be entered in the third week's drawing.  Please continue commenting on all of the installments - the more comments, the more interesting the commentary and analysis! 
     
Howlin' Wolf  
The prize link above for the second week of installments has been updated. This prize period ended Sunday, October 16 at noon. The winner of the drawing has been selected by composer Robert Feigenblatt and will be announced soon. We will email the winner and also post an announcement here. Congratulations again to David Kessler for being the winner for Week 1 installments.
     
Howlin' Wolf  
Congratuations to the Week 2 Installment winner Jonathan! Thanks of course to everyone who has participated so far in 13 CHILLS. Don't forget, we still have 5 more installments to go and two weeks of prizes ...and of course a GRAND PRIZE.