The Frozen Movie Review – Not to be Confused with the Crappy Shawn Ashmore Flick

Runtime: 95 minutes

Release Date: October 10, 2012

Rating: PG-13

Director: Andrew Hyatt

Mike (Seth David Mitchell) and his girlfriend Emma (Brit Morgan, "True Blood") decide to take a camping trip in the middle of nowhere and in the middle of winter. As my roommate so eloquently put it, "Hell to the no." Mike seems a little more excited about the trip, while Emma makes it clear that she only came along because it's what he wanted. She seems even less enthused when he pulls their truck over to the side of the road and announces that they need to take the snowmobile to reach the actual campsite.

While moving across the snowy hills, they hit a rough patch and both are thrown from the snowmobile. Emma wakes up, and she and Mike manage to setup their tent and settle down for the night. Both hope that help will soon arrive, but instead, Emma wakes up the next day to find Mike gone with only a pool of blood left in the snow. To make matters worse, she starts seeing a lonely hunter in the woods, and he makes it clear that he is coming for her.

Let's make this clear that this is absolutely not the "Frozen" film starring Shawn Ashmore. At some point, I'm sure that I will review that one, and you can already guess how I feel about it. "The Frozen" is a slightly better film, though it still has some faults. The film goes a little too far making you sympathize with Emma, to the point where I actually hoped that she would die and die soon. It shouldn't be surprising that there's a scene where she finds an engagement ring in Mike's bag not long after he disappears. It's clear that the filmmakers want you to root for her, but she isn't a very interesting character.

"The Frozen" also makes the mistake of having a cliché ending that almost anyone would see coming. I'm not going to ruin it for anyone who hasn't seen it, but you can watch the first thirty minutes of the movie and still know how it will end. The rest of the film just sort of plods along, hoping that you stick with it.

The sad thing is that this film has a lot of potential. The idea of being stranded in the middle of the snowy woods with no one around for miles and finding your sole support system missing is a harrowing thought. Emma naturally breaks down a few times, but she does things that are just absolutely stupid. Many people who watch this will find themselves yelling at the screen, not in a fun way but in a way that makes you want to rip your hair out.

The other problem that I had is that Mike literally disappears too quickly. How cool would it be if they started working together to find their way back to civilization, only to have Mike disappear the night before they start off? Instead, Mike disappears so quickly that you barely get a chance to know anything about the character. When she finds the ring, there's nothing that makes you sad because you barely know Mike. It just makes me a little sad because this movie could be so much better.