Frozen (2010)Movie Reviews

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So-so

Avg. Critic Score: 43 out of 100 Mixed or average reviews Metascore^® based on all critic reviews

Information for Parents:

Iffy for 15+

Read Common Sense Media review

Critic scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.

70

The Hollywood Reporter | James Greenberg
Frozen delivers enough thrills and gory chills to satisfy the horror film crowd, but is not written, directed or acted well enough to be a first-rate thriller. Read full review
70

The New York Times | Jeannette Catsoulis
A minimalist setup delivers maximum fright in Frozen, a nifty little chiller that balances its cold terrain with an unexpectedly warm heart. Read full review
58

The Onion A.V. Club | Noel Murray
While the actors are game, their characters are awfully generic. Read full review
50

Boston Globe | Ty Burr
An effective, no-frills gruel-a-thon if that's your cup of Swiss Miss, and it explores such burning questions as: What happens if you're dumb enough to leave your bare hand on a metal safety bar overnight? Read full review
40

Village Voice |
Green also can't maintain the suspension of disbelief necessary as we watch three charmlessly written characters bicker and attempt inane ideas. It's one thing to be scared with them, and quite another to feel trapped with them. Read full review
40

Los Angeles Times |
It's difficult to get into its "What would I do?" vibe, though, through so thick and transparent a barrier of contrivances. Read full review
40

Variety |
Don't be surprised if the movie's most wince-inducing moments come not from the "disturbing images" (as the MPAA describes the sight of a leg bone sticking six inches out of one character's ski pants) but rather of the bad acting and worse dialogue. Read full review
30

Wall Street Journal | Joe Morgenstern
Adam Green's Frozen explores a tiny idea exhaustively, and I mean exhaustively. Read full review
25

Philadelphia Inquirer | David Hiltbrand
If you actually sit through this enervating ordeal, you'll swear that time is Frozen. Read full review
20

New York Daily News | Joe Neumaier
Frozen is good for five minutes of "What would you do if?" games. Then it's just stiff as a board. Read full review

Metacritic link View more reviews for Frozen (2010) on Metacritic

Information for Parents

Common Sense Media says Iffy for 15+ Chilling tale is gory, but less so than other horror movies.

What Parents Need to Know Parents need to know that Frozen is a horror/thriller from director Adam Green, whose previous movie was the comic slasher movie Hatchet. This one is a good deal more serious; it's filled with very effective, excruciating suspense, but it's also not particularly smart. It's one of those movies in which the audience is usually two jumps ahead of the characters. The movie has its fair share of gruesome blood and gore, especially in the second half. Language is fairly strong, with more than one use of "f--k" and many uses of "s--t." The characters, all college students, smoke cigarettes, and there are references to pot. Viewers may find themselves very anxious, and very annoyed at the same time. It's an intense movie, but also fairly mild compared to many other entries in the horror genre.

Families can talk about the ways in which this problem could have been averted. Could better communication have helped? Better listening?
How did the movie's violence affect you? Was it scary? Which was the most horrifying part? Did you notice if some of the violent events took place onscreen, or offscreen?
The three characters in the film have an awkward relationship. The two boys are best friends, and the girlfriend of one boy is trying not to come between them. Have you ever experienced this kind of romantic tension in real life?

The good stuff

Positive messages: The film's main point is that bad things can happen to anyone at any time. These three characters did bribe the lift guy rather than buying lift tickets, but their punishment for that crime seems very severe. The characters generally show more stupidity than they do bravery, teamwork, or problem solving.
Positive role models: The movie goes out of its way to show that these characters have their good and bad sides. They pay a bribe instead of buying tickets, they smoke cigarettes and pot, use bad language, and are not in totally trusting relationships. But we also learn that one of them once fell in love, one of them has a puppy, and that they have devoted friendships. The fact that they do not deal well with this crisis tips the balance into the negative.

What to watch for

Violence: There's a brief "pushing" fight on solid ground near the film's beginning. Later, a character jumps from the stuck chair lift and breaks his legs on the ground below. His legs are askew and bones stick out. Wolves devour him, but mostly off-camera. A character's hand is stuck to the frozen bar, and we see the skin peeling back as it is pulled off. A character gets severe frostbite to the face, with peeling skin. A character slices up his hands on the cable, and we see some blood. Finally, we see a bloody corpse in the snow.
Sex: Two of the main characters are boyfriend and girlfriend, and they sometimes speak in intimate ways, but mostly playful and very little that's sexual. (She complains because he calls her by her real name, rather than a pet name.) In one scene, the boyfriend unzips the girl's jacket a few inches so that she can flirt with the chair lift guy and get cheap lift tickets. Another character meets a girl and flirts with her.
Language: We hear more than one use of "f--k," plus many, many uses of "s--t" and "ass." Other words include "dick," "hell," "douchebag," "asshole," "retarded," "piss," "Goddamn," and "oh my God."
Consumerism: We see a poster for Newbury Comics near the film's beginning, and one character mentions his favorite breakfast cereals, "Crunch Berries," "Cinnamon Toast Crunch," and "Lucky Charms."
Drinking, drugs and smoking: One of the main characters is called a "pothead," and he brags about smoking a lot of pot, although he is never seen doing so onscreen. Another main character smokes cigarettes, as does a secondary character. (She bums a cigarette from him.)

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