Frozen (2010)

“Frozen” was one of those movie selections that I randomly made on Netflix one night which turned out to be one of the best surprises in a long time. This movie is a wonderful physiological thriller, placing the main characters in a situation that gives them time to think of what to do and to realize how stranded and dire their predicament is. Staring Shawn Ashmore (The Ruins), the movie is about two old friends and a girlfriend who tagged along on a weekend trip to the mountains for skiing and snowboarding. Sneaking in one last run before the resort closes for the weekend, the three end up becoming trapped high above the ground on the ski lift after the operations close down without checking for them. It’s a harrowing situation where they have to deal with the freezing temperatures, a storm that’s coming, hunger, and hungry wolves pacing below their feet.

Joe wants to spend the weekend skiing with his childhood friend Dan, but Dan has brought his girlfriend, Parker, along and she’s not very skilled in either skiing or snowboarding. Dan is also cheap and convinces Joe to bribe the lift operator to let the three of them up. As the day progresses Joe becomes more frustrated that they aren’t going down the hills that he and Dan can handle. So as the resort is closing, the three go up for one last, real run. But since the operator is expecting two people and not three, when the replacement operator sees two people come down the hill, they turn off the lift and go home. Unfortunately the three are still on the lift and no one realizes this.

At first there is plenty of blame among the three. They try to get the attention of a snowcat but the driver doesn’t notice them. Blame turns into worry and despair as they realize that they have been forgotten and a storm is approaching. Frostbite begins to set in as well as hunger. Dan decides to jump down from the lift but lands wrong and breaks both of his legs.  A pack of wolves were waiting nearby and attack and kill Dan.

The next morning Joe attempts to jump down, which he also hurts himself. But he is able to defend himself with a ski pole and manages to slide down the hill, promising to send help. The day turns into night and in the morning, Parker decides to try to climb down; as she is trying to do so, the lift chair breaks and she falls to the ground. She hurts her ankle but is able to make it down the mountain, finding Joe’s body torn up from wolf bites. She is able to find help and return to civilization.

Open Water (2003)

Like the film “247°F”, “Open Water” is a horror based solely on the suspense of a situation caused by an accident that never should have happened. On paper it’s a very griping story about two scuba divers left behind and must fend for themselves in the middle of an ocean. On film it’s a decent movie with thrilling moments and characters that you sympathize with. The problem with this movie is that you know what’s going to happen when you first start watching it, or at least you can guess several intense outcomes that are all highly possible; so at a running time of only 79 minutes, “Open Water” still feels super long. 

The Descent (2005)

“Hostel” is an example of the kind of trouble guys can get into while “The Descent” is an example of what could happen to a group of women who enjoy extreme sports who accidently pick the wrong set of caves to explore. “The Descent” is the second film that writer/director Neil Marshall created after his amazing first feature film, “Dog Soldiers”. In this film, we see a group of women dealing with both natural obstacles such as getting lost in unmapped tunnels and becoming stuck in very small, tight passage ways as well as dealing with a more unnatural, evolved race of cave dwelling cannibals. The tension is thick and heavy in this movie and the violence and terror is relentless. This film is unique in that the main characters are all women, a rarity in the horror genre as well as most movies in general. Mr. Marshall also attempted to try to create characters that weren’t just clichés and standard stereotypes. He intentionally cast actors with different accents so the viewers could tell the characters apart while they are in the dark and underground.

The main character, Sarah, is dealing with the tragic loss of her husband and daughter who both died in a horrible car accident after one of Sarah’s extreme sport outings. Like Jenna from “247°F”, this event has a direct impact on Sarah’s choices and actions in the film. But unlike Jenna, Sarah is believable and convincing; we care about Sarah and we are rooting for her to survive the ordeal. The ending is made stronger and stings more because we know the source of Sarah’s pain and we can relate with her.

Five friends gather once every year for an extreme sporting event; Sarah goes even though she is still emotionally recovering from losing her husband and daughter in a terrible car accident the previous year. This year the group heads down into some caves in the Appalachian Mountains. Almost as soon as they begin they become trapped after a cave-in, forcing them to try to find a way out. The person who planned this adventure admits that she doesn’t know the cave system at all, saying that she thought it would be great if they explored an uncharted area. While they go deeper into the tunnels, they begin to realize that they are not alone; a cannibalistic clan that were trapped as well begin attacking and feeding upon the friends. It’s a living nightmare that seems to have no escape…

Favorite moment - The scene where everyone is trying to squeeze through the small passage way and when Sarah becomes stuck, escaping right before the passage collapses is super intense. 

Hostel (2005)

Each horror movie that’s about a vacation has an obvious rule that should have been followed; if the rule was not ignored, everyone would still be alive. Don’t use the sauna, don’t drink the water, and don’t go to the ruins off the beaten path. In “Hostel”, the rule might be as simply as to not travel with a group of horny guys, make sure that there is a girl there that will keep you from being seduced and separated by sexy foreign girls. “Hostel” is another genre defying film written and directed by Eli Roth. Again, he brings the viewer a different kind of horror movie with odd moments of black comedy sprinkled here and there. And like “Cabin Fever”, there is a moment where the main character tells a story that has nothing to do with the main plotline but adds a certain flair to the film.

Two Americans, Paxton and Josh, and their Icelandic friend Oli are backpacking around Europe. When they get bored of hanging around Amsterdam, they are told about an undocumented hostel near Bratislava and how the town there is filled with beautiful women and barely any men (because they are all off at war). The three friends go and are quickly seduced by their roommates Natalya and Svetlana. It turns out that Natalya and Svetlana, as well as the guy who told them about the hostel back in Amsterdam, all work for a company called Elite Hunting, a group that kidnaps tourists and sells them to be totured and murdered by rich businessmen from around the world. It doesn’t take long before Oli, and then Josh, to be taken away in the dead of night and transported to the old factory where Elite Hunting provides its services. Paxton finds Natalya and Svetlana and demands that they take him to his friends, which they do. Soon Paxton learns the truth and tries to survive the rest of his vacation…

Favorite moment - I really like that Jay Hernandez (Quarantine) plays the lead, Paxton. The casting was just a smart choice.

The Ruins (2008)

Camping can be fun but others prefer to hit the beach, all across the Americas. Mexico has some beautiful beaches and some ancient, gorgeous ruins. Why not try to fit a bit of culture and history in between stretches of lounging on the beach? Be sure to stay to the standard tourist traps though! “The Ruins” is a great film that builds suspense and desperation throughout the film as a group of college age friends find themselves trapped on an ancient Mayan temple in the middle of the jungle. If they stay, they will be consumed by the vines that grow wildly all over the stone or if they try to leave the temple they will be shot by locals who know the truth about the vines. What gives this movie its strength is its cast and the choices they face and follow through with. This movie, just like moments in “Cabin Fever” leave you wondering what would you do in that situation.

Couples Jeff and Amy, Eric and Stacy, are vacationing in Mexico when they meet a German tourist named Mathias. He offers them the chance to come with him on a day trip to a secret Mayan temple that his brother is working at. They decide to go, along with Mathias’s friend Dimitri. When they finally get to the ruins, the group is surrounded by a mob of locals who are holding guns and bows. When Amy steps on one of the many vines at the site, the mob becomes angered and raise their weapons. They shoot Dimitri in the head when he moves towards them. The group begins to climb the temple and avoid the risk of getting shot at. Once on top, they hear the ring tone of the phone that Mathias brother had. They find it inside the temple, but as they are trying to retrieve it, Mathias breaks his leg in a fall and Stacy is also injured when she tries to rescue him. They eventually get everyone out but the damage is done; Mathias has a broken leg and Stacy, Amy, and Karen have touched more vines than they ever should have. They also become aware that the vines can move and mimic sounds, like the phone’s ring tone. The situation becomes dire when the vines start attacking and the group loses all hope of escape.

Favorite moment - I love who quickly the climax escalates into pure chaos after the breaking point is found; it's a "now or never" kind of moment.

Cabin Fever (2002)

Summer is the perfect time to go camping and sadly so many young adults are killed by various silent maniacs wielding machetes and other sharp objects. So imagine what a breath of fresh air the film “Cabin Fever” presented to the horror movie loving masses. You still have a group of young college age friends, you still have nudity for the target audience, and you have people dying. But “Cabin Fever” doesn’t have a person killing people but rather a contaminated water supply. The movie also has some of the best unexpected moments of black comedy thrown in to keep the viewer engaged. This film was Eli Roth’s big picture debut as a writer and director and he impressed the hell out of me.

Five college friends (Paul, Karen, Bert, Mercy, and Jeff) go out to the woods for a camping getaway to celebrate the end of the school. They meet some interest locals at the gas station/market, making a great first impression. Once they are at the cabin the group breaks up to do their own thing; Paul and Karen go swimming, Macy and Jeff have sex, and Bert goes off alone to shot squirrels…and eventually a homeless guy. Later that night the homeless guy shows up at their front door, bloody from the gunshot wound as well as something else. He’s sick and wounded and when they refuse to help him and he realizes that Bert is in the cabin, the homeless guy goes to their truck and begins to get blood all over the inside. They manage to chase him away in the morning they split up to find help. But unaware to them, they have been drinking the same water that affected the homeless guy. Soon they begin to show signs of the infection and things only go downhill from there.

Favorite moment – Watching how the group treats Karen and the process of her decay. It’s hard to imagine how a group in real life would approach this situation and the way the movie handled it is a very likely possibility. 

247°F (2011)

“247°F” is an interesting movie about four friends who go out to an island for a pagan themed holiday. One of them has an uncle who lives on the island and he’s been building new additions to his house. The newest addition is a three friends who become trapped in a sauna while their drunk friend and their uncle watch fireworks and get high. The sauna continues to build heat after the trapped friends break a window for fresh air, making the room to become dangerously hot. They try everything they can to stay cool and find a way out but they are completely trapped. The end result, when the uncle finally finds them, is sad and somber. It’s a decent film in that it builds suspense and shares the big “reveal” at the end, a reveal that is believable and not a shocking twist.

The only thing that I didn’t like about this film was the main character, Jenna. We see that Jenna had a finacee that was killed in a car accident three years earlier and that she’s still pretty torn up about it. She’s taking anxiety pills to deal with her issues but decides to skip them when she is paired up with Ian. Because of her skipped her pills, she becomes the cause for the real problems that occur when she, Ian, and Renee get trapped after Renee’s drunk boyfriend Michael leaves to go get high. I just feel that Jenna’s story is weak and poorly played out. It could have been great but misses the mark.

Favorite moment - Seeing Tyler Mane in a lovable and sympathetic role as Ian's uncle.