Top 9 Frozen Features in Horror
Baby, it’s cold outside. And, as it turns out, some fantastic horror has taken place buried under a blanket of snow. With the upcoming release of Dead Snow 2: Red vs. Dead (review), Dread Central decided to look back at our favorite frozen horror features.
We recently spoke with horror veteran Derek Mears, who plays Stavarin in Dead Snow 2: Red vs. Dead, and he summed up the film in a way that’s sure to get viewers excited. Mears said, “If Dead Snow 1 were Evil Dead 2, then Dead Snow 2 is Army of Darkness times 10 on steroids.” With a recommendation like that, how can you not be looking forward to diving into another round of frozen zombie mania?
We have a few honorable mentions to throw at you before we get to the Top 9. Larry Fessenden’s atmospheric chiller The Last Winter with Ron Perlman jumps immediately to mind when we think Arctic horror. Also, the 2013 indie thriller Whitewash, starring Thomas Haden Church, was a pleasant surprise set in the wintery woods of rural Quebec. And nothing says post-apocalypse like a new ice age and cannibalism, which is exactly what’s going on in The Colony, featuring Laurence Fishburne, Kevin Zegers and Bill Paxton.
Now put on your parkas and snuggle in. Here are the Top 9 Frozen Features in Horror.
Frozen (2010)
Filmmaker Adam Green had us rubbing our hands together for warmth in his 2010 movie Frozen. In a recent interview with Dread Central, Green mentioned that he didn’t at all mind the fact that Disney came out with their own Frozen that usurped the title. “I think it’s great,” Green said. “It’s only going to help us. So many people have ended up finding my Frozen because of it. And I think the way that some parents sit their kids down in front of the TV and order VOD, hopefully there are a lot of kids scarred for life because their parents weren’t paying attention. I take great pride in that. I think that’ll be very funny.” In addition to potentially scarring the youth of America, Green’s Frozen succeeded in creating a claustrophobic environment in the most open space you could possibly find, the side of a mountain. It’s a simple concept that Green makes completely compelling. And a Kane Hodder appearance and a Joe Lynch mention make it all the better.
Snowpiercer (2014)
It’s not very often that we get to include a brand new movie on one of our “Top…” lists, but Snowpiercer just screams to be included here. Set in a post-apocalyptic new ice age brought on the world by man’s own errors, Snowpiercer is a horrific sci-fi thriller that condenses an entire society slotted into a caste system and crams them into a train. This train happens to be a self-sustaining vehicle that has traveled continuously around the Earth for 17 years and holds the only life left on the planet, which was plunged into an ice age when mankind tried to reverse the trends of global warming. Director Joon-ho Bong created an environment that held one deadly foe after another for the lowest class citizens living in squalor in the back of the train, who finally decide to rise up and spread out the wealth. The cold in this film is so intense it’s used as a form of punishment. An arm held outside the Snowpiercer for a few minutes doesn’t last long.
30 Days of Night (2007)
One of the most creative ideas to ever find its way into a comic book and eventually onto the big screen, 30 Days of Night is brilliant. It’s a fantastic new look at the vampire legend which has the fanged beasties descend on Barrow, Alaska, just as the town is preparing to get its last looks at the sun for 30 days, which means 30 days without having to worry about that pesky sun burning them to a crisp. Thirty days to feast on as many humans as they could get their hands on because, quite frankly, Barrow did not seem to be that concerned with staying connected to the outside world. So after 30 days of uninterrupted binge eating, the vamps only had to make it look like a fire ravaged the small town and they could take their full bellies and fly off to the next location, keeping their existence a secret. “The finest trick of the devil is to persuade you that he does not exist.” -Charles Baudelaire
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