This is the sort of enterprise that is distinctively terrible enough to provide some laughs and be sporadically memorable, yet also just inept enough to be kinda dullish most of the time nonetheless. I enjoyed the highly variable performances, the women's big hair, the disembodied quality of dialogue entirely dubbed in post, the female villainess' cartoon Teutonic accent (strongly reminiscent of Madeline Kahn in "Blazing Saddles"), the blonde who acts like a Stepford wife, the dancers showing off and looking very foolish in the party sequence, the frequent editorial/narrative non sequiturs. But goofy as all this is, the film also just kinda lays there much of the time. It also frequently looks like hell, such that you wonder if it was shot not in 16 but 8mm--I mean, parts are THAT grainy. There are some delightfully terrible moments, yet I can't imagine sitting through this again.
30 Reviews
Slow, but somewhat amusing
latherzap4 February 2003
A pretty lame horror flick about a scientist's attempts to make people immortal. Unfortunately, his immortality process destroys the victim's soul and personality. This is a bad movie, featuring several funny parts. I particularly liked the scene of two women in the hospital talking, when out of nowhere the policeman narrator's voice is dubbed over the conversation. It's just sloppily put together.
Beyond that, the only point of interest is that H. Kingsley Thurber did the music. He also provided the exact same music for Don't Go In the Woods. I'd say over half of Frozen Scream's music appeared in Woods, also. For fans of DGITW this is certainly of historical importance, but ultimately Frozen Scream is not worth your time.
*dec. 2004. I watched it again. I now value Frozen Scream. Some stretches of boredom, but more amusement than I had originally thought. Don't go too far out of your way to see it, but bad movie fans should find something of interest here.
Beyond that, the only point of interest is that H. Kingsley Thurber did the music. He also provided the exact same music for Don't Go In the Woods. I'd say over half of Frozen Scream's music appeared in Woods, also. For fans of DGITW this is certainly of historical importance, but ultimately Frozen Scream is not worth your time.
*dec. 2004. I watched it again. I now value Frozen Scream. Some stretches of boredom, but more amusement than I had originally thought. Don't go too far out of your way to see it, but bad movie fans should find something of interest here.
Terrible
adriangr14 May 2009
This wretched excuse for a horror movie stinks from opening to final frame. I can be generous on low budget films if they have some kind of atmosphere or at least make me laugh, but no such luck with this one. Right from the opening you know you're in for a rough ride...murky photography, awful acting, indecipherable dialogue...only a serious masochist could pay attention to this for the full 80 minutes.
For the record, the plot seems to involve experiments on living people by two doctors searching for immortality. The wife of one of their victims/volunteers starts asking too many questions and there are various chases by the doctors band of zombie-like subjects, plus some lame murders and lots of dull talking. The acting is truly dire. The main doctor, a female actress with an accent like Zsa Zsa Gabor, absolutely crucifies every line of dialogue she speaks with the most stilted and lifeless delivery you could ever dream up. But things get even worse...In what I presume is normal procedure for film-making, the camera start rolling just before the actors take their cues to start acting, which I understand, but in this movie none of that was trimmed out, meaning many scenes start with people standing lifeless before suddenly launching into action. At least once there was a close up of the heroine's bored face before she suddenly broke into an animated scream of terror. Several times things approach Doris Wishman levels of badness, especially in a scene when the heroine tries to hold a door closed with her weight to keep a baddie from barging it in, yet the outside shot shows him trying the door which obviously opens outwards! But the biggest dose of madness hit me about 10 minutes into the film, when suddenly a (very boring, it must be said) conversation between two people was suddenly over-dubbed by a male voice narrating some blurb explaining the plot!! At first I thought the sound had gone wrong! Seemingly this was added to make the film make more sense and fill in motivation or extra detail about the main male character, namely a detective who is trying to work out what is happening. This hopelessly mis-judged narration crops up over and over again, usually starting right in the middle of an on-screen conversation between other characters. Both dialogue tracks can be heard at the same time, so you don't know what to listen to! God knows who thought this was a good idea.
I don't know if it's possible to defend this film in any way. Usually such audacious cruddiness would have me laughing and cheering them on, but Frozen Scream just bored me into doing the ironing while waiting for the thing to reach it's end. And to think this was once considered a "video nasty" in the UK!! Unbelievably bad – even worse than "Unhinged", which at least had decent lighting, and an editor who actually understood what "editing" means. So bad it should never have been released. View at your peril.
For the record, the plot seems to involve experiments on living people by two doctors searching for immortality. The wife of one of their victims/volunteers starts asking too many questions and there are various chases by the doctors band of zombie-like subjects, plus some lame murders and lots of dull talking. The acting is truly dire. The main doctor, a female actress with an accent like Zsa Zsa Gabor, absolutely crucifies every line of dialogue she speaks with the most stilted and lifeless delivery you could ever dream up. But things get even worse...In what I presume is normal procedure for film-making, the camera start rolling just before the actors take their cues to start acting, which I understand, but in this movie none of that was trimmed out, meaning many scenes start with people standing lifeless before suddenly launching into action. At least once there was a close up of the heroine's bored face before she suddenly broke into an animated scream of terror. Several times things approach Doris Wishman levels of badness, especially in a scene when the heroine tries to hold a door closed with her weight to keep a baddie from barging it in, yet the outside shot shows him trying the door which obviously opens outwards! But the biggest dose of madness hit me about 10 minutes into the film, when suddenly a (very boring, it must be said) conversation between two people was suddenly over-dubbed by a male voice narrating some blurb explaining the plot!! At first I thought the sound had gone wrong! Seemingly this was added to make the film make more sense and fill in motivation or extra detail about the main male character, namely a detective who is trying to work out what is happening. This hopelessly mis-judged narration crops up over and over again, usually starting right in the middle of an on-screen conversation between other characters. Both dialogue tracks can be heard at the same time, so you don't know what to listen to! God knows who thought this was a good idea.
I don't know if it's possible to defend this film in any way. Usually such audacious cruddiness would have me laughing and cheering them on, but Frozen Scream just bored me into doing the ironing while waiting for the thing to reach it's end. And to think this was once considered a "video nasty" in the UK!! Unbelievably bad – even worse than "Unhinged", which at least had decent lighting, and an editor who actually understood what "editing" means. So bad it should never have been released. View at your peril.
Your jaw will drop
jonathan-57719 May 2008
All I knew when I bought this was that there was a screaming woman in bikini and 80s hair on the cover - good enough for me! Little did I know that I was in for one of the most enriching bad-movie experiences of my life. Very few crap masterpieces achieve this pitch of manic hilarity: disastrously chaotic, sludgy, tawdry and completely unpredictable. Two different living rooms in two different provinces have been filled with friends gasping for air as they watched. It picks up steam as it goes along too, adding element upon useless, mind-boggling element. Of course the best one is that fricking detective, his jocular voice-over dropping on top of ongoing pointless dialogue scenes like an anvil; you never know when he's going to start spouting off and that adds suspense. The conniving head nurse with the charisma deficit has an accent so impenetrable you wonder why she wasn't dubbed, especially when the tall, Nordic-looking old mad scientist shows up, because he WAS dubbed - his voice is unmistakably that of a very articulate African-American man! Throw in those wasteoids chanting "Love and immortality" on the beach, gore effects courtesy of Heinz, and the un-oiled flywheel of a soundtrack, all coming at you non-stop one after the other. Jaw-droppingly bad.
pretty astounding bad movie fans must see
HEFILM1 July 2006
It's hard to believe this was made in 1975 or on the planet earth. It seems much older than that and alien on most levels. Whenever a scene seems pointless, rather than cut it down they instead have a detective character speak over the already speaking actors. It's something of a struggle to know who to listen to and the detective sounds like the famous voice over from THE CREEPING TERROR--a famously bad film that this film gives a run for it's money. There is other redubbing going on from time to time in a way that it seems several different actors redudded lines even within one scene playing for the same character.
Brief brief nudity and powerful low budget bad idea badness give this film more bad movie energy than either THE CREEPING TERROR or PLAN NINE FROM OUTER SPACE. It does come a good ten years too late to be considered as much of a must see as those films since by the mid 70's bad films existed in such numbers it became more fashionable to love them than hate them.
But this deserves attention, directing, music, acting, etc etc all areas defy common logic and supersede lack of talent in a way that is, well, talented.
Rarely has a bad film been so much fun to me of late. There's an odd sort of dream scene--always another plus--and one vaguely thought inducing monologue about how science always tamper with nature even in curing disease.
To add to the greatness is of course the generally terrible nature of the copies to watch, giving it that late night broken telecine projector feel that will make bad movie fans swell with nostalgia or excitement. Oh yeah there's also a drunken priest character in one scene, the fun rarely stops in this one.
Brief brief nudity and powerful low budget bad idea badness give this film more bad movie energy than either THE CREEPING TERROR or PLAN NINE FROM OUTER SPACE. It does come a good ten years too late to be considered as much of a must see as those films since by the mid 70's bad films existed in such numbers it became more fashionable to love them than hate them.
But this deserves attention, directing, music, acting, etc etc all areas defy common logic and supersede lack of talent in a way that is, well, talented.
Rarely has a bad film been so much fun to me of late. There's an odd sort of dream scene--always another plus--and one vaguely thought inducing monologue about how science always tamper with nature even in curing disease.
To add to the greatness is of course the generally terrible nature of the copies to watch, giving it that late night broken telecine projector feel that will make bad movie fans swell with nostalgia or excitement. Oh yeah there's also a drunken priest character in one scene, the fun rarely stops in this one.
"Immortality? Why would anyone want to live forever in a world like this?"
capkronos11 April 2003
After opening narration with keen insight into the mysteries of life like I've listed up above, mad Dr. Sven Johnson (Lee James) and his evil assistant Lil Stanhope (Renee Harmon) are shown trying to reverse the aging process by experimenting on tied-up captives. They send out ridiculous-looking, hooded, laughing, bug-eyed henchmen with scythes to gather victims. Jumbled nightmare/flashbacks featuring wrist slashing, blood-drinking, a topless blonde and zombified teens chanting "love and immortality!" around a campfire will make you think you're losing your mind. Meanwhile, a band at a pool party sings "Jack Around the Shack" (?!) to the tune of Rock Around the Clock!
Nothing in this very bad (but rare) movie makes a lick of sense, the droning narration goes on and on (if fact it often goes right over some of the dialogue!) and the entire monotone cast acts brain dead. Harmon, who co-wrote the original story and produced, proves she is just as awful behind the scenes as she is on screen. Continental Video released FROZEN SCREAM on a double tape with the equally awful EXECUTIONER, PART II (which was also written by and starring Miss Harmon).
I dare you to suffer through TWO of her films in the one night!
Nothing in this very bad (but rare) movie makes a lick of sense, the droning narration goes on and on (if fact it often goes right over some of the dialogue!) and the entire monotone cast acts brain dead. Harmon, who co-wrote the original story and produced, proves she is just as awful behind the scenes as she is on screen. Continental Video released FROZEN SCREAM on a double tape with the equally awful EXECUTIONER, PART II (which was also written by and starring Miss Harmon).
I dare you to suffer through TWO of her films in the one night!
Warning: Watching this film may, and probably WILL, infuriate you!
Coventry22 January 2008
The text on the Belgium VHS-cover describes this film as being "remotely scary". What kind of stupid way to promote your film is that? You won't convince too many people into watching it if you're overly modest. Besides, if the writers of that piece of text really wanted to be sincere and honest, they should have put "irredeemably awful" on the cover instead of "remotely scary". Frozen Scream is one of the most retarded movies I've ever seen and it's definitely the most useless film listed in the notorious "Video Nasty" ranking. I made my millionth rookie-mistake wanting to see a film because of its reputation (one would think I had learned by now, but no
) but it deserves to be on that list as much as "Basic Instinct 2" deserves the Academy Award for best motion picture. It's easy to see how it ended up in the list, however, because there are a couple of nasty images of ax-murders (and the ax remaining stuck in the victims skull), but for each second of grossness, there are at least twenty minutes of sheer boredom, imbecilic plotting and especially horribly amateurish acting performances. The acting is so excruciatingly painful that, after a short while, you can't even pay attention to the few moderately interesting elements anymore and all you want to do is kill everyone around you and subsequently commit suicide. Sounds slightly exaggerated, you say? Just watch "Frozen Scream" and see for yourself. Particularly the female scientist is mind-bogglingly terrible and she deserves to have her tongue ripped out, just so that she can never produce another word again. The plot is boring and thoroughly uninteresting, but if you insist: a couple of diluted doctors want to become immortal and therefore begin to experiment on their patients and students. They kill people and bring them back to life as obedient slaves. "Frozen Scream" is unwatchable and if it wasn't for its listing in the DPP "Nasties", all copies righteously would have been vanished off the face by now. Ironic how this list, which initially wanted to prevent people from watching, is now responsible for certain idiots (like myself) wanting to see it.
The worst that the video nasty list has to offer?
BA_Harrison13 January 2011
I've still got nine or ten 'video nasties' to go before I have reviewed them all, but I'll go out on a limb here and say that, out of all 74 films on the list (including non-nasties Xtro and Shogun Assassin) Frozen Scream has got to be the worst. More boring than Unhinged, technically shoddier than Blood Rites, and less coherent than Revenge of the Bogeyman, this one stinks in ways that even Jess Franco hasn't managed.
Directed with zero finesse by Frank Roach and sloppily edited by the equally inept Matthew Muller, this fetid, chaotic mess plumbs new depths of awfulness to tell its dreadful tale of mad scientists searching for the secret to eternal youth. With wild-eyed mustachioed zombies in monks' robes, a crazed doctor and his unintelligible foreign assistant, a Halloween party with some incredibly bad dancing, a blonde with nice jubblies, and a monotonous voice-over that continually drowns out the characters' dialogue, one might at least expect a few unintentional laughs along the way, but the whole affair is so painfully clumsy in every department that I never cracked a smile.
Precisely what qualified this as a 'nasty' in the eyes of the BBFC is hard to say: if it was the patently fake axe in the head scene that had the censors bringing up their lunch, I'm surprised that ANY horror film actually saw the light of day in the UK.
If you should sit down to watch this diabolical dung-heap of a film, even though common sense tells you otherwise, why not play the BA_Harrison Frozen Scream Drinking Game© to make matters much less painful: just have a shot every time someone says 'immortal' and you'll be bladdered in no time.
Directed with zero finesse by Frank Roach and sloppily edited by the equally inept Matthew Muller, this fetid, chaotic mess plumbs new depths of awfulness to tell its dreadful tale of mad scientists searching for the secret to eternal youth. With wild-eyed mustachioed zombies in monks' robes, a crazed doctor and his unintelligible foreign assistant, a Halloween party with some incredibly bad dancing, a blonde with nice jubblies, and a monotonous voice-over that continually drowns out the characters' dialogue, one might at least expect a few unintentional laughs along the way, but the whole affair is so painfully clumsy in every department that I never cracked a smile.
Precisely what qualified this as a 'nasty' in the eyes of the BBFC is hard to say: if it was the patently fake axe in the head scene that had the censors bringing up their lunch, I'm surprised that ANY horror film actually saw the light of day in the UK.
If you should sit down to watch this diabolical dung-heap of a film, even though common sense tells you otherwise, why not play the BA_Harrison Frozen Scream Drinking Game© to make matters much less painful: just have a shot every time someone says 'immortal' and you'll be bladdered in no time.
Unbelievably amateurish - don't waste your time!
The_Void10 August 2006
I have to say that my decision to see every film on the DPP Video Nasty list has largely been a good one, as I've discovered many films; films such Possession and House on Straw Hill, that I otherwise might not have seen. But when I see a film like this, it really does make me wonder why I ever bothered. If there ever was a film to make the works of Edward D. Wood Jnr look like masterpieces, this one certainly is it; as poor production values, combined with a hideously unlikely plot line and a rather suspect script ensure that Frozen Scream is one for the 'must not see' list. The film takes in the idea of cryogenic freezing, and attempts to make a zombie movie out of it. The main plot point focuses on the soul and how it is lost through freezing. This idea is never explained, and perhaps even worse than that is the fact that there is very little in the way of zombie action, and overall; it just made me wonder exactly why this film got banned. I'm guessing that the helpful censors were simply in need of more films to ban and, with this being a zombie film, it got on the list regardless. The film does feature someone being injected in the eye; but it's not done very viscerally, and we're not allowed to see much. Overall, you'll miss absolutely nothing by not seeing this film. We thank the lord for small mercies, and the fact that it doesn't last long is one indeed. Therefore, this film comes highly NOT recommended.
Bad Movie Fans Will Enjoy
Michael_Elliott18 May 2017
Frozen Scream (1975)
* (out of 4)
Insane horror film about a mad scientist who wants to make people immortal but instead his frozen experiments turn them into lifeless zombies. Soon the zombies are out killing people.
My brief plot description is actually a lot more plot than is actually in the film. I'm really not lying because FROZEN SCREAM makes very little sense thanks in large part to some pretty awful dubbed dialogue and even the voice-over narration makes no sense. You know you're in trouble when the narration, which is meant to explain things, just makes you all the more confused. There's no doubt that FROZEN SCREAM is an awful movie but thankfully it's bad enough to where bad movie lovers will get a few bits of entertainment from it.
Everything in this movie is pretty bad from the direction to the cinematography and pretty much everything else. It was obvious that the filmmakers were working with very little money and I'd also add that they didn't appear to have too much knowledge on how to make a movie. As I said, the film makes no sense story-wise and it's hard to tell what any of the characters are doing or what their motivations are.
The film also benefits from the weak performances, although it's hard to fully judge them due to the really bad dubbing. The film has a couple memorable kill scenes. Not because they're great or well-staged but because of how poor they are. Again, if you hate bad movies then it's best that you stay away from this one. If you're enjoy these type of low-budget drive-in films then you'll probably get a few laughs from this one.
* (out of 4)
Insane horror film about a mad scientist who wants to make people immortal but instead his frozen experiments turn them into lifeless zombies. Soon the zombies are out killing people.
My brief plot description is actually a lot more plot than is actually in the film. I'm really not lying because FROZEN SCREAM makes very little sense thanks in large part to some pretty awful dubbed dialogue and even the voice-over narration makes no sense. You know you're in trouble when the narration, which is meant to explain things, just makes you all the more confused. There's no doubt that FROZEN SCREAM is an awful movie but thankfully it's bad enough to where bad movie lovers will get a few bits of entertainment from it.
Everything in this movie is pretty bad from the direction to the cinematography and pretty much everything else. It was obvious that the filmmakers were working with very little money and I'd also add that they didn't appear to have too much knowledge on how to make a movie. As I said, the film makes no sense story-wise and it's hard to tell what any of the characters are doing or what their motivations are.
The film also benefits from the weak performances, although it's hard to fully judge them due to the really bad dubbing. The film has a couple memorable kill scenes. Not because they're great or well-staged but because of how poor they are. Again, if you hate bad movies then it's best that you stay away from this one. If you're enjoy these type of low-budget drive-in films then you'll probably get a few laughs from this one.
A Classic In The Book of Bad
rondo-aura31 December 2006
'Our ... minds play ... strange tricks ... on ... us.' By the time you get to this line (or rather, if you make it as far as this) congratulate yourself for sitting through perhaps one of the most insanely bad horror films ever made. This film is so bad, it makes stuff like 'Blood Shack' look like a masterpiece of tension and suspense. What actually steals the show in 'Frozen Scream' is the soundtrack. For sure, this is one soundtrack you will never forget. In fact, the farting synth sounds are quite practical as they rouse you when you're starting to fade away. And believe me you will fade away during this one... For the casual viewer this is one to avoid, but I guess there must be about ten of you out there who will take that as a recommendation. (In that case enjoy, because really guys this IS that bad ;) Lovely, in an insane sort of way.
Seen it? Horrors!!! I worked on it!
atwittsend-121 February 2006
While the previous comments are rather accurate I must say if Reality TV was happening back in the 1970's this film would have made "Project Green Light" look like a pleasant episode of the Love Boat (thus, the 9 out of 10 rating). The Producer, Star (one and the same) and the Director were both community college Acting Instructors. So, you can just guess where most of the cast and crew came from - now can't you. My life was in a tail spin at the time. A few days prior my girlfriend decided we needed to "lessen" our relationship. Then, immediately afterwords we spent nearly every minute of the next 17 days together on this living nightmare. If you have seen "Living in Oblivion" think Wolfe here.
Well, let's start with food. The Producer's 75 year old mother catered the food..., for about 4 days and then she got sick. After that meals consisted of frying hot dogs (and only hot dogs - period) on the prop guys stove in a deep pot. Not appetizing enough? Then imagine the horror of "troughing" Styrofoam cups through a casserole and using clothes pins like chop stick at "chow" time. One night we bribed the PA's to go to McDonald's and caught flack for it. The crews joke phrase became, "Here's two dollars. Go buy food for everyone. Bring back change and receipt."
Location, location, location. If we only knew where they were. Half the time when we got there the location was "Somewhere else." One night we got so tired of "traveling" we put the camera gear in the prop truck and went home. The director really "pulled" at us to come back that night. This non-permitted shoot had another phrase, this time from the producer, "Always say this is a Student Film." Actually that is more truth than lie.
Who's running this show anyway? One day not long into the shoot the producer and director got into an argument and he left (something I later caught onto as mentioned above... and below). The DP refused to shoot without him and we got one of the few breaks in the production.
What's that sound? I was a Grip/Best Boy on this shoot and had been "honored" with the job of tying power in (not that I was a certified electrician or anything). One night we shot in an old house and long after I pulled the cables there was a persistent sizzle from the power box. Come to think of it..., it would have made a better sound effect than the ones they used!
This film will never scare anyone to death, but the ride home one night nearly did. I was nearly asleep in the passenger seat when it felt like my chest was caving in on me (heavy braking). At 3:00AM in the morning some idiot is going 90 MPH on the wrong side of the freeway. Sad thing was I was half hoping to be put out of my misery at this point.
The best was saved for the second to last night. We were supposed to shoot at the beach, but that became Stoney Point in Chatsworth. It was a LONG day. There were problems when the AD failed to provide the costumes. Eventually we shot LONG-ER into the night. Lacking an Andy Gump the toilet was a trot out into the field beyond the range of lights. I guess we could have "roughed it" and used tough spun, but basically we all did without toilet paper. The nearly X-girlfriend was the first camera assistant and had the job of loading magazines. The DP kept wanting the tape to measure focus. Thus, I helped keep her hands in the changeover bag by trotting the tape to them. About the third time he didn't ask with any degree of politeness. Having had enough I made sure he had it quickly with an Airmail delivery. I then yanked appendages from the changeover bag, tossed a few light stands and beat our second retreat from the set. The Director then lambasted the AD who had previously that evening dropped her cars front end into a ditch. Sadly no one to my knowledge ever got paid (deferred payment). Not this woman who took the full fury of the night or even the sound guy who needed surgery and was counting on the money. Just to show there were no hard feelings in the end a number of us worked to some degree on the directors next project "Nomad Riders."
Epilogue:
Where are they now? Yours truly is of all things a community college TV Production instructor. The director retired about 5 years ago from teaching acting and moved to Washington. One of the PA's works at the college with me nearly 30 years later. The X girlfriend (again, no hard feelings) is in Prescott, AZ., raising her daughter, going to school and pursuing a new career (good move there).
So, hey. Let's make this into a cult classic like the ending of "And God spoke." Gather your friends. Get that "Jonestown" like pot and fry up some "dogs." Trough those Styrofoam cups through that casserole. Go full out and spool up some tough spun for potty time. Finally, remember for a small honorarium you can show this film (I only found it with another film on the same cassette) to your film class and I can then fill in all the details not stated in this "trailer," (like which of the hood wearing zombies is ME!!!) Light the projectors! Tom
Well, let's start with food. The Producer's 75 year old mother catered the food..., for about 4 days and then she got sick. After that meals consisted of frying hot dogs (and only hot dogs - period) on the prop guys stove in a deep pot. Not appetizing enough? Then imagine the horror of "troughing" Styrofoam cups through a casserole and using clothes pins like chop stick at "chow" time. One night we bribed the PA's to go to McDonald's and caught flack for it. The crews joke phrase became, "Here's two dollars. Go buy food for everyone. Bring back change and receipt."
Location, location, location. If we only knew where they were. Half the time when we got there the location was "Somewhere else." One night we got so tired of "traveling" we put the camera gear in the prop truck and went home. The director really "pulled" at us to come back that night. This non-permitted shoot had another phrase, this time from the producer, "Always say this is a Student Film." Actually that is more truth than lie.
Who's running this show anyway? One day not long into the shoot the producer and director got into an argument and he left (something I later caught onto as mentioned above... and below). The DP refused to shoot without him and we got one of the few breaks in the production.
What's that sound? I was a Grip/Best Boy on this shoot and had been "honored" with the job of tying power in (not that I was a certified electrician or anything). One night we shot in an old house and long after I pulled the cables there was a persistent sizzle from the power box. Come to think of it..., it would have made a better sound effect than the ones they used!
This film will never scare anyone to death, but the ride home one night nearly did. I was nearly asleep in the passenger seat when it felt like my chest was caving in on me (heavy braking). At 3:00AM in the morning some idiot is going 90 MPH on the wrong side of the freeway. Sad thing was I was half hoping to be put out of my misery at this point.
The best was saved for the second to last night. We were supposed to shoot at the beach, but that became Stoney Point in Chatsworth. It was a LONG day. There were problems when the AD failed to provide the costumes. Eventually we shot LONG-ER into the night. Lacking an Andy Gump the toilet was a trot out into the field beyond the range of lights. I guess we could have "roughed it" and used tough spun, but basically we all did without toilet paper. The nearly X-girlfriend was the first camera assistant and had the job of loading magazines. The DP kept wanting the tape to measure focus. Thus, I helped keep her hands in the changeover bag by trotting the tape to them. About the third time he didn't ask with any degree of politeness. Having had enough I made sure he had it quickly with an Airmail delivery. I then yanked appendages from the changeover bag, tossed a few light stands and beat our second retreat from the set. The Director then lambasted the AD who had previously that evening dropped her cars front end into a ditch. Sadly no one to my knowledge ever got paid (deferred payment). Not this woman who took the full fury of the night or even the sound guy who needed surgery and was counting on the money. Just to show there were no hard feelings in the end a number of us worked to some degree on the directors next project "Nomad Riders."
Epilogue:
Where are they now? Yours truly is of all things a community college TV Production instructor. The director retired about 5 years ago from teaching acting and moved to Washington. One of the PA's works at the college with me nearly 30 years later. The X girlfriend (again, no hard feelings) is in Prescott, AZ., raising her daughter, going to school and pursuing a new career (good move there).
So, hey. Let's make this into a cult classic like the ending of "And God spoke." Gather your friends. Get that "Jonestown" like pot and fry up some "dogs." Trough those Styrofoam cups through that casserole. Go full out and spool up some tough spun for potty time. Finally, remember for a small honorarium you can show this film (I only found it with another film on the same cassette) to your film class and I can then fill in all the details not stated in this "trailer," (like which of the hood wearing zombies is ME!!!) Light the projectors! Tom
Truly bizarre and disconnected from reality.
HumanoidOfFlesh31 July 2010
The plot of "Frozen Scream" seems to involve some gruesome cryogenic experiments on living people performed by two doctors searching for immortality.The wife of one of their victims/volunteers starts asking too many questions and there are various chases by the doctors band of zombie-like victims,some gore plus lots of dull talking."Frozen Scream" is utterly disconnected from reality.The plot is utterly strange,the music by H.Kingsley Thurber was later used in schlocky slasher flick "Don't Go in the Woods" and the central performance of Renee Harmon is spectacularly lifeless.The director of this weird horror movie plays drunken man in the alley.Felix Girard recycled some footage in his obscure and extremely boring horror film "Night of Terror" from 1986.Overall,"Frozen Scream" is unbelievably bad,but strangely watchable and hypnotic horror film.6 out of 10.
This movie pretty much melted from the get-go.
UnratedX24 January 2000
I've seen a lot of gore/horror movies in my day, and it doesn't take much of something to make a film of this genre any good. In Frozen Scream, the audience gets nothing in return but maybe a good nap. I really don't know where to start as far as the quality of the movie goes, taking into account that it is old and low-budget. From what I can gather (due to horrible character development), the film is about scientists who create some mind-altering chip that brings the dead back to life, presumably as zombies, but I've never seen zombies stalk people outside their homes, call people up on the phone and haunt them, or wearing hoods while running around chasing people. Overall, the ending is far from good, the acting is atrocious, the gore scenes are unbelievably phony, the sound effects can easily be imitated in your own home kitchen, and the music becomes very annoying (due to non-stop repetition). I'm sorry, but the only thing that could have saved this movie from being horrible was a lawnmower scene or something (if you true gore fans know what I'm talking about!). UnratedX
kept me interested, but it's really terrible
horrorbargainbin8 October 2002
The movie sets off with a very complex scenario that requires extended narration to explain. This narration along with the dialogue is fairly well written, however, it's sure to make you roll your eyes as you've heard all the lines before in pre-seventies horror and sci-fi. The acting is some of the poorest I've seen and I watch a lot of b-horror. It's like the actors are not even trying.
I can compare this movie to well loved bad films like "Asylum of Satan" and "The Devil's Rain" which are full of cool elements and atmosphere, but are extremely run-of-the-mill when it comes to plot. "Frozen Scream" has got some cool flashbacks to weird cult-like activity involving nudity. There is some pretty good gore including self-mutilation. I love the genre of 70's trash and if you do too I highly recommend this movie. I don't think it's so easy to track down. It could have become a cult hit, but it must have slipped through the cracks. My copy of the video pairs "Frozen Scream" with "Executioner II" as a double feature. "Executioner II", from the same man who brought us this film, is one of those movies about a Nam vet who returns to America and then cleans up the streets by killing pimps and criminals.
I can compare this movie to well loved bad films like "Asylum of Satan" and "The Devil's Rain" which are full of cool elements and atmosphere, but are extremely run-of-the-mill when it comes to plot. "Frozen Scream" has got some cool flashbacks to weird cult-like activity involving nudity. There is some pretty good gore including self-mutilation. I love the genre of 70's trash and if you do too I highly recommend this movie. I don't think it's so easy to track down. It could have become a cult hit, but it must have slipped through the cracks. My copy of the video pairs "Frozen Scream" with "Executioner II" as a double feature. "Executioner II", from the same man who brought us this film, is one of those movies about a Nam vet who returns to America and then cleans up the streets by killing pimps and criminals.
Frozen Zombies With Bad Staches
lovecraft23125 September 2008
Mad Scientists (including late minor cult movie icon Renee Harmon) discover a new technology that turns people into remote controlled/frozen zombies (with terrible 70's porn mustaches) that kill.
"Frozen Scream" isn't just a bad movie-it's a frustrating one at that. The premise (though campy) is at least original, yet it fails. Why? Well for starters, the acting (save Harmon, who's icy, emotionless performance is sort of interesting, and whose thick Germanic accent is amusing) is dreadful. Harmon is clearly the only person in the movie with any acting experience, as everybody else obviously has little to no experience in the field. The only things that break the tedium are the loud (and weird) electronic score (half of the movies cues are from the notably awful backwoods slasher flick "Don't Go In The Woods"-which H. Kingsley Thurber also scored) and the (unconvincing) gore effects, both of which have a weird low budget charm.
The biggest problems though, are the inability to do anything with the interesting premise, and the general uneventful nature of the whole thing. The movie has a goofy but original premise, but it never realizes the potential that it has. Instead, people just babble on incessantly about immortality. It's a movie where you keep waiting for something-ANYTHING-to happen, and while a few things do happen (eyeball violence is always welcome), not enough does happen.
Still, it's at least better than Shot On Camcorder zombie movies, though that isn't saying much.
"Frozen Scream" isn't just a bad movie-it's a frustrating one at that. The premise (though campy) is at least original, yet it fails. Why? Well for starters, the acting (save Harmon, who's icy, emotionless performance is sort of interesting, and whose thick Germanic accent is amusing) is dreadful. Harmon is clearly the only person in the movie with any acting experience, as everybody else obviously has little to no experience in the field. The only things that break the tedium are the loud (and weird) electronic score (half of the movies cues are from the notably awful backwoods slasher flick "Don't Go In The Woods"-which H. Kingsley Thurber also scored) and the (unconvincing) gore effects, both of which have a weird low budget charm.
The biggest problems though, are the inability to do anything with the interesting premise, and the general uneventful nature of the whole thing. The movie has a goofy but original premise, but it never realizes the potential that it has. Instead, people just babble on incessantly about immortality. It's a movie where you keep waiting for something-ANYTHING-to happen, and while a few things do happen (eyeball violence is always welcome), not enough does happen.
Still, it's at least better than Shot On Camcorder zombie movies, though that isn't saying much.
Frozen Turd
aleksileskinen8 July 2023
There's a certain vibe one gets when exposed to movies of this caliber. It's like that time you went sniffing around sweet old auntie's cupboards and came across something not meant for your eyes. You feel a need to talk about it, but you can't since you've done a bad thing, might possibly cause some needless embarrasment for your dear auntie and what's worse, they'd label you as the broken pervert you are.
So what do you do? You pretend. Pretend you never saw it. You never even thought about it. See, phew, it's gone. What's Frozen Scream? Is Disney making ice cream now? Oh, boy...
But it doesn't work, now does it? Oh, no. Visions of awful music (also present in another audiovisual travesty called Don't Go Into The Woods), a completely botched dubbing track, pointless plot devices, dialogue scenes that feel like outtakes and quite random violence with no rhyme or reason fill your head. You have seen it. You have witnessed it. Now there is no turning back.
So how do you save yourself? Well, you try to see the funny aspect of this thing munching on your dying brain cells. Like the strange german accent of the main villainess, played by bargain bin movie veteran Renee Harmon. How to describe it? Well, she's no Ilsa, that much I can say.
First I thought the accent felt funny because it reminds me of Tommy Wiseau, but then it escalated into a theory that what if Mrs. Harmon was Tommy's mother in real life. It would explain SO MUCH, but then it freaked me out, so I had to change my theory. Just watch it thinking that's Jim Carrey in complete Man on the Moon -era Latka-mode and you're set.
Another thing that baffles me about this film is that it ended up on the Video Nasties-list, which probably is the main excuse as to why it was ever acknowledged at all. Now, after putting myself in the mindset of a conservative british auntie in the early 80s (might be the same auntie as in the first paragraph - or not) I can understand why so many violent films caused upheaval. By the standards of the time, something like Tenebre must've felt shockingly realistic. But this!?
My guess is that someone on the board of censors (or whatever they called their silly knitting crew) stumbled upon this waste of tape and just went "I can stop people from seeing this... I CAN STOP PEOPLE FROM SEEING THIS!" and that was that. They could've just let it be the ultra rare obscurity it is, but nooooo. Vinegar Syndrome did their thing and now literally anyone can see it. I seriously consider this a case where they just should not have bothered.
See how I struggle to actually say anything about it. Oh, you wanna hear about the scenes that probably caused the film's reputation as an obscene creation? Well, there is a barely topless woman, presented in a dream-like non-erotic manner, and the murder scenes are indeed graphic in nature. I might call them fairly realistic, if this was a homebrew film shot by a bunch of enthusiastic teenagers. What I think really caused its notoriety though is the henchmen. Those wild-eyed Harry Reems- and John Holmes-lookalikes seem like they must be packing some seriously hot stuff under those villainy robes. Like make-you-faint-by-a-sheer-glimpse -level hot stuff. Whatever it might be.
So by now you already know if you should or shouldn't see this, just as by now you know if you should or shouldn't have eaten all that Mac&Cheese that had been lying around in your fridge for a month. You wanna feel strange in a violated way? Frozen Scream is your gateway to that exact feeling.
So what do you do? You pretend. Pretend you never saw it. You never even thought about it. See, phew, it's gone. What's Frozen Scream? Is Disney making ice cream now? Oh, boy...
But it doesn't work, now does it? Oh, no. Visions of awful music (also present in another audiovisual travesty called Don't Go Into The Woods), a completely botched dubbing track, pointless plot devices, dialogue scenes that feel like outtakes and quite random violence with no rhyme or reason fill your head. You have seen it. You have witnessed it. Now there is no turning back.
So how do you save yourself? Well, you try to see the funny aspect of this thing munching on your dying brain cells. Like the strange german accent of the main villainess, played by bargain bin movie veteran Renee Harmon. How to describe it? Well, she's no Ilsa, that much I can say.
First I thought the accent felt funny because it reminds me of Tommy Wiseau, but then it escalated into a theory that what if Mrs. Harmon was Tommy's mother in real life. It would explain SO MUCH, but then it freaked me out, so I had to change my theory. Just watch it thinking that's Jim Carrey in complete Man on the Moon -era Latka-mode and you're set.
Another thing that baffles me about this film is that it ended up on the Video Nasties-list, which probably is the main excuse as to why it was ever acknowledged at all. Now, after putting myself in the mindset of a conservative british auntie in the early 80s (might be the same auntie as in the first paragraph - or not) I can understand why so many violent films caused upheaval. By the standards of the time, something like Tenebre must've felt shockingly realistic. But this!?
My guess is that someone on the board of censors (or whatever they called their silly knitting crew) stumbled upon this waste of tape and just went "I can stop people from seeing this... I CAN STOP PEOPLE FROM SEEING THIS!" and that was that. They could've just let it be the ultra rare obscurity it is, but nooooo. Vinegar Syndrome did their thing and now literally anyone can see it. I seriously consider this a case where they just should not have bothered.
See how I struggle to actually say anything about it. Oh, you wanna hear about the scenes that probably caused the film's reputation as an obscene creation? Well, there is a barely topless woman, presented in a dream-like non-erotic manner, and the murder scenes are indeed graphic in nature. I might call them fairly realistic, if this was a homebrew film shot by a bunch of enthusiastic teenagers. What I think really caused its notoriety though is the henchmen. Those wild-eyed Harry Reems- and John Holmes-lookalikes seem like they must be packing some seriously hot stuff under those villainy robes. Like make-you-faint-by-a-sheer-glimpse -level hot stuff. Whatever it might be.
So by now you already know if you should or shouldn't see this, just as by now you know if you should or shouldn't have eaten all that Mac&Cheese that had been lying around in your fridge for a month. You wanna feel strange in a violated way? Frozen Scream is your gateway to that exact feeling.
Laughable.
Hey_Sweden7 August 2017
"Frozen Scream" is one of those fairly obscure drive-in horror curiosities that people will simply have to see for themselves. The plot involves mad scientists who send out their hooded henchmen to collect victims for experiments. The result is a bunch of emotionless zombie killing machines. An eyewitness to a killing (Lynne Kocol) must work with her ex- fiancée, a detective (Thomas McGowan), to solve the crimes. Dr. Lil Stanhope (Renee Harmon), in whose care our heroine ends up, may know more than she lets on.
Genuinely bad acting & dubbing, a generous serving of lovably tacky gore, a snails' pace, a hilariously absurd "plot", and silly attempts at humor (the director plays the drunk in the alley) comprise a cruddy B movie that delivers in terms of an unintentional comedy factor. Most of the actors here are so bad that it boggles the mind, although Harmon, in her film debut, became a somewhat familiar face in exploitation features of the 1970s and 1980s. Her German accent (she was a WWII war bride) renders a lot of her dialogue unintelligible, although this may actually be a good thing. The worst offender is Ms. Kocol, one of the most insipid leading ladies you'll ever see. Sunny Bartholomew is pretty lousy herself, although she does at least provide "Frozen Scream" with a healthy amount of sex appeal.
The movie is just weird enough and sometimes just surreal enough to make it endurable, despite some portions that are just plain boring. If you're anything like me and enjoy discovering off the beaten track B pictures, this should be worth a glance. It does wrap up in a reasonable amount of time (79 minutes), but those end credits are some of the slowest that I've ever seen.
Five out of 10.
Genuinely bad acting & dubbing, a generous serving of lovably tacky gore, a snails' pace, a hilariously absurd "plot", and silly attempts at humor (the director plays the drunk in the alley) comprise a cruddy B movie that delivers in terms of an unintentional comedy factor. Most of the actors here are so bad that it boggles the mind, although Harmon, in her film debut, became a somewhat familiar face in exploitation features of the 1970s and 1980s. Her German accent (she was a WWII war bride) renders a lot of her dialogue unintelligible, although this may actually be a good thing. The worst offender is Ms. Kocol, one of the most insipid leading ladies you'll ever see. Sunny Bartholomew is pretty lousy herself, although she does at least provide "Frozen Scream" with a healthy amount of sex appeal.
The movie is just weird enough and sometimes just surreal enough to make it endurable, despite some portions that are just plain boring. If you're anything like me and enjoy discovering off the beaten track B pictures, this should be worth a glance. It does wrap up in a reasonable amount of time (79 minutes), but those end credits are some of the slowest that I've ever seen.
Five out of 10.
So...so...bad
kidlopo-126 November 2020
Frozen Scream review
JoeytheBrit15 May 2020
It's impossible to find anything positive to say about this unholy mess. The acting ranges from inadequate to laughably bad, particularly from the two female leads. American actress Lynne Kocol is just bad, but Harmon is bad in a foreign accent which somehow makes her performance even more difficult to endure. A voiceover by the detective, which is presumably intended to clarify plot points, merely serves to muddy the waters even further while drowning out the dialogue of the onscreen actors. The zombies are no scarier or more menacing than a poorly directed bunch of bad actors with no understanding of the meaning of restraint.
Awful horror film, I quickly lost the will to live while watching this.
poolandrews11 December 2004
Warning: Spoilers
Frozen Scream begins with a shot of waves rolling up against a beach. We then get a super-imposed Doctor Lil Stanhope (producer Renee Harmon) appear 'over' the waves. In a totally ridiculous European accent she says "ever since the the creation of life man has dreamed of immortality. But the pursuit of eternal life has always been devoured by death itself." It's the dead of night, a young couple (Gary Pearl and Cheryl Crandal) are taking a late night swim in their pool. Suddenly a weird looking guy (Paul Yamanian) in a hooded cloak kills them both. I don't know why as I don't remember ever seeing them again or being mentioned. Ann Gerrard (Lynne Kocol) phones her husband Tom (Wolf Muser) at home from a public phone box, I'm not really sure why. Tom seems anxious and uneasy. After speaking with Ann, Tom tries to call Father O'Brian (Wayne Liebman) but he is unavailable. Tom then receives a threatening phone call, he is overpowered by two men in hooded cloaks, Kirk Richard (Bob Rochelle) and Bob Russel (Bill Oliver). One of them has a needle hidden inside his sock! Whats wrong with your pocket, mate? They inject him with the needle, but they are disturbed by Ann and run off. The next day Ann wakes up in a hospital bed, her friend Dr. Lil Stanhope is looking after her. Ann is told that Tom died of a heart attack, but she keeps claiming to have seen him murdered. A friend of Ann's, Detective Kevin McGuire (Thomas Gowen) is at the hospital to question Lil over the disappearance of two of her and Doctor Sven Johnson's (Lee James) students, Kirk and Bob, from a class they both teach. Lil claims she doesn't know anything about it. Lil meets up with Dr. Johnson and says she is worried by Ann and her persistence in claiming Tom was murdered. Lil asks if she should stay with her but Johnson replies "no my dear, I'm too fond of your company in my bedroom!" Wow, he sure knows how to charm the ladies! Ann is discharged and driven home by Lil. During this scene the film goes into a flashback. It's a confusing sequence that itself is inter cut (a flashback within a flashback maybe?) with a scene of the killer from the opening burying a hatchet into a girls (Chris Russell) head, again this has no purpose whatsoever and she is never seen or mentioned again. Back to the main flashback and it involves Lil, Sven Father O'Brian, Tom, Ann, plus some of their students Kirk, Bob and a busty nurse named Catherine (Sunny Bartholomew) sitting on the beach from the opening sequence chanting stupid dialogue. Back in the present, Ann together with Kevin start to suspect that Sven and Lil are up to no good. Sven and Lil are holding a Halloween party at their house and Ann decides to go and have a look around and see what she can find. Once there she discovers a lab in the basement and overhears Sven talking about having to get rid of her. She tries to escape and finds a refrigerated room which Tom, Kirk and Bob are standing in, seemingly frozen. Kevin turns up and like the total idiot he is gets himself run over and taken to hospital. Ann is on her own as she discovers what Sven and Lil are really up to. Dr. Johnson confesses all, first he talks about Tom "death was simulated by slowing down his body processes then we revived him at a lower body temperature and injected a chemical acceleration of healing functions to sustain life. The lower temperature is the prime key." He also talks about cranial circuitry and other such rubbish that doesn't make any sense. What it boils down to is that they have created mindless zombies while trying to find the answer to immortality. This obscure film from the mid 70's directed by Frank Roach is as bad as horror cinema gets, it's simply awful in every way imaginable. The music by H. Kingsley Thurber is exactly the same that was later reused in Don't go in the Woods (1982). There is no blood, gore, violence or nudity except for a shard of glass in someones eye and an axe in someones forehead, and that's it. The entire film sounds dubbed, it barely has any sound effects and when it does they sound poor, in one scene when Ann is running away from a zombie the sound of her high heels on the soundtrack don't match her feet movement on the screen. The acting is awful, no one puts any effort in at all, in fact the entire cast would have been perfect playing mindless zombies because that's how they act. The editing is awful, we get random shots inserted in scenes that appear out of place, it makes it a real eyesore to sit through. The way the plot is revealed is poorly done as it becomes confusing and very easy to lose interest. The script and dialogue are awful, check out what Lil says to the zombie Kirk in her 'comedy German' accent, "stop right there Kwirk, listen to me Kwirk, can you feel whats happening? It's all over. Feel your forehead Kwirk, that's right it's hot in here. Your usefulness is over, immortals live in the cool of the clouds, but you are burning because you are in hell!" After she's said that to kirk he falls over dead, for no reason other than she said that stupid few lines of dialogue! This is awful. The sort of film that the fast forward button was invented for, I have watched loads of low budget horror films and this has to be one of the worst I've endured. It commits the mortal sin of being boring, uninteresting, unexciting and throughly dull. A total waste of time. I hated just about every lame second of it, quite simply Frozen Scream sucks.
One of those movies that make you say, "Huh?!"
smegthat31 January 2001
Is this movie worth watching? That depends on your reason for watching movies. Do you like big budgets? Oscar-winning performances? Splashy production values? Rich character development? You will thankfully find none of that here.
The soundtrack was done in post-production so none of the voices seem to match the mouth movements. The story, what little there is of it, flops wildly about like a fish on the creek bank. The special effects are okay for a low budget film (with a budget of $10,000 or less). All of the actors seem to be drugged, and I am not talking about the ones who are supposed to be zombies.
But there are good points to this movie. It is incredibly short, so you can get on with your life quickly, faster if you use the fast-forward button. If you like cheese, this has a mountain-esque cheese factor. And, my favorite scene, a character takes great pains to close a door in one direction and a killer on the other side clearly has a door that opens in the opposite direction.
It's bad, but I doubt the makers thought it was a classic. If you love "bad" movies, you can't go wrong with this "chiller".
The soundtrack was done in post-production so none of the voices seem to match the mouth movements. The story, what little there is of it, flops wildly about like a fish on the creek bank. The special effects are okay for a low budget film (with a budget of $10,000 or less). All of the actors seem to be drugged, and I am not talking about the ones who are supposed to be zombies.
But there are good points to this movie. It is incredibly short, so you can get on with your life quickly, faster if you use the fast-forward button. If you like cheese, this has a mountain-esque cheese factor. And, my favorite scene, a character takes great pains to close a door in one direction and a killer on the other side clearly has a door that opens in the opposite direction.
It's bad, but I doubt the makers thought it was a classic. If you love "bad" movies, you can't go wrong with this "chiller".
Gloriously ludicrous tosh
Woodyanders15 August 2016
Warning: Spoilers
A couple of mad scientists are trying to find the secret of immortality, so abduct and kill folks, plant these chips in their necks, and bring them back to life as murderous zombies who are kept on ice when they aren't embarking on killing sprees. Young lass Ann Girard (a hopelessly awful performance by fetching brunette Lynne Kocol) decides to investigate things, but naturally only places herself in great jeopardy in the process.
Man, does this astonishing atrocity possess all the right wrong stuff to rate highly as a real four-star stinkeroonie: We've got seriously bungled (non)direction by Frank Roach, wonky sound complete with obvious dubbed-in-post dialogue, a rambling nonsensical story that unfolds at a plodding pace, tacky gore, crazy guys running around in cowls (one of these guys offs a cute hound dog at one point!), a cheesy synthesizer score, ragged editing, rough cinematography, a goofy nightmare sequence, loads of tedious talk, ineptly staged murder set pieces, dreadful acting by a lame no-name cast (Rene Harmon as the evil Dr. Lil Stanhope cops the top thespic dishonors thanks to her off-center line readings and thick borderline incomprehensible Teutonic accent), clumsy overuse of narration to fill in gaping plot holes, a band at a Halloween party performing an incredible ditty called "Jack Around the Shack," and even a surprise bummer nihilistic ending. A real schlocky hoot.
Man, does this astonishing atrocity possess all the right wrong stuff to rate highly as a real four-star stinkeroonie: We've got seriously bungled (non)direction by Frank Roach, wonky sound complete with obvious dubbed-in-post dialogue, a rambling nonsensical story that unfolds at a plodding pace, tacky gore, crazy guys running around in cowls (one of these guys offs a cute hound dog at one point!), a cheesy synthesizer score, ragged editing, rough cinematography, a goofy nightmare sequence, loads of tedious talk, ineptly staged murder set pieces, dreadful acting by a lame no-name cast (Rene Harmon as the evil Dr. Lil Stanhope cops the top thespic dishonors thanks to her off-center line readings and thick borderline incomprehensible Teutonic accent), clumsy overuse of narration to fill in gaping plot holes, a band at a Halloween party performing an incredible ditty called "Jack Around the Shack," and even a surprise bummer nihilistic ending. A real schlocky hoot.
A film that goes everyplace but never really reaches its destination.
Aaron137519 January 2021
Watched this film expecting to see something totally wild and a bit more gory and such as it was one of the first films put on Britain's video nasty list. However, it was not really all that in terms of gore and I wonder if maybe it was put on the list because it is nearly incomprehensible? A film where a narrator pops in from time to time and speaks over the characters and usually talks about stuff that has nothing to do with advancing the plot or even the scene! Then the film goes from one random scene to the next and even manages a dance party and for the most part seems to forget it even is a horror film about cloak wearing zombies that kill!
The story, well that is the hard part. Guy is in his house and gets a call and gets attacked and injected by some stuff and his wife apparently sees this though they only let you hear her voice. She knows he has been murdered, but he has been pronounced dead of a heart attack. A police officer who is in love with Anne, the main girl whose name you will not forget, wants to figure out what is happening, but also hear that Anne loves him. Okay, he just wants to hear Anne say I love you. Meanwhile, we have ice zombies that are not the chomp kind, not the voodoo kind, but a new kind! The type that is rarely on display as the only other film I can think that has the sort of serial killer zombie is Dead and Buried and Death Warmed Over which are both superior to this one. Watch out for that car Kevin!
The actors and actresses are all pretty novice and the editor seems to be having a seizure while editing the film as that is the only way to explain how choppy and uneven this film feels. Then you have the voice overs that change throughout the film as the officer in the movie and the one doing the narration are supposed to be the same guy, but are clearly different! Not much in terms of gore, though we do get some blood as the narrator talks about love as a woman cuts into her own wrist and you listen to the narrator and it seems as if he is talking about something else entirely than what is being presented on screen!
So this film is nothing to track down if you are wanting to find a new scary movie you have never seen. It is one to track down if you want to see a random film that is so crudely shot that you can find humor in the fact it is so bad. There is nudity, but honestly, you can see that in abundance on the internet so it is not enough to make you want to watch this thing either. No, just morbid curiosity.
The story, well that is the hard part. Guy is in his house and gets a call and gets attacked and injected by some stuff and his wife apparently sees this though they only let you hear her voice. She knows he has been murdered, but he has been pronounced dead of a heart attack. A police officer who is in love with Anne, the main girl whose name you will not forget, wants to figure out what is happening, but also hear that Anne loves him. Okay, he just wants to hear Anne say I love you. Meanwhile, we have ice zombies that are not the chomp kind, not the voodoo kind, but a new kind! The type that is rarely on display as the only other film I can think that has the sort of serial killer zombie is Dead and Buried and Death Warmed Over which are both superior to this one. Watch out for that car Kevin!
The actors and actresses are all pretty novice and the editor seems to be having a seizure while editing the film as that is the only way to explain how choppy and uneven this film feels. Then you have the voice overs that change throughout the film as the officer in the movie and the one doing the narration are supposed to be the same guy, but are clearly different! Not much in terms of gore, though we do get some blood as the narrator talks about love as a woman cuts into her own wrist and you listen to the narrator and it seems as if he is talking about something else entirely than what is being presented on screen!
So this film is nothing to track down if you are wanting to find a new scary movie you have never seen. It is one to track down if you want to see a random film that is so crudely shot that you can find humor in the fact it is so bad. There is nudity, but honestly, you can see that in abundance on the internet so it is not enough to make you want to watch this thing either. No, just morbid curiosity.
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