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[BD Review] Brit Morgan’s Acting is the Only Hot Thing in ‘The Frozen’
If you’re like me, there’s something creepy about winter. It’s that sense of being isolated. Especially, you know, if you go on one of those ski trips or hiking up in the mountains. The isolation aspect of the season has been used several times throughout the years to varying degrees in films. Most recently, Adam Green directed Frozen, a tension-filled flick that had moviegoers fainting and the ski industry fuming over the idea of being stuck alone in the mountains of a ski resort. Flash-forward to today, where writer/director Andrew Hyatt’s feature-length debut The Frozen is set to hit VOD and DVD on December 18th. While it doesn’t involve being stranded on a ski lift, the film attempts to tap into that same sense of isolation.
The story goes that Mike (Seth David Mitchel) and Emma (Brit Morgan) have hit a rough patch in their relationship. As a solution, the duo head off to the mountains for a winter camping trip. Unfortunately, after setting up camp and while cruising around the mountain, Mike hits…something…which leads to them crashing and becoming stranded. To make matters worse, the couple soon find themselves being tracked by a mysterious hunter (Noah Segan). Not long after, Mike goes missing, leaving Emma alone in the wilderness.
Right off the bat, the big story here for this film is Brit Morgan’s performance. Rather than portraying the backstabbing werewolf jezebel we know from True Blood, Morgan pulls a 180 and turns in a superb performance that, from the first time that we see her, felt natural and delivered a compelling character. I know that many critics have already said (including director Hyatt) that the film would have crashed and burned without the right actress in the role, and they were right. Morgan is able to go through the required emotions effortlessly and powerfully, without going into the over-the-top territory of her previous work. She is definitely what makes this film work…until you realize that the film itself can’t go far beyond Morgan’s acting.
One of the problems of having such a strong actor/actress taking the reigns of a film is that without equally strong performances from the other actors, especially in a film like this with just three actors, the one strength becomes a very noticeable crutch. David Mitchell isn’t bad. He’s just…okay. Mitchell seemed wooden in this role, and never really gelled with this film. His chemistry with Morgan is a prime example of this. It’s not believable. It also doesn’t help when one actor’s performance overshadows the other, which is unfortunately the case with Morgan and Mitchell.
The other problem is the fact that Hyatt is another case of a director pulling double duty with writing and can’t do both. I don’t understand why some first-time directors think that they can pull this off when it’s quite clear that they should stick to just being behind the camera. Whereas Adam Green was able to pull double duty by successfully ratcheting up tension in his script, Hyatt’s script relies far too much on the waiting game and not capitalizing on building proper tension. It just stays at a low boil without getting any higher until the end of the film. The rest of the time, we get jump scares that do nothing.
It’s a shame, since Hyatt is not a bad director. He was able to get what he wanted out of Morgan, and knew exactly that the film wouldn’t work without someone as strong as her. He also had a great cinematographer in Maximilian Gutierrez, who shot some really beautiful scenes. It’s just that The Frozen was one of those films that required a bit more than what Hyatt had on hand. The film could’ve been a lot worse if it wasn’t Morgan in the lead role. As it stands, this film is a fire-and-forget flick that serves more to pad Morgan’s acting reel than to satisfy a tension-filled psychological horror niche.
Audio/Video
The DVD is presented in 1.77:1 anamorphic widescreen, and features a great-looking transfer. The audio side of things comes in two flavors: a Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround or Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo. It’s your typical Direct-to-DVD stuff: good all-around, but nothing to stand out.
Special Features
Apart from the startup trailers, the only extra on the disc is the main feature’s trailer and a slipcase replicating the front cover of the DVD.
Home Video
‘Herencia Diabólica’ – 1993’s “Mexican Child’s Play” Finally Has a Blu-ray Release [Review]
Did you know that there is a Child’s Play-inspired film from Mexico? If you didn’t, you can thank Vinegar Syndrome’s new label Degausser Video for making 1993’s Herencia Diabólica available for the masses to watch. Or at least for the VS hardcore fanbase, Chucky completists and anyone else who needs something like this in their lives.
Director Alfredo Salazar, known for his writing connection to the 70s Santo film series, also serves as the writer here to bring us a film seemingly inspired from the Child’s Play franchise. While it has been recently labeled as the “Mexican Child’s Play” (there’s a special feature on the disc with that very title), the killer doll concept is where the comparison should start and end. Despite having some seeds planted by that franchise, Salazar delivers a story that blossoms into something unique.
Tony (Roberto Guinar) receives a letter informing him that his aunt has died, and he has inherited her estate in Mexico. He quits his job and uproots his life in New York with his wife Annie (Holda Ramírez) to relocate south of the border and move into his new crib. Now I know what you’re thinking, what person just quits their job and drags their wife to another country without having reliable monetary income? Tony does, everyone, Tony does.
And what’s the first thing they do once they arrive in Mexico and check out the estate? They hit the bedroom, naturally. We are treated to a sex scene with an erotica song that feels like a knockoff of “Sadness” by Enigma (remember them?). Sounds fun and all, but the scene takes place completely in the dark and we see absolutely nothing. Maybe that’s why the sexy-time tune was pumping, so we could know what was exactly going down.
While Tony goes on a job interview, Annie explores the estate’s grounds in a tedious chore to experience, going room by room, plodding along. But it does lead us to her discovery of our antagonist—the evil clown doll, Payasito! Of all the things in the house, she decides to bring this monstrosity down to show Tony when he gets home. What an exciting way to celebrate (sic)! Then out of nowhere, she spouts off some exposition about rumors that Tony’s aunt dabbled in the dark arts and now we know where our title Diabolical Inheritance (the English translation for Herencia Diabólica) originates. For those of you who keep score for things like that.
Before proceeding with this review, you really need to visualize what Payasito looks like to truly embrace the rest of the film’s shenanigans. While Chucky resembles a cute ginger child, Payasito resembles a small clown that is much larger in stature than Chucky. That’s because Payasito is performed by an actor (Margarito Esparaza) in clown cosplay whenever he’s on the move (like Mannequin 2), and makes some really horrible facial expressions. Chucky dresses in “Good Guys” overalls and a striped shirt, but Payasito wears a new wave Santa hat while sporting a Sgt. Pepper jacket and Peter Pan tights. As you can now tell, he is quite beautiful.
Back to our story, Payasito begins to spook Annie cerebrally until she becomes unnerved to the point of having a complete mental break down, making her easy prey to eliminate. She dies but the unborn child survives, with Tony believing that her death was caused by her mental instability. Fast forward some years later and the couple’s surviving spawn has grown into child Roy (Alan Fernando), who at this point has already bonded with Payasito to help him over the loss of his mother. Dun-dun-duuunnn!
Meanwhile wealthy Tony remains single, still grieving his late wife, until his blonde assistant Doris encourages him to move on with his life and start seeing other people. And by other people, she naturally means herself. As the old Kanye West song lyric goes, “I ain’t saying she’s a gold digger…”, and it seems that she might be until we learn more about her character. Doris is played by the stunning Lorena Hererra who has an extremely extensive resume in Mexico, and she carries most of the film quite well during the feature’s second half. The singer and former Playboy centerfold for their Mexico edition is by far the most recognizable face in the cast.
Doris and Tony do indeed hookup and she moves into La casa de Herencia, where she does her best to impress Roy and lessen his obsession with the doll. There is a scene where they go to a nearby park without Payasito that is filled with famous fairytale figures, such as Pinocchio, Cinderella and King Kong! What, you didn’t know King Kong is a fairytale? Me neither. But Roy continues to be obsessed with Payasito after their trip, much to Doris’ chagrin.
Her actions to separate him from Roy gets Payasito angry, setting up the film’s most memorable scene. We already know that Payasito is a devil doll like Chucky, but now we learn he also has the power to invade people’s dreams like Freddy Krueger! Does Payasito enter the dream world and concoct a creative way to kill Doris in her sleep? No, he harnesses his power to sexually assault her instead. Yes that actually happens. After she awakens, Doris grabs the doll and tosses him into a lake, only to find him waiting for her by the time she gets back to the house. So now we know he also maintains the ability to “transport” like Jason Voorhees too. This doll is the total package!
More insanity happens before we close out the film with the longest victim chase sequence ever. It makes the previously mentioned painful house search scene seem like an eyeblink. It feels like it’s the film’s entire third act, filled with so much padding that you could soundproof an entire three-story house.
So how’s the transfer? Considering it was created using a mix of VHS and film source elements from 1993, they did one heck of a job! The work they put into it is especially noticeable in the dream invasion sequence, with the pulsing multi-colored psychedelic visuals. Super trippy stuff. Even the film’s score provides a pretty chill vibe, during the times when Payasito isn’t on the prowl.
If anything you read has piqued your interest in the very least, you should give it a shot. But if not, it is best to leave this doll on the shelf.
Herencia Diabólica is now available to purchase at VinegarSyndrome.com.
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