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Frostbite
DVD/APPROX. 96 MINS/2006/RUSSIA MA15+
DVD/APPROX. 96 MINS/2006/RUSSIA MA15+
8
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Released on UK DVD on Feb 12th 2007 by Soda Pictures, Frostbite is the first must see horror picture of the new year to come out on shiny silver
disk.
In a sea of gore soaked mediocrity and limp Asian influenced ghost yarns, this tale of Scandinavian vampire bloodsuckers stands out as an
textbook example of how to blend horror and comedy without sacrificing scares or laughs. It joins Shaun of the Dead and American Werewolf in
London in that exclusive club of funny fright flicks that actually work.
The first thing to remember about Frostbite is that it's set in Sweden, a country where, in the north of the country, they experience polar night, a
month of permanent dark and, while the film is a little disingenuous in so far as it takes place pretty much on a single night while selling this great
idea of a vampire filled blood orgy extending over weeks of darkness, just having that concept in the movie is intriguing in itself.
Why don't more vampires move north?
No more of that really serious sunburn they seem to suffer from and lots of easy picking, any hour of the day. Instead most modern B-movie
vampires seem to hang out in L.A. a place renowned for sunny weather...bloody undead idiots!
The film opens with a gritty war scene, set in the Ukraine during the Second World War, where a squad of German SS troops flee a bloody battle
and seek refuge from the sub-zero temperatures in a wooden cabin... A cabin occupied by Vampiric fiends who make short work of a few of the
squad. Eventually one of the SS men is infected, slaying the rest of his comrades as we fade to black...
The film flashes forward to the present day and we are introduced to the central characters, Annika, a woman moving up north for a fresh start
and a new job in a local hospital with her teenage daughter Saga. While Annika gets settled in her job, Saga gets friendly with the hip, druggie
kids, in particular a local goth girl called Vega.
Annika wants to work with a celebrated geneticist who is based at the hospital but behind his oily charm lies a dark secret. He's a vampire doing
research to improve his genes in order to allow him to rule over mortal men. He has a car crash victim in a permanent vegetative state which he
feeds tablets of vampire blood in order to test how the molecular reactions on a human body might change a persons DNA. The comatose girl
wakes for a moment to take a chunk out of Annika's arm...soon she too will start to change.
Unfortunately one of the student doctors is a party boy, he steals the vamp pills, thinking they will give a night time gathering a bit of a lift. He
drops one of the tablets and turns slowly towards the darkness. His Gothic friend Vega steals the cursed pills from him, takes them to a party and
soon the town has serious vampire issues...
This is a movie filled to the brim with new ideas about the vampire genre. The scenes following the young student doctor taking a blood filled pill
are up there with the best knowing gags in American Werewolf, as he discovers that he can understand what dogs are saying to him and feels his
senses sharpen.
When he is required to attend a dinner with his girlfriends parents his reaction on seeing the devout Christians cross decorated walls is priceless.
When they serve up a garlic soaked main course things get really ugly.
In fact this movie is so packed with great ideas that the only criticism I have is that it's too short and ends a little abruptly. I know I was hoping for
another half hour to see where the relationship between the now undead mother and her daughter would go. Everything seems to fly by a little
too quickly but that's got to be an improvement on slow plodding, exposition filled horror yawn-fests hasn't it?
No news on extra features as I reviewed this from a time coded screener disc and a search of the interweb didn't reveal anything. It'll be a shame
if this movie has no interview footage to back it up as it's a fresh and original production. Certainly a commentary would be fascinating...
This is stylish, funny horror that deserves a massive audience and support from horror fans everywhere. Stop buying into remake and sequel
mania and pick up this DVD so that director, Anders Banke, can make some more quirky and original horror product.
disk.
In a sea of gore soaked mediocrity and limp Asian influenced ghost yarns, this tale of Scandinavian vampire bloodsuckers stands out as an
textbook example of how to blend horror and comedy without sacrificing scares or laughs. It joins Shaun of the Dead and American Werewolf in
London in that exclusive club of funny fright flicks that actually work.
The first thing to remember about Frostbite is that it's set in Sweden, a country where, in the north of the country, they experience polar night, a
month of permanent dark and, while the film is a little disingenuous in so far as it takes place pretty much on a single night while selling this great
idea of a vampire filled blood orgy extending over weeks of darkness, just having that concept in the movie is intriguing in itself.
Why don't more vampires move north?
No more of that really serious sunburn they seem to suffer from and lots of easy picking, any hour of the day. Instead most modern B-movie
vampires seem to hang out in L.A. a place renowned for sunny weather...bloody undead idiots!
The film opens with a gritty war scene, set in the Ukraine during the Second World War, where a squad of German SS troops flee a bloody battle
and seek refuge from the sub-zero temperatures in a wooden cabin... A cabin occupied by Vampiric fiends who make short work of a few of the
squad. Eventually one of the SS men is infected, slaying the rest of his comrades as we fade to black...
The film flashes forward to the present day and we are introduced to the central characters, Annika, a woman moving up north for a fresh start
and a new job in a local hospital with her teenage daughter Saga. While Annika gets settled in her job, Saga gets friendly with the hip, druggie
kids, in particular a local goth girl called Vega.
Annika wants to work with a celebrated geneticist who is based at the hospital but behind his oily charm lies a dark secret. He's a vampire doing
research to improve his genes in order to allow him to rule over mortal men. He has a car crash victim in a permanent vegetative state which he
feeds tablets of vampire blood in order to test how the molecular reactions on a human body might change a persons DNA. The comatose girl
wakes for a moment to take a chunk out of Annika's arm...soon she too will start to change.
Unfortunately one of the student doctors is a party boy, he steals the vamp pills, thinking they will give a night time gathering a bit of a lift. He
drops one of the tablets and turns slowly towards the darkness. His Gothic friend Vega steals the cursed pills from him, takes them to a party and
soon the town has serious vampire issues...
This is a movie filled to the brim with new ideas about the vampire genre. The scenes following the young student doctor taking a blood filled pill
are up there with the best knowing gags in American Werewolf, as he discovers that he can understand what dogs are saying to him and feels his
senses sharpen.
When he is required to attend a dinner with his girlfriends parents his reaction on seeing the devout Christians cross decorated walls is priceless.
When they serve up a garlic soaked main course things get really ugly.
In fact this movie is so packed with great ideas that the only criticism I have is that it's too short and ends a little abruptly. I know I was hoping for
another half hour to see where the relationship between the now undead mother and her daughter would go. Everything seems to fly by a little
too quickly but that's got to be an improvement on slow plodding, exposition filled horror yawn-fests hasn't it?
No news on extra features as I reviewed this from a time coded screener disc and a search of the interweb didn't reveal anything. It'll be a shame
if this movie has no interview footage to back it up as it's a fresh and original production. Certainly a commentary would be fascinating...
This is stylish, funny horror that deserves a massive audience and support from horror fans everywhere. Stop buying into remake and sequel
mania and pick up this DVD so that director, Anders Banke, can make some more quirky and original horror product.
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