If you've ever had a fear of freezing to death, than Adam Green's new survival thriller Frozen will probably scare the hell out of you. In the tradition of films like Open Water, Frozen weaves its tale around three twenty-somethings who find themselves stuck on a ski lift, fifty feet in the air. With no one to help them, our three helpless leads desperately try to figure a way out of their horrifically cold and dreary predicament. Without giving too much away, a couple of their decisions are positively cringe inducing. Some have been quick to argue that Frozen's set up requires a great deal of suspension of disbelief, but the truth is, there have been cases of skiers being inadvertently left dangling several feet in the air, and while such cases haven't quite slipped into the horrific depths of the situation depicted in Frozen, they just as well could have.

Regardless of whether or not you buy into the set up, once Frozen gets cooking, its hard to not get caught up in it. Particularly once you're around forty-five minutes in. Terrifying stuff. Of the leads, Shawn Ashmore shines brightest. Kevin Zegers is also solid while newcomer Emma Bell adds a dramatic charge as a young woman who begins to blame herself for the scenario she and her friends find themselves in. Frozen is quite the departure for Adam Green. While this director is a self proclaimed horror junkie, see Hatchet--his hilariously gleeful homage to slasher flicks, Frozen emerges as an entirely different kind of horror film. There are certainly a few gory moments here, but Green is more interested in building tension. Will these individuals get out of this mess, or will they be forced to chill out in the worst possible sense? What's more, Green makes every effort in the world to give you a trio worth caring about. Some of the dialogue is a bit pedestrian, and yes, the references to E.T. and Jaws feel a little labored, but that hardly matters because Green is a terrific showman. He even had the courage to take his cast and crew on location despite his own fear of heights. Nothing in Frozen was shot on a sound stage. The entire film was shot at an actual ski resort and this greatly adds to the sheer realism of the film. From the moment our helpless leads are left to fight for their lives, you will feel their fear and isolation. Frozen is thrilling, chilling, and gut wrenching.