The Frozen Ground (2013)

The Frozen Ground (2013)

Cast: Nicolas Cage, John Cusack, Vanessa Hudgens

Director: Scott Walker

Genre: Biography, Crime, History

Synopsis: Nicolas Cage stars as Alaskan police detective, Jack Halcombe, as he tries to find enough evidence to convict serial killer, Robert Hansen (John Cusack), with surviver, prostitute Cindy Paulson (Vanessa Hudgens), his only witnesses to bring Hansen to justice. Based on actual events.

Review: The Frozen Ground is director Scott Walker's debut movie and it was a good first effort. I believe Walker wanted to make the audience feel tense and nervous throughout the film and it certainly forces the viewers to the edge of their seats with hearts pounding but it does not do this enough.

The first thing I realized when watching the movie was the cinematography. As soon as the image came up of the Alaskan woods, it was much darker than any other films I had watched. This creates a tension and lets the audience know that something bad is happening. This also portrayed the movie as a dark thriller so you will know what type of film you are going to be watching. When the editing switched to Robert Hansen from Jack Halcombe it frequently showed an extreme long shot of the Alaskan forest. This is adding tension by giving you a hint that either Hansen is the bad guy or something bad is going to occur. I found the editing very choppy especially in the first half of the film and this lost some of the anticipation that I believe was lacking. There were some very strong performances in The Frozen Ground especially from Vanessa Hudgens. I think Vanessa was excellent in this movie and her facial expressions were the stand out features as she always looked believable. In the film there are a lot of close up shots to show the expressions to create a more emotional viewing for the audience. Also John Cusack is excellent and is also a very convincing. I am not a huge fan of Nicolas Cage as I feel he plays the same role in most movies and yet again I was not surprised by his performance. I think the soundtrack was overused as they kept on playing the same slow tempo piece of music throughout the movie. Rarely there was a fast tempo piece of music but this added a much needed heart stopping scene to the movie. I believe the fast tempo music was the best part of the film as it created an edge of the seat feeling.

The Frozen Ground was very predictable at times but also kept me thinking and kept me nervous whilst  excited at the same time in parts but overall lacked enough heart rending moments. 6/10

The Frozen Ground Trailer