Frost Blu-ray Review

Stone Cold

Frost’s final 10-minutes deserve admonishment. Already stretching patience thin, the events that lock Abby (Devanny Pinn) insider her car, teetering over a mountain during a ferociously cold snowstorm, take a ghastly, even unnecessary turn.

The theme, as it is with most single location thrillers, is pure survival. That’s Abby, left alone when her father ventures out for help after a crash. Showing occasional bouts of ingenuity, her dwindling mental state causes her to make grotesque decisions, but it’s on the filmmakers for drawing out shock value rather than dramatic force.

Frost doesn’t have the raw tension so critical to this sub-genre

Ironic fatalism can work. The Mist’s brutal ending is memorable because the anguish matches the relentless horror humor. Frost tries something similar, yet the dismally low budget strains to keep the situation plausible. Rarely does Frost come across as authentic, rushing through father/daughter squabbles, then sending the pair careening off-road in what feels like a few minutes of screen time.

Credit to Pinn for a believable performance. Pain rushes across her face constantly, and each wince brings Frost credibility even as it lacks the same elsewhere. This is her movie – star Vernon Wells mostly disappears midway through.

What Frost doesn’t have is the raw tension so critical to this sub-genre. The scenario feels wholly forced. It’s not enough Abby finds herself trapped in her car – she’s also pregnant and about to give birth. What’s initially a point of contention between her and Grant (Wells) isn’t mentioned again; the device is there only to heighten the final act’s brutality. Plausibility is difficult to sustain too considering soap bubbles represent “snow.”

At less than 80-minutes, Frost still doesn’t move fast enough to sustain itself. Maybe that explains the choices made to turn the last chapter so explicit, shocking the audience awake, and mindlessly, uselessly turning morbid.

Video

Budget restrained digital video works well enough for Frost. Clarity doesn’t hit many hiccups, although the disc causes some noticeable banding and artifacts, especially in backgrounds. That’s a shame as this heavily degrades otherwise crisp imagery. Stable resolution keeps detail consistent and impressive. Facial texture is sustained in close and in medium shots.

Grading washes away the color. Flesh tones display slight warmth early, yet faded. As tension grows, so too does the amount of blue in the image. All primaries disappear for the dramatic tone’s sake.

With the color, black levels disintegrate too, keeping Frost visually flat. Depth doesn’t happen, ever. It’s dull, and attempts to embolden the contrast don’t help.

Audio

Dolby Digital is still a thing on Blu-ray thanks to releases like this. Both the 5.1 and stereo options come compressed. The surround option offers limited separation, staying primarily confined to the center channel. Given that, stereo is preferred for tighter, bolder dialog. Either way, recording quality is merely average, and the disc doesn’t change that.

Extras

A CD soundtrack is included inside the case, but the Blu-ray bonuses amount to an image gallery and trailer.

Full disclosure: This Blu-ray was provided to us for review. This has not affected the editorial process. For information on how we handle review material, please visit our about us page to learn more.

The following six screen shots serve as samples for our subscription-exclusive set of 23 full resolution, uncompressed HD screen shots grabbed directly from the Blu-ray: