Jack Frost (1997)

Perhaps the laziest type of slasher is something based on a holiday.  Sure, Black Christmas, Halloween and even Silent Night, Deadly Night got away with it, but that was only from the beginning to the peak of the slasher craze.  Other horror movies, particularly ones more based in fantasy, have succeeded, but for the most part it seems like beyond putting something interesting on the box to trick people into buying or streaming it there is no real thought except making a few bucks. 

Jack Frost is no exception.  It's as boring as most other holiday horror films, and it tries to add a monster on top of the slasher, but it's little more rip-off of Child's Play and Shocker, except with snow.  Even worse, the Jack Frost monster on the box looks great, in a cheap sort of way, and not something that would have busted the budget to make.  I just wish this is the creature the movie delivered. 

Serial murderer Jack Frost (Scott MacDonald) is on his way to be executed.  There's a blizzard out, and a man driving a truck full of a top-secret acid that can cause genetic mutations is coming the opposite direction.  They crash, and Frost is molecularly bonded with the snow, turning him into a killer snowman that can melt and freeze at will.  His powers also make him virtually unstoppable, and the accident coincidentally happens in the rural Colorado county of Snomonton, where he was apprehended by Sheriff Sam (Christopher Allport). 

Having vowed revenge upon Sam and his family, Frost begins to wreak havoc on the town of Snomonton, killing an old man on the fringes and then making his way in.  Meanwhile, a rogue FBI agent by the name of Manners (Stephen Mendel) has teamed up with CIA scientist Stone (Rob LaBelle) to catch Frost and bring him back for further experimentation.  The problem is they didn't count on the local weather cutting off all roads into the town, leaving it to the locals to find a way to rid the world of Jack Frost.

The biggest surprise about his movie is that writer/director Michael Cooney's script was originally supposed to have a 30 million dollar budget and be directed by Renny Harlin, with his wife at the time Geena Davis getting a role.  Instead, Davis told him to give it a pass, saying it was one of the worst scripts she had ever read, encouraging him to go for Cutthroat Island instead.  Cutthroat Island was one of the biggest flops in history, forever damaging the careers of both Harlin and Davis, but it is at least a fun movie that, though a present to Davis, is a passable and watchable adventure film.  Jack Frost, on the other hand, is pretty much what Davis said it was, and has a small cult following for all the wrong reasons.  The only good thing is that if they had gone with it they would have had their careers flushed for a third of what Cutthroat Island cost. 

While everyone involved had been doing character roles for a long time, the only recognizable breakout star from this was Shannon Elizabeth, who went on to fame in American Pie.  She has the dubious pleasure of being raped by Frost, in full snowman form, in a scene that didn't even begin as a rape scene.  The director and everyone else just figured that was what the audience was going to assume after watching a giant snowman crush a naked woman to death, particularly since his carrot nose is suddenly missing.  While it's tasteless it wasn't originally meant to be, but the one-liner that was later inserted is. 

Part of the ridiculousness of this movie is that, without its original budget, we get one of the worst looking monsters on film.  Jack Frost was originally supposed to be realized through CGI, but instead it's a big rubber snowman costume with barely any articulation.  It still looks better than most of the "snow" in the movie since, during filming in 1993, temperatures remained mild and it never snowed throughout the production.  This resulted in a lot of different things meant to simulate snow, and most of it looks worse than the stuff decorating a department store Santa's Village.  

Jack Frost also wants to be a comedy due to the fact that at some point Cooney realized how stupid everything was.  Unfortunately, there's not a lot to laugh at, let alone laugh with, as the movie generally got made because the film company went bankrupt and the bank just told Cooney to give them 90 minutes of something.  It sat on a shelf for three years after it was done, getting pushed out to video store shelves in 1997.  Probably a good thing that it did or else it would be getting the treatment of a lost classic or some such from Vinegar Syndrome.  Rather, it is barely tolerable, with the best part of the movie over as soon as the opening credits are done. 

Jack Frost (1997)

Time: 89 minutes

Starring: Christopher Allport, Scott MacDonald, Stephen Mendel, Rob LaBelle, F. William Parker

Director: Michael Cooney