Jack Frost (1997)

For Christmas, let’s switch gears and talk about something horror related. What’s that? Horror is only for Halloween? Well, what would you call “A Christmas Carol?” Is that not horror related? You have a man who hates Christmas and is visited by three ghosts in order for him to change his views on Christmas. Isn’t that scary? Well, enough convincing all of you, let’s start the review.

Today, I will look at Jack Frost. No, not the 1998 film with Michael Keaton, but the 1997 horror film. This was directed by Michael Cooney about a serial killer whose soul gets into a snowman. Scott MacDonald plays Jack Frost, a killer who is about to be executed. On the way to his trail, the car gets into an accident and Jack gets acid poured on him that turns him into a snowman. The idea is very similar to “Child’s Play” where Jack comes back from the dead and continues where he left off as a killer. First stop: Snowmonton.

“Jack Frost” is a B-horror movie. It doesn’t try to deny that fact either. Just take a look at the ground. It’s supposed to be winter, but the only time you see snow is the close-ups and small spots on the ground. Also note how low-budget the film looks. The roofs will show some nice shade of gray, black and brown, similar to summer. The townspeople of Snowmonton are in the middle of their winter festival. Ryan Cracknell speculated in his review of the film, “I guess the lesson of the story is that a budget of nothing limits the amount of fake snow you can produce so live with it and move on.”

The film follows a familiar format of a monster going out on a killing spree in senseless fashion with the surviving citizens congregating in a group to stop the beast. Not before more people are murdered, then a couple more after that. As horrific as it may sound, “Jack Frost” shines when Jack is on his prowl. Aside from saying some god-awful pun dialogue, he comes up with some pretty sick ways to murder his victims. Shannon Elizabeth has her famous scene with Jack when she gets frozen in the bathtub. Nathan Hague is the bully of this film who gets beheaded by a slow-moving sled, which comes out of nowhere and doesn’t make any sense. You might think that this is over-the-top that you find it funny, and if you do, that’s fine.

MacDonald knows that he cannot do everything perfectly that is from the script so he acknowledges to the viewing audience by missing realism. He does this by winking at the camera giving the viewers something to laugh about that would be just painstakingly bad. Even though this may be bad, it’s had a cult following since its release. You could say that this belongs in the “so bad it’s good” department.

In the end, I would probably give this film a 5. The only parts that are worth watching is the MacDonald scenes, so watch it if you want. But how does the sequel turn out? Find out tomorrow in my 25 day of Christmas film reviews.