Frostbite - review

Frostbite (15) 

Dir. Anders Banke

Reviewed by Matt Adcock

If you went down to the woods in the Ukraine in 1944, you might have run into a bunch of German soldiers who are - to quote The Cure ‘lost in a forest’… They hole up in a deserted hunting lodge but all is not what it seems, because there is something in there with them and it’s hungry for their blood...

And that’s just before the titles roll. OK then jump to present day and a plot not a million miles away from 30 Days of Night (i.e. the exact premise of vampires loving a place where it’s ‘polar’ night for a whole month)… But rather than pursue the hard as nails action horror of Steve Niles’ graphic novel, Frostbite goes for wackiness as only a Swedish first time director could.

Step this way for a horror comedy reminiscent of that classic ‘80s Fright Night with a dash of Lost Boys and some Shaun of the Dead stuff too. When I said ‘wacky’ I meant it though – don’t get me started about the talking dogs or the use of a garden gnome to take out one of the undead. And whilst the film bounces merrily between the horrible and the fun it is choc full of clichés galore from a stereotypical hospital setting where a vampire doctor is trying to breed a hybrid, through to a teen party where the host suddenly develops a pair of fangs and a seriously antisocial attitude towards his guests.

"Nice imagery"

The acting is variable but I’ve seen worse, Petra Nielsen delivers a good turn as a mum trying to fathom her teenage daughter (Grete Havnesköld seeing as you asked). Much of the ‘becoming a neck chomping hell-spawn’ dilemma is dealt with through Jonas Karlstrom who takes one of the vampire hybrid pills and gets to munch poodles and pet rabbit, puke up his girlfriend’s mother’s dinner and generally model a decent amount of gore around his chops.

Frostbite does a lot of things right and whilst unlikely to be remembered as a classic of the genre – it’s certainly worth a look if you’re a fan of films with fangs.

Darkmatters rating system (out of 5):

Action ööö – big teeth are the order of the day
Laughs ööö – some real fun here, dark wacky humour
Horror ööö – some gruesome blood letting to be had
Babes öö – Havnesköld is reasonably cute

Overall ööö 
(if you like vampires, you should really check this out)

Darkmatters: H O M E


Let's take a second to remember the original sexy vampire... Sarah Michelle Gellar!

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