OCTOBER HORROR 2017 - Jack Frost 1997

“Look, Ma! I’m a Picasso!”

How are there two films about a man named Jack Frost coming back from the dead as a living snowman, who then go to a small town for some unfinished business? It’s very specific, and you’d think that the family-friendly Micheal Keaton version came out first, but the murderous horror movie actually aired the year before that one. To really make this whole thing funnier, as I write this there’s also a 2017 film called “The Snowman”, which is about a serial killer who uses snowmen as his motif for the murders (and apparently it’s god-awful, which is a shame since I actually wanted to see that). Anyways, the movie 1997 “Jack Frost” is a lot like “The Gingerdead Man” in that it combines horror with comedy, plus it being about a very ridiculous monster concept. There’s really nothing much else to say, just that this movie (and its sequel) has become a cult classic. It’s one of those dumb films that just has fun with a crazy idea, and tries tell a bunch of jokes along the way.

Not much more to say, let’s get right on it.

Jack Frost is a serial killer who was once the most wanted man in the country before he was finally arrested by a small-town sheriff. Before he was brought to execution, his convoy was caught in an accident with a tanker filled with experimental chemicals, which melted Jack into the snow. Things seemingly calmed down, but suddenly murders began sprouting up around the town, and suspicion grows as rumors spread that the killer is a snowman. The rumors are confirmed as it seems Jack Frost has returned as a killer snowman, and is out for revenge on the whole town, and especially the sheriff who caught him.

Much like Gingerdead man, Jack Frost is a silly horror movie with a one-liner spewing monster. However, unlike that movie, the “horror” and comedy of Jack Frost is cruder than Gingerdead man. The kills are more gruesome and dumb, and there’s a higher body count that is spread out through the film. Whether you find this funnier or not is up to you, but me personally I wasn’t that much effected by the jokes, and the kills were ridiculous to make me chuckle, but no more than that. The Jack Frost character isn’t really that funny, and his snow puns fall flat most times. In almost inverse presentation of Gingerdead man, it’s the human characters that are actually the funniest ones in the film. The humor is well-paced, and it involves a lot of silly interactions between everyone else and two straight-mans that are the Sheriff and the FBI agent.The two are pretty funny, and I honestly like them a lot, far so than the characters in Gingerdead man who were just fine. It’s one of those films where you end up liking the human characters/survivors more than the actual monster.

The film looks cheap, and you could tell what’s real snow and what isn’t, especially when it comes to Jack Frost who is clearly a guy in a suit. Meanwhile the snow is mostly fabric, and the snowmen sculptures are obviously styrofoam. In a way this may add on to the silliness, but it is distracting how cheap this film is as a whole. Aside from the snow effects, the film is shot competently. Not much else to comment on the technical work of the movie.

Really, I got little to say for this movie. I was mostly bored. It’s funny at times, but overall I didn’t care for the movie. It’s not as funny as Gingerdead man, but at least it’s not bad or insulting. Saying that, I don’t see why it’s panned by critics. Sure, it’s not good, but it’s not the worst thing I’ve seen. Since this movie was released straight to VHS and DVD, there’s no point talking about the financial success or failure of this movie.

Not the best, and not the worst movie I’ve seen. You could easily do better, and for that this film isn’t worth the watch. See it, don’t, it’s entirely up to you.