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Frank's Movie Log

My life at the movies.

Jack Frost

1997 | United StatesUnited Kingdom | 89 min | More...
A still from Jack Frost (1997)
C: 3 stars (out of 5)
on Wed Dec 09, 2020

In 2016, I gave Jack Frost a one-star review, calling it “bad, even by movie-about-a-killer-snowman standards.” I was wrong.

The film opens with Federal agents transporting serial killer Jack Frost to his execution. Icy road conditions cause the paddy wagon to collide with a top-secret government tanker truck. The truck’s contents spray out and melt Frost’s skin and bones. His liquid remains merge with the snow, transforming him into a living snowman. Free and presumed dead, Frost sets out to settle a score with the man who captured him.

Revisiting the film, I grasped the aesthetic I missed the first time around: a loving homage to early ’80s slasher and monster movies. It takes the traditional knife-wielding maniac or mutant monster and replaces them with a snowman. Otherwise, the film plays it straight.

Kudos to Christopher Allport who delivers an underrated but charismatic performance as the beleaguered small-town sheriff targeted by the killer snowman. (There’s a sentence I never thought I’d type.)

Anyway, I enjoyed the film. Walking the tonal tightrope of wink-wink comedy and genuine horror, it stumbles at times, but not for want of effort. I’m glad I gave it a second look.

Viewing History

    Watched on
    Thu Dec 16, 2021 via Blu-ray (Vinegar Syndrome, 2016)

    My appreciation grows. I thought this played like a straight slasher with a snowman killer, but it proves more self aware. The cast deadpans the entire way, save Scott MacDonald, who relishes playing a schlock movie monster.

    Watched on
    Wed Dec 09, 2020 via Amazon
    Watched on
    Sat Dec 10, 2016
    at Alamo Drafthouse Cinema - One Loudoun