The story tells about a completely different story. The story tells about Alaska's Jack Halcombe trying to end Hansen's deadly frenzy. Hansen may be a serial killer who has not been seen for thirteen years in a row, where Jack works to bring that murderer to justice.
The movie's only fresh element is the wintry setting, which shrouds everything in a mood of weary fatalism. Otherwise, it's the same old, same old, efficiently discharged and utterly disposable.
Richard Haridy
Quickflix
December 10, 2013
The Frozen Ground is trying its best to act as a genuine tribute to the victims of a horrible crime. Unfortunately it falls short... Though still functioning as a solid genre piece, the chasm between intention and execution is embarrassingly apparent.
The Frozen Ground covers familiar territory but benefits from authentically seamy scene setting amid the bars and strip-joints where the killer found his prey, and from solid performances by its leads, all of whom are acting against type.
A vague and forgettable crime thriller that would have benefited from more character development or at least a grounding of the narrative in one central protagonist.
Although writer-director Scott Walker seems committed to not overly exploiting his lurid subject matter, the movie is just too dreary, disjointed and generically creepy to be persuasive.
As written and directed by Scott Walker, THE FROZEN GROUND isn't great, but it's surprisingly effective, thanks to its no-frills approach and its care with the actors and characters.
"The Frozen Ground" trucks in cliche, as most serial killer and police procedural films do, but the strength of the acting (from the leads down to people with only one or two lines) helps ground the film.