Frost Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		1.5
Video		3.5
Audio		3.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		1.5

Frost Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman September 16, 2022

Who knew climate change could contribute to a film's less than believable plot line? This is a supposed disaster and/or survival in the wild film which relies on its titular hazard, but evidently the budget didn't allow for very fulsome special effects in that regard, to which I'll simply point to screenshot 6 accompanying this review. Now, I have lived most of my life in somewhat snowy and icy climates, and you can indeed catch a bit of black ice even on supposedly sunny days, but there's typically some evidence of cooler weather outside to tip you off. All of that said, Frost purports to be based on true events, and that may be the one most intriguing thing about this effort, as the plot dynamics of this film grow increasingly gruesome and frankly unbelievable.

Frost begins with a troubling vision of a badly injured woman in a car that has obviously crashed in some kind of forested setting, with some that very forest having penetrated the vehicle. That, combined with a credits sequence littered with snowfall, at least gets things underway with an appropriately wintry feeling, though the story then segues to a weirdly sunny drive that Abby (Devanny Pinn) is taking, some seemingly calm weather that is only occasionally interrupted by warning signs or a smattering of snow (CGI or otherwise). Abby is extremely pregnant, and she's attempting to reunite with her estranged father, Grant (Vernon Wells), and the first part of the film documents the halting get together of the two.

Things seem to be getting set up for an at least relatively traditional two hander with Abby and Grant in peril after their car crashes, and indeed that's exactly where the story goes -- for a little while. Grant is able to extricate himself from the car, but Abby is supposedly stuck, and so he sets off to find help. Did you forget the part where Abby is extremely pregnant? Well, don't, because that's where the third act kicks in and where things go from initially a bit gruesome but still kind of in the regular wheelhouse for survival movies, but which then goes completely Grand Guignol and some might argue Grand Grotesque with an over the top series of events that would seem to argue that if this were indeed "based on real events", some kind of news report about it all might have appeared somewhere.

Frost Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Frost is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Cleopatra Entertainment and MVD Visual with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.44:1. Probably unsurprisingly, I haven't been able to find any authoritative technical data on the shoot, and there are no camera logos offered in the closing credits roll, but this was digitally captured and I assume had a 2K DI. As can be seen in several of the screenshots accompanying this review, a lot of the imagery has been pretty vigorously graded toward cool blues and greens, giving the palette a really odd, alien appearance. The few bright sunny moments early in the film actually pop with considerable warmth and show more consistent fine detail than many of the later, aggressively tinted, moments, especially some dim sections in the car where detail levels can fluctuate. A low budget probably contributed to less than believable special effects, including a really badly composited car crash.

Frost Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Frost features Dolby Digital 5.1 and 2.0 tracks, in Cleopatra's continuing kind of mind boggling reliance on lossy audio for its Blu-ray releases, something I personally find especially strange since Cleopatra made at least some of its name in music promotion, and indeed this very release touts its soundtrack (which offers contributions from the likes of Rick Wakefield) and includes a soundtrack CD with this release! I've long argued that along with high definition video, Blu-rays really should have at least one lossless audio option, but with that curmudgeonly attitude out of the way (for now, anyway), the 5.1 track on this disc offers reasonable immersion and some decent ambient environmental effects. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. No subtitles are available.

Frost Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Slideshow (HD; 2:30)


• Trailer (HD; 1:14)


• A Soundtrack CD is included.

Additionally, trailers for other releases from Cleopatra are included.

Frost Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Frost actually could have sufficed perfectly well as a reasonable two hander of a duo (soon to be trio) caught in fraught circumstances and having to struggle to survive. And that's basically what the film offers for most of its first two acts, before going completely gonzo toward the end. Technical merits are okay if improvable (especially audio, where a lossless track certainly would have provided more support for the soundtrack music), for anyone who may be considering making a purchase.