Frozen recut as a horror film.  Disney's beloved "Frozen" a horror film? Let's see how easy it is to cut-and-paste scenes so that they reflect common horror film tropes in "The Frozen Horror Trailer."

We all know how Hollywood does it: you do quick-cutting of evil glances and violent gestures and so forth and intersperse them with some innocent little youngster playing in the garden, oblivious to the evil that (via the cutting process) surrounds her, just a hairs-breadth away.

So, my favorite moment in this humorous trailer is when it zeros in on innocent young Elsa saying in a child-like voice "Do you wanna build a snowman," followed immediately by a shot of the fierce snowman created later in the film. As if we haven't seen exactly that kind of quick-cut in dozens of actual horror film trailers! It's all about the close-ups and the timing and how you juxtapose different actions of completely different - but nicely balanced - emotional intensity.

To be truthful, there were many other scenes that could have been chosen to make the point as well and padded this, that he was judicious and kept it lean and mean like a real trailer is more to his credit.

Basically, this trailer deconstructs the horror film genre and shows how it's the editing that creates the horror, not what actually happens in the bulk of the movie. The sound and lighting are all important in the mood conveyed, with a standard menacing background baseline added. In a back-handed manner, this is a tribute to the craftsmen who labor behind the scenes to create the illusion you see on screen and feel while sitting in your chair. Context is everything.

It also is a kind of cynical smack-down of the film for those who think it is a bit campy with all the punches it pulls, overblown showy sentimentality and its air of complete unreality. "It's a fine line between...."

Ultimately, the difference between a drama and a horror film isn't the journey, it's the resolution. In "Frozen," the resolution is benign, and thus you have a "happy tale." But what if instead, they had...

Anyway, it's a fascinating example of how similar the underlying product is in films of completely different impact.

I have two versions below.




2020