Diagonaldi
Very well executed
Borgarkeri
A bit overrated, but still an amazing film
SparkMore
n my opinion it was a great movie with some interesting elements, even though having some plot holes and the ending probably was just too messy and crammed together, but still fun to watch and not your casual movie that is similar to all other ones.
Alistair Olson
After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.
vchimpanzee
Jack is an aspiring screenwriter whose goal is to write a movie about a man locked in a freezer. To do this, he needs to be locked in a freezer himself, and he travels to a remote area to do this. It is already cold where Jack goes, but he needs to be even colder. Penny, the quirky woman who picks him up, has an accent straight out of the movie "Fargo", and a son who won't talk; his father took off years ago because he couldn't accept a son who was "different". Whatever Jack needs, she will provide; Jack's agent has provided all the directions. They go to an old slaughterhouse and Jack goes right to work in the freezer, which Penny locks unexpectedly. Jack wants out, but Penny has been told he has to stay there for five days. It isn't cold, though ... yet.As Jack works, we see the movie that he is writing. It's quite dreary; everything looks green, while in the "real world" of the freezer, everything looks blue. Frank (Jack) drives a tow truck and his friend Marty works at the garage. According to the credits, the same actor playing Marty is supposedly Jack's agent, but I don't recall seeing him. Anyway, Frank has an accident inspired by an incident with cows that Jack and Penny had. He has to go in search of a phone, and there isn't much around. He finds an isolated dump of a butcher shop which looks quite familiar, and a demented butcher named Gunnar violently attacking his meat. Gunnar has a creepy son who won't talk. Frank manages to find the phone and call Marty. When Marty calls back, Gunnar angrily says Frank isn't there; he believes this to be true, as Frank is hiding. As Jack makes script changes, we see the film "rewind", and other techniques are used later for rewrites. Occasionally we return to the "real world", where Jack faces one crisis after another. He ends up using a great-looking old typewriter for his writing at one point. Eventually, Jack is under pressure to produce as the thermostat starts getting lowered.Back in the movie within a movie, Frank discovers Paige, who is being held prisoner. And Marty shows up eventually but doesn't exactly have a positive experience with Gunnar.We go through some amazing plot twists in both the "real world" and the movie within a movie. I found it funny when the characters had to figure out what to do next and ended up looking through the pages Jack had typed. And it's not the only time they break the fourth wall.In a flashback we do learn about the other character which the actor playing Gunnar was. He's very different but still scary looking.The ending was quite unexpected (to me, anyway) but very satisfying.The movie within a movie is somewhat effective as a B horror movie. Michael Berryman is a very frightening and intimidating villain, yet loving as a father, in his own way. The young actor quite creepy for a kid. Kristin Booth is very convincing when she is cold, but frightened? Not as talented in that situation. She's better in her "real world" role.I've heard the name Edward Furlong. He's pretty good, I guess. Nothing overly distinctive.I felt comfortable with Michael Eisner. He was sort of the voice of reason when he could be. The "real world" has its own interesting suspense qualities. And there is occasional comedy in both. This most definitely isn't for kids. The sound went out a lot since this was broadcast TV. I know what that means. And that's just the bad language. Maybe when cleaned up for TV, some kids can handle it.Is this any good? Well, it's different.
jfarms1956
Below Zero is geared for those who are 16 and older. This film is OK for background for a teen party, teen get-together for something other than to concentrate on a movie. Just noise. I found the movie dull and boring. In order to keep it on, I had to do other things while watching Below Zero. No popcorn popper here. The story is dull. I suppose the actors try their best, but cannot save a bad movie. The sets are dull and boring.It is not as bad as Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, but it is not that far away. Below Zero is a very low budget movie. Whatever money is/was received at the box office should amount to pure profit since not much money was poured into the making of this film. I give this movie two thumbs up, which may be one too many, but I felt generous remembering Attack Of The Killer Tomatoes.
Michael 'Hallows Eve' Smillie
* SPOILER ALERT! * > This movie had promise for me, after reading reviews and the storyline I thought it would be decent. But after the first ten minutes it went down hill. Because almost from the start you find out that most of the story is not real. It's what the main character Jack (Edward Furlong) see's as he writes his book. So you know that none of what's happening is actually real. Although parts of the film make you think it may be real, at the same time the film shows you it is not. Sure there was some nice blood and gory bits, but it's ruined by the fact that it's only what Jack is writing. The film sets up the ending to be a twist, but you actually see it coming too. It have to admit though, the acting was pretty good, just the script let it down. So I give this movie a 4 out of 10 for the acting, blood and some of the story which could have been better.
Tony Heck
"You know what they say about writing about monsters, you got to be careful not to become one." Jack (Furlong) is a struggling screen writer with a bad case of writer's block. Him and his agent come up with the idea of locking himself in a freezer until he finishes writing. While he is in the freezer writing about his serial killer the line between real and imagined begins to blur and Jack is finding it hard to distinguish what is real and what his mind is doing to him. This is another movie where the idea is better then the actual movie. While there are some creepy parts in this I found it confusing. The idea of Jack not able to tell what is real and what isn't is neat, but the problem is that the movie jumps all over the place and it is very hard to relax watching it because you never know what is going on. Normally that would be a good thing because you feel what the character is feeling but it comes off as being like there was a new writer every ten minutes and it was all cut together that way. I found it very hard to follow and by the end I found it hard to be surprised about the twist. Overall, not bad but a little confusing to follow. I give it a C.