Movie Info
Movie Name: Jack Frost
Studio: A-Pix Entertainment, Inc.
Genre(s): Horror/Seasonal/B-Movie
Release Date(s): January 1, 1997
MPAA Rating: R
Tis the Season…for killer snowmen!
When serial killer Jack Frost (Scott MacDonald) is killed by an experimental chemical on his way to be executed, he finds himself bonded to the snow he died in and able to transform into a killer snowman. Jack’s out for revenge against Sheriff Sam Tiler (Christopher Allport) who captured him, and Tiler’s town of Snowmonton is in the path of death and destruction that Jack is weaving. Jack is all powerful and not even the scientists who accidentally created him can stop him!
Directed and written by Michael Cooney (with additional writing by Jeremy Paige), Jack Frost is a B-Movie horror comedy. The film was released to negative reviews but gained a cult following over the years.
I can remember renting Jack Frost when it came out. My friends and I knew it would be bad, but we thought it would be funny bad…and it was. Jack Frost is a bad movie (often intentionally), but it is the type of bad movie that goes from “so-bad” back to good because it is bad.
Don’t let a killer snowman sneak up on you…
The story isn’t that far off some comic book storylines. The evil killer Jack is caught in an experimental explosion and gains superpowers…it could be in the MCU. The story takes the ridiculous plot and accepts it as ridiculous. You have people claiming “the snowman did it” and Jack constantly spouting off one-liners that are poor versions of Arnold Schwarzenegger catchphrases. The snowman gets the women and it gets revenges…and ultimate gets killed by oatmeal cookies filled with antifreeze make by a kid who may or may not have a mental disability who actually thought that they would help his father stay warm.
Scott MacDonald goes for the Chucky-Freddy Krueger comedy approach with his Jack Frost (he appears as a human briefly in the beginning of the film and in flashbacks). Jack is pretty obnoxious and most of his jokes fall flat. While Chucky and Freddy’s one-liners were clever, Jack’s seem tired. Christopher Allport plays the sheriff who can’t shoot straight who is set to take Jack down. The film also features the film premiere of Shannon Elizabeth as Jack’s unfortunate shower-buddy (who knows where that carrot nose went).
She spends about 30 minutes drying her hair then gets in the bathtub…Shannon Elizabeth deserves death by snowman
Jack Frost not only is poorly scripted, but it looks cheap. Jack essentially is a big stuffed snowman and when he isn’t a snowman, he’s a puddle of water. The horror is minor, the laughs are weak, and the threat of a giant snowman that looks like Jack are minimal…leading to it being a great comedy in its failings.
Jack Frost is a bad film that you can watch over and over again. From the opening with the weird “tell me a story grandpa” squeaky voice to the death by antifreeze, Jack Frost fails in glorious fashion. In 1998, a “nice” movie where Michael Keaton dies and comes back as a snowman to help his family cope was also called Jack Frost…hopefully parents didn’t get them mixed up (but I’m sure at least someone did). Jack Frost was followed by Jack Frost 2: Revenge of the Mutant Killer Snowman in 2000.
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