Frostbitten

This movie starts with a flashback. A flashback were they talk German, but evidently you can hear (if you're familiar with the German language), that the actors are not Germans themselves. Just a trivia fact, for the beginning. Because this doesn't hurt the movie, after the flashback you get to the present time and the movie kicks off. And that means it really get's going! It then starts out more as (teen-)comedy, just to evolve into a horror-comedy. The transition is pretty good and many jokes work, but unfortunately in the end (literally), the movie falls short. It just seems, that they run out of ideas or money ... or both, but this movie does not feel like it's finished. It's a shame then, because this could've been so much better, but it's still good!

Over here in Europe, and especially during the annual Horror & Fantasy Festivals all over the continent, "Frostbite" got endlessly praised and acclaimed as one of the most innovating and creative new vampire movies of the last few decades, but you honestly have to put all this eulogy into perspective a little. First of all because European horror critics understandably wish to promote our own stuff as opposed to that uninspired American "junk" and, secondly, because the guys behind the camera (director Anders Banke and producer Magnus Paulsson) used to be involved in the organization of the Swedish Fantasy Festival and thus the critics support each other. Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of the horror-festivals and I'm grateful that I can go and watch a truckload of new cult stuff there every year, but this circle of European Fantasy Festivals is undeniably some sort of elite club. That being said, I don't intend to state "Frostbite" is a bad film or anything … It just isn't as original and refreshing as it pretends to be. Given the North-Swedish setting, the tag line and the synopsis, I was anticipating a sort of predecessor to "30 Days of Night" but it's actually something completely different. The story revolves on an obsessive doctor trying to create the ultimate breed of vampires ever since he himself became one during World War II. He invented these red pills to fine-tune vampirism, but they accidentally end up at a local teenager's house party and all the guests gradually transform into bloodthirsty monsters. "Frostbite" features a lot of ideas and simultaneously attempts to parody the horror genre, but unfortunately it only became a very incoherent, not-so-funny and seemingly finished horror movie. The intro-flashback is overlong and, in general, not a whole lot is happening during the first hour. The last half hour compensates for a lot, though, since the film becomes extremely gory, absurd and tasteless. The actual ending comes abruptly and makes no sense at all, but the foregoing house-party massacre is quite cool to watch. The special and make-up effects are excellent (clearly, most of the budget went there) and the acting performances of the primarily young and inexperienced cast members are more than adequate. "Frostbite" is definitely an interesting and potentially terrific film, but the writers nearly didn't make enough use of the location's possibilities and the polar night concept.

First of all, I like vampire movies, but in my opinion there are very few good ones out there. This is one of them. I was psyched when i heard that a Swedish vampire movie was coming out, just because it was Swedish. I had however not very high expectations on it, figuring that it was going to be a movie that took itself all to serious. This wasn't the case at all. The movie is made in a kind of "Shaun of the Dead"- style, meaning not much horror but more humor, and the humor is good. The acting is perhaps a bit stiff (don't know if it's intentional or just on account of them being bad) but i find that this ad to the comic effect. Overall, a very entertaining movie that should be viewed simply because it's a Swedish vampire movie, but deserves to be viewed because it's quite well made.

Awful. I give it a '1'. The lowest value I could find. The movie could have been great. After I've watched the first 10-15 minutes of it I gave the movie a fair chance. It caught me. A group of soldiers in a deep forest in Ukraina during WW2, looking for shelter during the night. (Man! This can be great, I thought). Anyway, so far the movie seems to be great. Great acting and filming. THEN, all of a sudden, the movie jumps into modern time. And a complete disaster is a fact (only after 10 minutes or something like that). After I've watched the first half of the movie, I was starting to feeling sick. The acting was bad, the story was awful, the whole thing and idea was a disaster. I hated it. Before I started to watch it, me and my friend I watched it with had a few movies we've promised ourselves to never watch again. A few of them were Dogma, ExistenZ and The Cube 2 (Hypercube?). These films, which I've hated for so long suddenly appeared as masterpieces. But I must give Frostbiten creds for their great effects! Sorry to tell you all that they have absolutely no use. Frostbiten made me wanna commit suicide. I can't sleep at night, I can't watch Swedish movies any more - It killed me from the inside, and not because of the story or effects, only because of it's "worthlessity". Do I recommend you to see it? Well, I'm sorry (or not), but I can't say 'yes' to that question.

When a movie's title is a bad pun (it's equally bad in English - "Frostbite") you know you're going to be in for a good time. After endless amounts of lame comedy and drama productions from Sweden, it's refreshing to see that Anders Banke tries something new: a hilarious, suspenseful vampire movie, the first vampire movie to have ever come out of Sweden. In a way, it's an epic. Not that Banke's movie is anywhere near pretentious enough to be called an epic. Frostbiten opens with some fantastic footage of a snow-covered, dark landscape, accompanied by haunting music that perfectly set the tone for the movie. Already at this point we can tell this will be different, and infinitely better, than most Swedish films. What comes after that is an amazing, high-paced film with energetic performances and brilliant touches of humour. How can you not laugh at a little dog telling our hero that he's going to burn in hell? Or the fact that the main vampire is killed by a garden gnome? Though it is not perfect (especially not the badly executed ending), Frostbiten is extremely entertaining, clever and positively brilliant. The "shocker" scenes are shocking, the comical scenes are funny, and performances are great all around, with the possible exception of Grete Havnesköld, who is pretty lackluster as Saga, our main character. Emma Åberg's Vega, on the other hand, is an absolute gem. Frostbiten is an amazing film that fulfills all your hopes and makes you believe that Swinema actually has a future. A bizarre, hilarious and competently put together action and gore fest that proves that even Swedish people can make high quality movies.(r#36)

Considering it really had the makings of a great horror movie, I really got disappointed. Vampires, blood, night for a whole month in a pretty small town. Furthermore there aren't many good Swedish horror movies, so this one was really something I was looking forward to. How wrong I was.. I mean -why, why, why?! Where did the budget go? Why don't write at least 25 pages of manuscript before start filming and why not hire a director while you're at it? Awful acting, sometimes good special effects but no more than in a half-decent B-movie. A good thought started it all, and the idea isn't all bad, but where did it all go? We need more odd and special, not just strange and intellectual pictures from Sweden, but sure a heck not more movies like this one.

When it's finally time for a Swedish horror whit a real budget it turns out to be, well not so good. Its a shame really cause this movie has been under production for many years so one had hoped they would give us , if not great, at least a good film. No luck there. I have no idea what the director was thinking when he watched the final cut. The whole climax of the movie is horrible edited. We go from one scene to another and after a while you have lost track of what is happening, and you really don't care either. The acting is at times lousy, the one who gets away is Jonas Karlstöm who plays Sebastian. He makes the movie worth seeing. The effects of the movie are great, nothing to complain about there. What bothers me the most is if this was the last Chance for Swedish horror.

Oh my god! I just got back from seeing it in The Gothenburg Film festival. Like many other Sweedes who have bin starving for some genre cinema to call our own I was looking forward to the first Swedish vampire movie. We start the movie in a cold and snowy German front, with some sweedes fighting for the Germans are pinned down and must find shelter for the night. This scene consists of 4 - 5 actors dressed up in funny looking German uniforms with fake icicles in their beards speaking awful German hiding behind a small hill and it all looks like it's shot by a blind cameraman. And we get lots of cg muzzle flashes from the woods afar. It all looked like a school project home movie. After watching this scene I got really worried and thought it must get better than this! Or this movie will be a huge nail in the Swedish genre movie coffin. They find a cabin , some of the get killed by a vampire and one of them gets turned. We flash forward to the present where we get: Talking animals and a lot of amateur actors acting amateurish turning into vampires after taking some red pills. The fx budget for the movie is 5 million Swedish kronor of with I don't see ANY of on the screen. There is this big rubbery suit main villain and some sub par cg. And thats it! And by the time the end credits rolled I could not wait to get out of the school auditorium we saw it in.. The director was supposed to be there for a Q and A session but the failed to show up after the end credits rolled, I wonder why? My god this is so bad! Seems like they got a 13 year old to write the script. And his def and dumb brother to direct it. These people are in the music video / commercial business and this garbage is what they come up with? I hope that there will be some brave producers out there after this mess who will have the guts to make and help make more genre movies in Sweden. I'm so disappointed. Awful awful movie.

It is nice to see some genre-movies produced in Sweden, finally. This is an ambitious project but somewhat let-down by (among other things) a low budget. The script is very enjoyable with funny set pieces and some good dialog which, unfortunately, is not always delivered well. The direction is lacking, some scenes are very awkwardly blocked, hardly rising above film-school level, and some of these things can not be blamed solely on the low budget. The ending is too abrupt, also. Much effort seems to have been put into the special effects, and they generally look very good. The score is symphonic, which is a really good choice, and it works well, although it is a bit overused. The sound is also really bad in some places, which add to the "film school"-feeling. The Russian music during the opening titles is really inspired and creates a nice atmosphere (reminiscent of Polanski's "The Fearless Vampire Killers). It is sad that the rest of the movie doesn't quite hold up. But it deserves to be praised for its ambition and just because it at least tries to be different from every other film produced in our, film standard-wise, mediocre country. It should have been a full Swedish "Lost Boys" but instead we got about 1/3 of it. (Hm, the IMDb comments spelling device makes suggestions identical to what I have typed, happen to anybody else?)

After Let the Right One In, I was wary about approaching another Swedish vampire film. Surely it couldn't live up to the brilliance of that master piece. Well, it doesn't. But Frostbiten is a different kind of beast altogether. Frostbiten is a wonderful return to classical vampires. They hate garlic, don't have reflections etc. This lends itself well to the comic tone of the film. Even in a foreign language, this is instantly quotable and memorable. From lines such as "Stop throwing garden gnomes at me!" and a girl making an X rather than a crucifix, we have a film that doesn't take itself seriously, but isn't stupid either. The film does well to split up the adult world and the teen world. The teen world is basically filled with drugs and parties, lending itself as the perfect set-up for a massacre. Meanwhile, the adult world is filled with the backstory and the main plot thrust.The score and soundtrack work in perfect harmony. The film opens during the war, and the score has an eerie Gothic sound which seems as though is should be coming straight from a gramophone. The effects are perfect in my opinion. The mix of CG and make-up is almost indistinguishable. It comes across as an old classical stop-motion piece at times. The whole film was enjoyable in the same way as The Lost Boys. Fun, exciting and hilarious. Only, Frostbiten has talking dogs.