Frostbiter

source: Frostbiter

Moviecut—Frostbiter

This movie is absolutely horrible. The soundtrack is terrible, the action is awful, the special effects are laughable, and everything else is just plain bad. However, the whole movie is hilarious. Go out and see it if you like bad movies, even if watching it makes you hate yourself.

I've been a Troma fan ever since I was a small child, and I can say with confidence that the majority of the company's non-Lloyd Kaufman films tend to be…well, junk. I've wasted many, many hours of my life wading through some of Troma's most despicable pictures, but every once in a while I have the luck to stumble upon a true hidden gem, and "Frostbiter: Wrath of the Wendigo" is one of them. Despite the "terror" that the DVD box promises us, "Frostbiter" is most definitely a comedy. More so, it's a straight-up parody of the "Evil Dead" movies: after a decades-long curse is disrupted, an army of ghouls and demonic forces see fit to attack the residents of a remote cabin in the woods, and before you know it, one of our shotgun-toting heroes has lost his right hand and a giant stop-motion tree-like monster is attacking the cabin. Just about every major plot point from "Evil Dead" 1 and 2 is spoofed, but it's all done with a knowing wink n' smile, and all approached in the same Raimi-esquire Three Stoogian fashion. Yes, it's stupid, and no, it doesn't adhere to anything remotely resembling logic, but it's consistently entertaining, and that's mostly because it's considerably well-made for its minuscule budget. The jokes, although mostly low-brow, are funny, the editing keeps the manic comic pace constant throughout the film, and the cinematography is rather good, especially during the action scenes: whenever one of those puppets comes to assault the protagonists, the camera goes into "Coen Brothers mode", whipping around frenetically, exaggerating close-ups, skewing perspectives…although said rubber puppets are insanely silly-looking and hardly plausible, one can't help but get involved in the scene. As with any low-budget picture, though, "Frostbiter" suffers from uneven acting: some of the actors were decent enough, but a few were distractingly terrible. At the center of the cast is Stooges guitarist Ron Asheton, who goofily hams up each of his scenes, coming off as a mix somewhere between a hyper Bill Murray and a subdued Chris Farley. Asheton isn't the best actor, no, but his sheer over-the-top presence seems to fit the zany tone of the movie quite well, and works excellently in comparison to the rest of the cast, who play their roles straight. 'Frostbiter: Wrath of the Wendigo' isn't the best Troma film, nor might it appeal to everyone within the Troma fan base, but it's certainly one of their better horror-comedies, and definitely worth a look for fans of offbeat horror or the "Evil Dead" series.

FROSTBITER: WRATH OF THE WENDIGO is one of the few independent comedy/horror films I've genuinely enjoyed, an open rip-off/homage to THE EVIL DEAD which doesn't let the lack of originality get in the way of being entertaining. The story sees a bunch of goofy, badly over-dubbed guys heading into the frosty woods to do some hunting, unwittingly summoning up an evil and ancient forest spirit in the process. This is all an excuse for lots of cheap and cheesy action sequences in which the dwindling heroes battle various demonic entities and monsters, with the emphasis on goo and gore throughout. There's some cool stop motion, a random good centaur, a monster that looks like it's made of excrement, and a generally amusing feel to the whole thing.

Right, well I can't exactly say that I was harboring any particular grand expectations to the 1995 horror comedy "Frostbiter: Wrath of the Wendigo". However, while it was a movie that I had neither seen or heard about prior to finding in in 2023, of course I opted to sit down and watch it. And while I am sure that there is an audience out there for a movie such as this, then writers Tom Chaney, Rick Cioffi and Steve Quick just didn't really manage to deliver something that wholeheartedly entertained me. The storyline in "Frostbiter: Wrath of the Wendigo" just fell short of entertaining me, so it wasn't really a movie that I enjoyed sitting through. And it most definitely isn't a movie that I will be returning to watch a second time. The acting performances in the movie were fair enough. Needless to say that I wasn't familiar with the cast ensemble here, nor were there any outstanding performances that caught my attention. Visually then "Frostbiter: Wrath of the Wendigo" was not an impressive movie. And as for it being a horror comedy, well it was not really delivering much of either for my liking. My rating of director Tom Chaney's 1995 movie "Frostbiter: Wrath of the Wendigo" lands on a three out of ten stars.

A wendigo is released after a hunter shoots and kills an old man that was keeping the evil contained within a protective circle. Soon after many deaths fall upon the other hunters and people in the area. This film is jam packed with different styles of practical fx. Its cheezy and totally fun! But still delivers with some great scenes of monsters and gore! There is a plane crash scene that is entirely miniatures. also there is some stop motion fx which is like truffle oil to the recipe of horror. Its a classic evil dead homage flick. which to me is a genre all its own. but that doesn't define this movie. It is frostbiter one of a kind awesome low budget horror that looks as fun to have made, as it was to watch!

The Wendigo is a formidable creature of Native American mythology. Formidable and extremely nasty. Here it is both those things and extremely silly. If by twenty minutes into this film you don't realise it isn't to be taken seriously, you really need to check your humour gauge. Having said that, some humour just isn't funny. If this film has any strengths at all it is the soundtrack and some half-decent special effects. It has a plot too, the gate to Hell has been opened, its guardian has been murdered, and a new one has been summoned to close it. This is far from original, see for example the 1977 film "The Sentinel", wherein the role of the guardian is not revealed until the end. Here it is a young woman who is visited in a dream by the ghost of the newly slain guardian. She makes her way to a desolate Canadian island to complete her mission, and stumbles into not just the Wendigo but a bunch of idiots. After this film, our heroine Lori Baker appears to have made only one more, two years later, which is hardly surprising; putting "Wendigo" on her CV must have been the kiss of death for her acting career.

Call me crazy, but I actually loved this film. It was clearly a rip-off of Evil Dead 2 and other such horror films, but it didn't take itself seriously, and it followed the general Troma Films basic movie formula by trying to be a little bit scary while funny. The film has bad acting, but it acknowledges that it will be bad, and takes advantage of it. It also has purposefully bad special effects. Personal favorite scenes of mine are the witch attack in the cabin, the Wendigo itself, and the fact that one of the main stars looks just like my best friend's dad. This film's music soundtrack is crazy, featuring songs that sometimes have nothing to do with what is shown on screen. Overall, I think that for fans of bad horror movies, this one not only is bad, but it also sends up bad horror films, so it is worth a look and kind of an unknown gem.

This movie goes beyond bad, it has no redeeming qualities. Special Effects? Awful, even for a "B" movie. Plot? Crap. Acting? Non-existent. Music? Embarrassingly bad? Dialog? Idiotic? Humor? None. There is nothing redeeming about this film. If you like crappy films? Then you'll love this one. If you want a movie with a plot, continuity, or anything of the sort? Pass. It doesn't even have cheesy special effects as the quality of the special effects in this movie come nowhere high enough to even approach cheesy. I don't know who told these people that they should make a movie, but this movie is bad, even for a Troma film. Save yourself the time. I wish I had.