12/27/2023 0 Comments Jack frost movieWhile Keaton's Jack Frost isn’t driven to over-the-top aggression by his predicament, he does use his supernatural snowball-throwing abilities to pummel bullies from his son's school. However, the family film takes the wintry magic to even wilder extremes. The horror film plays by the rules of the genre, allowing its chilling villain to utilize the snow to commit over-the-top slayings. It should be enough that they’re alive at all, but each film bestows the snowmen with powers from beyond. Both snowmen have a personal wrong to correct - something that twists their guts so much that even the Grim Reaper's grip can’t hold them. The magical powers of both Jack Frosts are as baffling as the core concept of each film. Why the filmmakers felt this film was the perfect place to insert a chilly reference remains a mystery, but this otherwise heartwarming tale would be better without it. Later, he refers to his big “balls.” He's ostensibly talking about the three balls of snow he’s made from, but the joke isn’t lost on the grown-ups in the room. Immediately after returning to life as a snowman, Michael Keaton’s character bemoans the loss of his genitals. The family film’s references are less overt, but that’s what makes them even more problematic. It’s a straight-to-video, bawdy horror film - these things are par for the course. To say the snowman shouldn’t be making innuendos with his carrot nose is to misunderstand the genre. While the scene is more awful than anything in the family film, this kind of “humor” is standard fare in teen-oriented slasher flicks. Later in the film, the carrot moves below the belt for cringe-worthy comedic effect. There’s a recreation of A Nightmare on Elm Street’s famous bathtub scene, with Jack Frost's carrot nose replacing Freddy Krueger's creepy claws. The movie is rife with overtly adult moments. Jack Frost, the 1997 horror outing, is a B-movie that flexes its kitschy muscles until they burst. It has a big, wide mouth that moves as if masticating Gummi Bears. It has tree limbs for arms, which spin through 360 degrees when it's throwing snowballs. When it moves, it doesn't exactly glide - it walks, but without feet, like it's creeping on its torso. They say state-of-the-art special effects can create the illusion of anything on the screen, and now we have proof: It's possible for the Jim Henson folks and Industrial Light and Magic to put their heads together and come up with the most repulsive single creature in the history of special effects, and I am not forgetting the Chucky doll or the desert intestine from Star Wars. To see the snowman is to dislike the snowman. Never have I disliked a movie character more. It’s almost as if a Rankin/Bass stop-motion puppet was cursed by a witch to stalk the Earth for all eternity.Įven Roger Ebert, one of the most respected film critics of the 20th century, was unnerved by the look of Keaton’s snowman. The Jim Henson Creature Shop brought the snowman to life through a mix of puppetry and CG, and the result is creepily human, yet still different enough to have an uncanny effect. However, Keaton’s Frost is arguably even more frightening. His snowy grin is less a smile and more a maniacal grimace. While the two Jack Frosts are similar in appearance, the horror film character is given a comic grin. ![]() The weather outside may be frightful, but Michael Keaton’s turn as a “snow dad” is more ghastly than you can imagine. What should be a fun film for the whole family morphs into a creepy movie that, at times, borders on cinematic agony. From a critical perspective, it’s hard to watch 1998’s family-friendly Jack Frost without wondering how the filmmakers didn't realize their titular snowman is one of the most unnerving characters in children's cinema. While the horror film's snowman carries out acts of personal terror with twisted glee, Keaton’s Frost is just as unnerving, albeit in a completely different way. What’s surprising about these two films, though, is the number of similarities they share. ![]() It’s also not out of the ordinary for films to share a title - especially when they are named after common phrases. The films are so different, both in genre and visual style, that it’s hard to imagine anyone confusing these movies. ![]() One year later, in a film with the same title, Michael Keaton starred as a negligent father who turns into a snowman after a fatal car accident. In 1997 Jack Frost was released, a horror film about a serial killer who becomes a snowman. The late '90s were a magical time for anthropomorphic snowmen.
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