Jack Frost (1996)

Jack Frost (1996)
Director: Michael Cooney
Staring: Chris Allport, Shannon Elizabeth

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by Roy Seeger

Jack Frost should not be a good horror movie. I suspect it may, in fact, be quite bad, but it is still one of my absolute favorites. Granted, there isn’t one truly scary moment in the film and the plot is so lame that you’d think it ripe for a Mystery Science Theatre-esque voice over, but for the fact that it is so damn funny on its own. With the title and opening credits, Jack Frost begins in the vein of a surreal Christmas special (I giggle at the thought of folks mistaking this for the Michael Keaton movie of the same title). This is the story of Jack Frost, a serial killer who vowed revenge against the small-town cop who arrested him. On the drive to his execution, Jack gets doused in toxic waste and turns into a snowman, with the ability to melt, shoot icicles, etc. Hi-jinks ensue.

So how could a movie like this be so good? Its self-awareness—this movie may not have social issues on its mind, but its twisted humor, its ability to parody both Christmas and Horror movie formulas make Jack Frost an under-recognized classic. The plot devices are sudden and convenient, and the special effects succeed through jarring close-ups, camera angles, and clever use of foam. I’m not saying there isn’t a little bit of pain for the viewer: the acting isn’t good, and the characters are mostly flat, but just about the time you begin rethinking this movie’s innate greatness, there comes another death scene, which will be a strange, wrong, hilarious thing…but then the greatness of this film is in the small details: a child’s head in a bag, an implied snowman rape scene (where did that carrot go?). I don’t know what it says about me that I find these scenes funny, but you try not laughing and then judge.

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On the sub-genre of Horror-comedy: I think it is important to understand the differences between true Horror, where the director is trying their best to make the viewers crap their pants, and Horror-Comedy (Homedy?) which not only parodies the traditions of serious Horror, but also finds humor in death itself. Audiences cheer the high body count and take a drink with each stabbing. The killers tend to be clever and could almost kill with the sharpness of their one-liners. How can we take any of this violence seriously? The obvious answer is “we can’t,” but what interests me more is the reason why, and the possible psychological effects of making violence laughable.

Understand, to talk generally about anything is to invite argument (argue, please), and I would hate to give artistic credit to all the creators of Horror-comedies (even some of the ones I love), but there seems something inherently interesting in the concept that death is funny, especially violent creative death. Of course there is the ridiculous concern that watching violence directly makes us more violent, and the more rational one that watching death after fictional death makes the real thing, when we hear it on the news, not quite so horrible. We may imagine that we know something of the real thing. This might even be a valid concern in Horror-comedies if it were not for the ridiculous premises of these movies. Take for instance Jack Frost. The deaths don’t become truly funny until the killer turns into a living snowman and uses his new-found ice powers in a variety of homicidal ways. There is a minimal connection with the real world, and therefore the violence takes on an absurd quality it is hard to find threatening. There is much more danger in watching Cop Dramas or War Flicks which usually occur in a realistic setting when they aren’t based on real events.

In the best Horror-Comedies this absurdity is able (whether intentional or not) to draw attention to the tropes of serious Horror (by serious I mean Horror that takes ITSELF seriously), and show how far these tropes are from the real world. The killers still tend to be extensions of American Puritanical values—loners die as do people who fornicate, swear, smoke, or drink alcohol—but in such a way that it shows our puritanical beliefs as ridiculous. By the rules of horror movies Shannon Elisabeth has it coming when she sneaks into a neighbors house to take a bath and have sex right after learning of a death in the family. We even laugh at the death scene where Jack Frost embraces and kills her naked form (implying much more). Of course it is mortifying, even as we laugh at the absurdity. It also draws attention to the truth of the matter that no matter her deviant behavior, she did not “have it coming.”

Horror-comedy plays with the rules and viewers expectations, and is also able to comment on the genre they parody (I am NOT talking about the Scary Movie franchise). At their best they point out the ridiculous contradictory values that creep into many horror movies (the viewer thinks they know the secret to survival, while just the act of watching a horror movie is enough justification to die). It’s not the actual deaths in horror movies that are problematic, but that each death, in the context of the film, is justified. This is fine as long as it remains a fantasy. The problem is when viewers apply this fictional context to the real world. This is all but impossible to do when the villain is a Rat-Monkey (rats that came off a boat and raped the indigenous monkeys), or a radioactive snowman, or a clumsy alien blob. And in the light this revelation, we might begin to understand the ludicrous nature and the formula too many horror movies fall into.