Below Zero

The only thing going for this movie, worth at most 3 stars, is the cute and versatile actress Kristin Booth. The rest of the horror is a patchwork of scenes from every slasher film you've ever seen mixed with every evil kid film you've ever seen. The concept was original, but the execution, pardon the pun, was disastrous.

BELOW ZERO is a thinking person's mystery horror. A scriptwriter, Jack the Hack, has writer's block and arranges to be locked in a slaughterhouse freezer until he comes up with a script. Believe it or not, scriptwriter Signe Olynyk tells me she also did this when writing the movie. On screen, the story is dramatised for us as Jack writes, so we have two on-screen narratives: Jack's world (think, Fargo) and that of the alter ego in his story (think Saw). As he considers various re-writes, the story within a story changes. But a third story is at hand: that from Jack's own psyche. His basic plot, surprise surprise, is someone accidentally being locked in a freezer, in a building owned by a serial killer. But, if you can stand back from the subsequent on screen gore, there's maybe time to work out what's really happening! This Kaufmanesque horror story keeps you on your toes all the way through. Signe doesn't recommend new writers try the freezer trick at home, but she does run a scriptwriters' workshop, Pitchfest (www.pitchfest.com), and invites any budding writers reading this to get in touch with her.

BORING! You only see a freezer, a dissection room, and hanging pigs. Although the problem is - what part of the story is the BOOK, or which is REAL LIFE? I realize, when the guy is wearing the red plaid shirt, he's in the story - and when he is wearing the hoodie, this is real life... but... they keep rewriting the book, changing the story.

So, is Person X alive in the real world, or is Person X dead in the book? Did they resurrect him like Jesus, or just done with a pen (computer and later an old-school non-electric typewriter).

The end of the movie (or the book, not sure) was kind of funny, especially if it was done in the real world. But, I wouldn't watch this snooze fest just to find out the conundrum at the end. Just not worth it!

SKIP THIS ONE!!!!!

"You know what they say about writing about monsters, you got to be careful not to become one." Jack (Furlong) is a struggling screen writer with a bad case of writer's block. Him and his agent come up with the idea of locking himself in a freezer until he finishes writing. While he is in the freezer writing about his serial killer the line between real and imagined begins to blur and Jack is finding it hard to distinguish what is real and what his mind is doing to him. This is another movie where the idea is better then the actual movie. While there are some creepy parts in this I found it confusing. The idea of Jack not able to tell what is real and what isn't is neat, but the problem is that the movie jumps all over the place and it is very hard to relax watching it because you never know what is going on. Normally that would be a good thing because you feel what the character is feeling but it comes off as being like there was a new writer every ten minutes and it was all cut together that way. I found it very hard to follow and by the end I found it hard to be surprised about the twist. Overall, not bad but a little confusing to follow. I give it a C.

Below Zero is geared for those who are 16 and older. This film is OK for background for a teen party, teen get-together for something other than to concentrate on a movie. Just noise. I found the movie dull and boring. In order to keep it on, I had to do other things while watching Below Zero. No popcorn popper here. The story is dull. I suppose the actors try their best, but cannot save a bad movie. The sets are dull and boring.It is not as bad as Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, but it is not that far away. Below Zero is a very low budget movie. Whatever money is/was received at the box office should amount to pure profit since not much money was poured into the making of this film. I give this movie two thumbs up, which may be one too many, but I felt generous remembering Attack Of The Killer Tomatoes.