Review of Freeze Frame (2004) by Dawdlingpoet — 26 Nov 2021

This is a dark, gritty, claustrophobic thriller which is quite 1984-ish, in that the majority of the scenes or footage shown consists of shaky CCTV camera type video recordings made there and then (labelled 'self cam'). The musical/incidental score is quite tense and there are multiple close ups of Sean's eyes which dart frantically around, making you question what he's seeing and adding to the sense of paranoia. By way of lighting and the type of scenes included, this film is almost drained of bright colours, it consists mainly of greys and blacks, although ironically its still fairly clear, so you can tell the main things that are going on, although it is a bit disorientating in certain parts, such as during fight scenes. It is rather gritty and sinister, with photos of crime scenes shown which obviously show the aftermath of bloody violence and one or two suggestive violent scenes, so its not for the faint hearted by any means. If your a fan of crime and detective novels, you may enjoy this as the movie centres on a crime mystery and as a viewer, you feel like your trying to reconstruct what happened and decide for yourself whether Sean is innocent and what exactly happened. Lets just say that not everything is as it seems, its rather sinister and the story moves along at a sort of slow but steady type pace, if that makes sense.

The characters within the movie are all quite complicated and well portrayed, it felt quite believable (which is rather sinister all things considered!). I think its fair to say that the story was well thought out/scripted (in advance). It makes you think and the movie in general is quite engrossing and compelling, as long as your ok with the violence and strong language present and the fact that its quite sinister and unpleasant in atmosphere, then you should enjoy this movie (if enjoy is the right term?). This is another example of a rather voyeuristic thriller/horror/crime based movie, which is quite gripping and haunting.

If this genre is one your keen on, then yes, I'd recommend this movie. The story is intriguing, the characters are well portrayed and its quite an engrossing watch, just not one for the particularly faint hearted. There are some interesting plot twists and it seemed like a pretty well made movie.