ICED (1989)

ICED (1989)

Tagline: A downhill vacation becomes a nightmare of terror. Get off the hill before you get...

(Horror, Thriller, Skiing In The Dark) [R]

Note: As far as I can tell this was never released in theaters and was not given an MPAA rating, but it definitely would have been an [R].

I'm taking a shower then crashing, when's dinner?

In this one, a group of friends returns to the ski resort where years earlier a mutual friend was killed after being invited by an unknown person promising great times and a free stay. It doesn’t take long before the group realizes things are not as they seem when their host tells them he not only invited but spoke to their dead friend. As the night wears on, the group is getting picked off one by one. Will anyone survive till dawn? 

First off, the main issue with this movie is not the execution. For 80s cheese, this is right up there with some of the better ones. The suspense is good and it’s got all the right elements for 80s horror that you could want. The issue is this crazy storyline. So I bet you are asking yourself…so what is wrong with it?

Unfortunately, like a lot of 80s horror, the plot for this thing just doesn’t make any sense at all. It’s another one of those movies where the killer is just magically in two places at once. It’s also a movie where the killer's motive is ridiculous. If you are going to have a slasher in your slasher film, either give that person an actual motive worth killing over or just go the simple route and make them a full-blown homicidal maniac who is an actual lunatic and doesn’t care about anything.   

This movie does have a few stars that have been in other things. The most notable is Lisa Loring who plays Jeanette. Her character in the movie starts out making sense, but then just does a bunch of really dumb things that make it seem like they just threw her that stuff to get a wider male audience. Loring by the way was the original Wednesday Addams on “The Addams Family”. Debra De Liso plays the leading lady or is at least the main focus of the movie named Trina. Debra De Liso was also in the 80s horror film THE SLUMBER PARTY MASSACRE. The movie also features Elizabeth Gorcey as Diane. Elizabeth was famous for roles in both TEEN WOLF and FOOTLOOSE. Some of this explains why this movie had a pretty solid cast but doesn’t explain why the movie’s plot was so mind-numbingly horrible. For that, we kind of have to blame director Joseph Alan Johnson who wrote this thing and gave himself the weirdest part. 

Overall this plot is a killer (pun intended) but most of the dialog, the backstories for the characters, etc, are not by any means terrible. For one of the more obscure horror flicks of the late 80s, I have to give this one a 3 out of 7, unless you are just a huge Lisa Loring fan and don’t mind her taking on a more revealing role. In that case, I am sure this one got a higher rating out of you.
 

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