| Frostbiten | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Anders Banke |
| Produced by | Göran Lindström Magnus Paulsson |
| Written by | Daniel Ojanlatva |
| Starring | Petra Nielsen Grete Havnesköld Jonas Karlström Emma Åberg |
| Music by | Anthony Lledo |
| Cinematography | Chris Maris |
| Editing by | Kiko C.C. Sjöberg |
| Studio | Cinepost Studios Cinestar Production AB Fido Film AB Film i Skåne Filmpool Nord Moviemakers Nord AB Paramount Pictures Persson-Mothander Film Solid Entertainment Svenska Stuntgruppen Yggdrasil AB |
| Distributed by | Kanal 5 |
| Release date(s) | Sweden: 06 February 2006 |
| Running time | 98 minutes |
| Country | Sweden |
| Language | Swedish English German Finnish |
| Budget | About 3 000 000 dollars(21 million swedish crowns) |
Frostbite (Swedish title: Frostbiten) is a Swedish comedy horror film from 2006 directed by Anders Banke.
The film was produced outside the bigger Swedish films studios, which would be considered an independent film in America. It is not considered an independent film in Sweden as it received support from the Swedish Film Institute.
As well as the horror theme, various parts also have pure humour elements, and it is considered a horror/comedy by some newspapers that rated it. The film takes place in a small town in northern Sweden during midwinter, making the environment perfect for vampires because there are no sun hours during the dark and cold Nordic winter days. The vampire infection is brought to the area by the sole survivor of a Scandinavian SS unit that was attacked by a female vampire in a peasant's hut in Ukraine, during World War Two. The infection then lies dormant until, many years later, the theft of mysterious red capsules from a local hospital and the ingestion of them by a group of teenagers at a party leads to an outbreak of delirious mayhem and bloodshed as the young party-goers are transformed into vampires.
Despite having a similar concept to American horror movie 30 Days of Night, the movies are almost completely different. It's highly possible that the producers were not aware of each other's work. However, the 2008 comic 30 Days of Night: Red Snow, which has written long after the publication of Frostbiten, has more in common with Frostbiten than the original 30 Days of Night. All of these stories were pre-dated by an issue of Tales from the Crypt and an adaptation of that story in the television series of the same name entitled "Comes the Dawn".
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Ukraine 1944. The remnants of 5th SS Panzer Division Wiking are fleeing from The Red Army. A small platoon partly made up of Swedish volunteers escapes into the vast and frozen Ukrainian forests. They find an abandoned cabin and take shelter there. As they go to bed they are attacked by a vampire woman who kills two of the soldiers. The other soldiers seemingly kill it and one of the Swedish volunteers finds a hidden crypt beneath the cabin. In the crypt he finds a coffin belonging to the child vampire Maria. Maria tries to escape her coffin but the soldier buries her.
In present day Sweden, doctor Annika and her teenage daughter Saga are moving to a town in Lappland, so Annika can work close to the famous Swedish geneticist Gerhard Beckert. Since Lappland is located above the arctic circle, the polar night has begun, meaning that there is one month until dawn, with only a few hours of twilight each day before complete darkness, much to Saga's dismay. Just a few blocks away from their new home, a local biker is attacked and killed by an unseen creature.
The next day Annika is shown around the local hospital, where she is introduced to Beckert, who since a year back in taking care of a comatose patient. She is also introduced to medical students Sebastian and Lucas. Saga goes to school and is harassed by a strange goth named Vega, who behaves as if she had known Saga her entire life. She invites Saga to a party that is going to be held at her friend John's house. Vega's other friends are Cornelia(who is Sebastians girlfriend), the immigrant girl Cissi and heavy metal fans Joel and Robert.
At the hospital, beckert sneaks into the morgue and drives a stake into the heart of the dead biker, revealing him to be a vampire. Sebastian comes across a red pill in the comatose patient's room. He shows the pill to Lucas, who jokes about that the pill is a drug and Sebastian tests the pill. On his way home strange things happen. He starts to develop super hearing and improved vision, is tormented by an extreme thirst and has a encounters with a dog who talks to him. Sebastian returns to the hospital and breaks into Beckert's private lab. He finds and steals an entire can of the red pills. When returning home he is soon visited by Vega, who has paid him to fix drugs for the party. Sebastian claims he doesn't have any, though Vega thinks he's holding out. Sebastian realises that he has forgotten that he was going to Cornelia's parents house to eat with them. Sebastian runs off. Vega finds the can with the red pills and mistakes them for drugs and brings them to John's house which then John and Joel takes. Annika looks after the comatose patient and discovers that she has no pulse. Seconds later the patient bites Annika in the arm. Annika searches up Beckert, who just discovered that his lab had been broken into and tells him what just happened. Beckert appears to be helpful, but beats Annika unconscious with a hammer.
Sebastian arrives at Cornelia's house, where he discovers that his mirror image is fading. To make matters worse the dinner is garlic baked trout. Sebastian finally eases his thirst by sneaking away and draining Cornelia's brother's pet bunny of blood. Saga goes out to join the party, being stalked by the same unseen creature that killed the biker. However, Saga makes it to the party alive and is greeted by John, who is beginning to feel the pill's effects. Wanting to "get the party going" John puts a few of the pills in the punch-bowl causing several unknowing party goers (among them Vega) to be infected. At the hospital, Annika wakes up tied up in what appears to be a secret lab. One of the soldiers from the beginning of the movie shows up and demands that Annika tells her where the pills are. When he understands that Annika knows nothing about the pills he tries to stake her, but Annika breaks free and takes his stake and demands to get to know what is happening. The soldier tells her about the cabin, and that he was bitten while burning the vampire woman. He then killed his comrades and dug up Maria's coffin and brought it to Sweden. Annika laughs in disbelief until the soldier transforms into the elderly Beckert, which is a twist since Beckert up to this point have seemed to be the "Abraham van Helsing" of the film.
Sebastian's transformation completes, his mirror image disappears and he feels his new fangs. He flees Cornelia's house and makes his way home. Saga, who has started to befriend Joel, tries to help him as he suddenly feels sick and takes him to the bathroom. John succumbs to his vampirism and starts to maul several partgoers, among them Cissi. Saga and Joel are oblivious to the bloodbath outside. Joel's eyes hurt and he asks Saga to turn off the light. Saga does so for a brief time, during which Joel's eyes begin to glow red and when she turns the light on, Joel is gone. Saga hears the cries of terror from outside, who suddenly becomes quiet.
Beckert tells Annika that he has been trying to find a cure for vampirism using Maria as source for vampire blood. He also reveals that he has been modifying himself to become a stronger creature and his intent to create a new species. He says he has tried to "upgrade" Maria to become like him, but she has refused. Beckert mutters she is a outdated just like Annika. Annika is frightened by Beckert's comment and Beckert reveals that Annika is turing into a vampire. The comapatient is his guneia pig. Beckert tries to kill Annika, who slashes his throat with a scalpel and proceeds to liberate Maria. Behind her Beckert transforms into a horrifying creature and starts to chase Annika through the hospital while her transformation becomes apparent.
Former Stockholm police officer Jacob is called in to interrogate Sebastian who has been arrested. His collagues are unable to explain what the problem is. The other police forces him to gear up in a complete riotsuit and Jacob thinks they are crazy. Jacob barely makes it out of the interogation alive and Sebastian is locked in to the interrogation room with armed guards outside. Saga walks out of the bathroom and finds the walls and floor covered in the blood and body parts of the party goers. She looks behind her to see Joel, grinning at her from the celling. Saga backs away from him and spots John who is calmly sitting in the middle of the carnage and listen to music. John grimly laughs at Saga and starts to chase her through the house. Saga escapes into the basement. In the basement Saga meets up with Vega, who has also become a vampire. Saga fights her, with both of them ending up unconscious. At the hospital, Beckert chases Annika to the ambulas garage where she manages to impale him. She then runs him over, finishing him of.
Meanwhile John's calls the police, complaining that the teens are making too much noise, "and climbing the walls", oblvious the fact that the teens are vampires. Jacob and ahis partner Mona arrives to John's house and are greeted by a group of vampires. The vampires push the two officers back, and Cissi attempt to handcuff them. The hysterical Mona tells Jacob to call for so much fucking backup.
Saga and Vega wake up, and Saga uses two sticks to form a cross. Vega points out that Saga holds them like an "X". Saga pushes a shelf over Vega and escapes through a window. Vega follows and tries to bite her. Saga beats Vega in the head and pushes her onto a gardening gnome, impaling her on it, as Vega lamnensts that it was the lamest death ever. The vampires start to overrun the town. Saga runs into Jacob, who almost shoots her before realising that she is still human. Jacob puts Saga in an ambulance that drives her away to safety. As Jacob, Mona and the other police are surrounded by the vampires, Jacob comments how the situation just can't be happening and John taunts him by saying: Don't worry. This will be over any minute. Dawn is... just a month away!
The screen then cuts to black.
In the ambulance Saga meets a little girl (whom the audience will recognize as Maria) who enigmatically claims they are sisters. Saga looks into the drivers seat and finds the now vampire Annika there. Annika drives south towards Stockholm, turning up the radio which is playing Diabolic Scheme by The Hives.
The first draft of Frostbiten was finished in 1998. Ander Banke and Magnus Paulsson had been trying to make a Swedish horror film for years but with little success, until a script by Daniel Ojanlatva was sent to them about vampires showing up in Norrland. Daniel Ojanlatva had grown up in Norrland and thought it was just right to add vampires. Originally the film was set to be a Pulp Fiction-style movie with several stories and characters that went in and out of them and was going to be called Something Wicked this Way Comes. Pidde Andersson joined the crew and did some work on the dialog and suggested the new title Frostbiten. The movie was mostly shot in Kalix in the winter of 2005 and the board scenes was shot in the Ystad Studios. Anthony Lledo, who had worked with Anders Banke before, was selected to write the score. The producers drew inspiration from vampire films such as The Lost Boys, Fright Night and The Fearless Vampire Killers and Peter Jackson's Bad Taste.
Petra Nielsen was cast as Annika; she was always Banke's first choice for the part. Grete Havensköld, who had starred in Astrid Lindgren films as a child was cast as Annika's daughter Saga. Per Löfberg had been in the hit romcom Ha ett underbart liv and in the cult film Evil Ed and was cast in a then secret role, and Carl-Åke Eriksson had played small parts in several films and television series was cast as the professor. Most of the cast were selected in open auditions. The producers had trouble finding a Swedish distributor for their film, until Paramount took over the DVD sales after seeing only the 20 first minutes of the film. The theatrical release was nationwide but still limited.
In the promotin, mostly through the now defunct Beckert website, moviegoers were deceived that Gerhard Beckert would be the "Abraham van Helsing" of the film.
Frostbite was the most special effects heavy film ever made in Sweden at that time, and two companies were employed to handle them all. Swedish effect company Fido Film and Ulitka Post, the same team who did special effects for Night Watch. The special effects were delayed as several of the animators were employed for Peter Jacksons King Kong. Ulitka Post created the opening title, removed wires and created the long, physically impossible take in the cabin scene. Fido Film did all the creature design, created the diffrent vampires, animated the talking mouths on the dogs and and created the knifestabbings. CGI and practical effects were heavly mixed. The hideous supervampire that appears at the end was played by actor Kristian Pehrsson wearing a fullbody suit. Over 300 fx shots are in the film, which is the current Swedish record.
The music was composed by Anthony Lledo. An album featuring most of the music is available on iTunes Store. Missing from the album is Tyomnaja Notch by Leonid Utyosov that is played over the opening credits. The name of the song means "Dark Night".
Other than the score the soundtrack is mostly made up of Swedish pop- and rock-music, among those Millencolin, Raised Fist, Langhorns, Quit Your Dayjob, Son Kite and then newcomers BWO. Diabolic Scheme by The Hives is played over the closing credits.
| Frostbiten: The Soundtrack | |
|---|---|
| Soundtrack album by Anthony Lledo | |
| Released | December 6, 2006 |
| Genre | Filmscore |
| Length | 32 minutes |
| Label | MovieScore Media Sweden) |
The film opened at Gothenburg Film Festival on February 3, 2006. The response from Swedish reviewers was mostly mediocre, with a few exceptions. The movie did very average at the box office in Sweden and seemed to be a failure. That all changed however at the Cannes film festival, where the movie was applauded, and sold for distribution to over 40 countries. According to the producers, Frostbiten became the first horror movie ever to be screened in North Korea. The movie was a big hit in Russia and opened for Anders Banke's career in the Russian film industry. Frostbiten was by far the most popular Swedish movie on the foreign markets that year.
The response was very mixed. In Sweden the film was met with mediocre to negative reviews. Aftonbladet gave it a 3/5 score, calling it an enjoyable horror film. Expressen panned the film, calling it "a meaningless splatterfilm". Swedish filmsite Moviemix gave the film a 5/6, but said the film did not deliver the splatter climax he wanted at the end.
The reception was better internationally; Bloody Disgusting gave the film 8/10, calling it a masterpiece, saying that the film had a strong cast and the film the most enjoyable vampire film since the 80s, and the horror site Eatmybrains.com gave it 4/5 stars. Film4 gave the film 3.5/5, saying that the wartime neutrality of Sweden theme and anxieties about migration (Becket dishonestly sneaking into Sweden and creating a master race) made the reviewer uncomfortable and it took away some of the fun.
Most critics praised Emma Åberg's performance as Vega, saying that she stole every scene she was in. Jonas Karlström also recived praise for his part.
Frostbiten won the best film award at Fantasporto and collected the several awards at Screamfest.
The DVD was released on 26 February 2006 in Sweden.
The title is an obvious play on frostbite, the movie takes place in a frozen environment and has vampires who bite people in it. The original title was Something wicked this way comes. The producers liked the title Frostbiten more since it was more international, and by just cutting the last letter they had an English title. Teasers and trailers on film festivals therefor wore the name Frostbite. However, it was only called Frostbite in the U.K.. In the U.S. the movie is called Frostbitten, the exact translation of the original title.
Frostbiten is Sweden’s first vampire movie (unless you consider Ingmar Bergman's Hour of the Wolf to count).
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