There’s Snow Escape (2022)

The town of Winfield Massachusetts had a logging boon in the late 1800s due to the efforts of a man named Cliff.  However when he killed his wife for cheating, the townsfolk forced him to leave. The only thing he took with him was the bloody ax. He spent the rest of his life in the woods, but continued to cut logs and send them down the river to town.  It doesn’t make much sense, but that’s what we’re working with here.

In the present, there’s the legend of Cold Hearted Cliff. If you throw a coin into the wishing well and the coin lands on Cliff’s ax at the bottom, you get your wish. Since the blade is facing up, it seems no one is getting a wish.   

The well is on private property and when the owner points a shotgun at a couple and threatens them, the woman drops her bracelet down the well. It lands on the ax, and now she gets her wish. Was her wish to kill everyone?  Well whatever it was, Cliff comes back as a snowman and starts killing everyone.

The potential victims are: a group of men and women celebrating a break up; three women on a camping trip; conspiracy nuts putting up cameras because the government is watching everyone; and the guy who owns the campground and his daughter.  The majority of the characters are annoying, unlikable, idiots, or annoyingly unlikable idiots.  The annoying girl who insists her boyfriend go back to the well to look for her bracelet after they were chased off by a man with a gun is a terrible girlfriend. Don’t risk your life for a bracelet.

There is a lot of padding in the film. There are scenes that go nowhere. Sometimes there is minutes of filler when a short scene could have gotten it across. An example is the bride who is now single walking down the path to throw her gown in the lake.  It was three minutes with no dialogue  where she walked,  looked at the lake, and considered the gown before throwing it in.  We don’t need to see this in real time.

While the acting isn’t the worst I’ve ever seen, the cast doesn’t appear to be actors.  When you’re watching a movie, you shouldn’t notice the acting.  Also the camera work was over the top. Tons of Dutch angles which had no relevance to the scene. There was also constant camera movement, like rolling side to side and moving in and out.

Lastly why were two characters named Phil? One of the hikers kept trying to call her boyfriend Phil who was supposed to meet them. I didn’t know who Phil was. Then the owner of the camp ground was called Phil so I thought that was her boyfriend. But it turned out to be the guy in the beginning who was missing a tooth and cheating on his girlfriend.

The best thing about his movie is they used practical effects for the killer snowman. I’d much rather see a monster suit than CGI.  For small budget films, even if it’s rudimentary, it usually looks better.

Get used to a lot of shots of push pins

It’s like when you’re a kid and you pretend you lost
your arm by putting your arm inside your shirt

The killer snowman

We see the police radio as they call the Sheriff….

…then the Sheriff gets in his car and you realize there is no
police radio in his car when he grabs the heat button on the dash