Quartile rating: 6/10 · 1 rating
When three skiers find themselves stranded on a chair lift at a New England ski resort that has closed for the next week, they are forced to make life or death choices that prove to be more perilous than staying put and freezing to death.
Adam Green's 2010 survival thriller is a lean, high-concept genre exercise that earns credit for committing fully to its single-location premise — three people stuck on a ski lift is a genuinely effective pressure cooker setup. The plotting is functional and credible within its constraints, with escalating stakes that feel earned. Cinematography makes solid use of the harsh, vertiginous environment, conveying cold and height effectively. However, acting is uneven; the trio deliver passable but unremarkable performances, with emotional beats occasionally feeling forced. Novelty is modest but real — the stripped-down survival hook is distinctive enough to stand apart from generic horror fare, even if the wolf attacks tip into sillier territory. The ending is bleak but unsatisfying in execution, feeling abrupt and somewhat arbitrary rather than meaningfully tragic.