Mister Frost (1990) - film review

A serial killer, known only as Mr Frost, is arrested and, after two years of silence, ends up in a clinic for the mentally disturbed.  When he finally speaks it is to the young Dr Sarah Day, who takes an immediate interest in his case.  The man who arrested Frost, Felix Detweiler, warns Dr Day that her patient is the Devil himself.  After a series of inexplicable incidents, Dr Day begins to believe that Detweiler is right...

Almost from the start, this film does its best to alienate its audience with its muddled narrative, luke-warm humour and visual and musical excesses.  With such a strong cast of French, American and British actors this could well have been an excellent variation on the Dr Faust theme, and there are the occasion hints of the far better film this could have been.  Unfortunately, what talent there is is cruelly squandered in an ill-conceived and unbelievable plot, marred by unutterably bad dialogue and a surfeit of artistic pretensions which, after twenty or so minutes, becomes exceedingly tiresome.  The film’s only saving grace is Jeff Goldblum’s chillingly subdued performance as the film’s lead character, Mr Frost – ironically one of cinema’s most convincing depictions of the Devil.

© James Travers 2002

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