The Best British film in years is FROZEN directed by Juliet McKoen starring Shirley Henderson as a woman whose sister has disappeared.
Ken Russell THE INDEPENDENT
Frozen is a real delight, a film that will take you by surprise with its understated strength. And it's one that will stay with you long after its chilling ending.
Film Review
ghostly thriller...it's Henderson's blend of naivety and resolve that winds the film towards its tense, twisting finale.
DVD Review
Part drama, part arty thriller, Frozen fuses the day-to-day reality of a Ken Loach movie with the surreal menace of a David Lynch nightmare. Henderson is magnificent.
Glasgow Daily Record
great British cast..hauntingly shot film with good use of the Lancashire coast with its expanses of treacherous quicksand's... compelling power to keep us watching
Birmingham Sunday Mercury
Frozen is the most enthralling and intelligent British feature debut since Lynne Ramsay's Ratcatcher (1999). An intriguing study of unresolved grief, Frozen is serious, mannered, rich in theme, achingly beautiful, with nuanced performances and a strong sense of place. In other words, the film's director-co-writer Juliet McKoen may be a newcomer, but she arrives with a talent that is already fully formed.
Channel 4
For those of us in professional despair about the future of British cinema, there was precious little to gripe about. Juliet McKoen's ghost story, Frozen, is a brave choice. It gives Shirley Henderson, so often the viola player in a string quartet, the chance to show how haunting she can be as a lead. In McKoen's subtle hands Frozen becomes a poem about the limbo of not-knowing; of not being able to grieve for a loved one who keeps calling in dreams; and how this appalling ache reshapes the place where you live and the people you grow up with. It is also an exceedingly topical film about how horror is becalmed.
The Times
Powerful...disturbing...heartrending.
The Metro
...a cracking debut, with a shoal of red herrings that keep us guessing to the last.
Newcastle Sunday Sun
Laden with promise and thick with atmosphere.
Sight and Sound
In McKoen's subtle hands Frozen becomes a poem about the limbo of not-knowing; of not being able to grieve for a loved one who keeps calling in dreams; and how this appalling ache reshapes the place where you live and the people you grow up with.
The Times
An eerie atmosphere and a stunning performance from Shirley Henderson as childishly seductive Kath - not to mention a killer ending.
Empire
An almost unclassifiable mixture of mystery yarn, supernatural story and character study, Frozen has an ambition and originality that has become all too rare in British cinema.
Scotland on Sunday
A surreal and evocative tale... Shirley Henderson's acting is excellent. From childlike to erotic, from sad to simply fucked up, she has a ageless quality about her.
Plume Noir
A thoughtful, beautiful film that puts Shirley Henderson's capability as a female lead beyond question.
Gareth McLean, Guardian Weekend Magazine
Henderson is such an engaging and gifted actress that we can't take our eyes off her. Meanwhile, McKoen captures it with a real eye for beauty - each frame looks like a work of art, using the coastline as another character in the story. As the mystery deepens, McKoen draws us in, revealing the characters slowly enough that we never get ahead of Kath in her quest and adding an ethereal parallel layer in Kath's fantasies.
Rich Cline, Shadows on the Wall
This well crafted film sees the first true lead role for this excellent, versatile and omnipresent Scottish actress. McKoen makes much photographically of the grim mud flats and decaying industry of this north-western corner.
Time Out London
Henderson's performance is childlike and her seeming innocence increases our fears for her wellbeing. In contrast, Roshan Seth is the very essence of stillness and maturity in what is an excellent performance. McKoen shows a skill for finding the heart of a place, for pinpointing the mood and it is a beautifully stark film. Recommended.
Alex Crawford, BBC