Published on : 02 July 20213 min reading time
The success of Frozen led to a number of similar survival type movies to be produced immediately afterwards, all with that same horrific premise of being frozen to death. The producers of 247 F decided to turn that premise completely around and place the characters in danger of being cooked alive. The end result is a film that is not nearly as compelling or seat gripping as Frozen (not to be confused with the Disney film of the same name) is, but it is worth a look if you like suspenseful horror rather than blood and gore.
The majority of the movie is set inside of a sauna, where 3 friends are trapped after a 4th suddenly steps out. One brilliant move in the movie is never allowing the audience to see what is trapping the friends, beyond what they are able to see through the tiny window. For the rest of the movie you watch as they work at figuring out ways to cool down the sauna, and then logically work out why they are bad ideas. Breaking the small window for example may make the thermostat register a lower temperature, causing more heat to be pumped in.
There is also an attempt at elevating the suspense by making it appear as if the 4th friend fell victim to the owner of the sauna, who is now outside burying the body. Unfortunately these fall flat as it soon becomes obvious that the movie is purposely trying to trick you into thinking this, when the reality is something much more innocent.
There are no wolves in wait, but you do feel the terror of being locked inside of a small room that is slowly cooking you to death. In the end, everything is wrapped up nice and neat, and all of your questions are conveniently answered without the element of slash scenes and bloody corpses.
Suspense horror is supposed to play with your mind, and there is a good chance that you will think twice before stepping into your portable sauna to enjoy a nice session again. But without the strange series of events that led to the door being blocked, you are going to be free of the danger of being cooked inside of your portable infrared sauna.
This is a thumbs up review for those who like suspense, even if a part of that is an obvious attempt at movie trickery. I am not giving anything away that you won’t get almost immediately when I say that the caretaker is not a serial killer, and Jason did not resurrect to suddenly haunt and taunt those looking for a bit of sauna relaxation. And hey, if it freaks you out that bad, you can use your safe sauna blanket! Go ahead and add it to your survival movie collection, even though it is a complete opposite in every way from what the kids in Frozen had to endure.