JACK FROST, released today in 1997

Anniversary Dept. - Released direct-to-video on this date--18 Nov.--in 1997, Michael Cooney's magnificent JACK FROST. This is the horror comedy JACK FROST, not to be confused with the shitty Michael Keaton movie of the same name that came out the next year.

A serial killer being transported to his execution in the middle of a blizzard becomes the victim of an absurd accident on the side of the road that--even more absurdly--fuses him with the snow, turning him into a wisecracking, shape-shifting mutant killer snowman who, for Christmas jollies, returns to the hometown of the sheriff who apprehended him to take revenge. Among other things, the film marked the feature film debut of Shannon Elizabeth.

Writer/director Cooney says JACK FROST cost about as much as the catering budget on IDENTITY, a major studio picture he wrote a few years later. It embraces its low budget, plays to the ridiculousness of its own premise from the opening credits and it's just a great, darkly humorous, sometimes absurdly humorous little movie from a great era of movie-making. Watch it for Christmas.