Vicious serial killer Jack Frost (robustly played with eye-rolling gusto by Scott McDonald) gets transformed into a lethal and seemingly unstoppable mutant snowman who terrorizes the sleepy small town of Snomonton. It's up to earnest sheriff Sam (a solid and likable performance by Christopher Allport) to stop Frost before it's too late.

Writer/director Michael Cooney wisely doesn't take the gloriously ludicrous premise seriously for a minute, does a nice job of capturing a merry and vibrant Christmas atmosphere, maintains an engaging tongue-in-cheek tone throughout, comes up with plenty of choice cheesy one-liners for Frost to quip, and pulls out the sidesplitting stops for several uproariously absurd murder set pieces. Moreover, it's acted with zest by an enthusiastic cast, with especially lively contributions from Stephen Mendel as pesky fed Agent Manners, Rob LaBelle as nerdy scientist Stone, F. William Parker as amiable hardware store owner Paul Davrow, and Marsha Clark as feisty deputy Marla. The yummy Shannon Elizabeth has a memorably sexy role as luscious teenager Jill Metzner, who in the movie's single greatest and most gut-busting scene gets simultaneously raped and killed by Frost in a bathtub (!). Dean Lent's bright cinematography provides a neat colorful look. A real kitschy hoot.

JACK FROST is a so-bad-it's-bad straight-to-video comedy horror flick about a killer snowman. You really don't need to know any more about it than that, because this is very much a straightforward Z-grade B-movie with lots of goofy humour and even goofier deaths. You need to be in the mood for some serious cheese in order to be able to sit through this.

I won't bother going into the machinations of the convoluted plotting, only to say that the story involves the spirit of a dead serial killer that ends up inhabiting an inanimate object, similar to the story lines of THE GINGERDEAD MAN or CHILD's PLAY. What JACK FROST amounts to is a bunch of ludicrous gory deaths committed at the hands of a cheesy giant snowman complete with Freddy Krueger-style wisecracks and lots of overacting on the part of the victims.

The production values are rock bottom, but I'm used to that; it's the dumb, lowbrow nature of the script which is so repellent. If they'd at least tried to make this witty and/or engaging then it might have had cult success; as it stands, it's a real chore to sit through. Watch out for a youthful Shannon Elizabeth (AMERICAN PIE) in one of her first screen appearances.

A serial killer (Scott MacDonald) dies, comes back as a snowman, and wreaks havoc.

This is one of the stranger Christmas horror films, and has a cheesy sense of humor. The snowman costume seems like the same costume that Full Moon would later use for Gingerdead Man. Although, out of respect, I should note the production quality here is better than what Full Moon does.

I suppose today this film may hold the dubious honor of being the first role of Shannon Elizabeth (as Jill Metzner). So, if you want to see her before "American Pie", I guess this is the film for you.