VHS Visions: Iced (1988)

By Brad Henderson

There are quite a few slashers out there and among them are some underrated ones. Last month I focused on Hide and Go Shriek for VHS Visions and now I bring you another hidden gem called Iced.

I think the most important aspect of slashers from back in the day was the setting. First, they were set in neighborhoods, camps, the woods, sleepovers, malls, graduations, reunions, and the list keeps going. Every setting has been done at this point and some are better than others, but all seem to please us. A few in particular always seem new and fascinating to me, including slashers set in the woods and in the snow. Iced is one of the latter. It has a typical revenge plot but it also has something that stands out. We have a POV of our killer but through his broken ski goggles. Genius.

Iced came out in 1988 and slashers were dying at this point, so I can see why it didn’t survive into memory. Frankly, I think people were sick of slashers at that point and didn’t care. Even Intruder bombed around that time and that flick is truly wonderful. Iced is another one that was unfortunately overlooked.

I admit that the slasher genre was scarier back in the day and instead of getting better, just turned cheesier. This is the case with Iced. It is funnier and more cornball than scary, but at the time, that was kind of the norm. It doesn’t make the movie any less of a slasher but you just don’t take it as seriously as other films from that time period. I’m sure this film made an impact on future slashers in different ways and inspired a lot of filmmakers just like the more popular movies of its subgenre did. There was even a slasher that came out a few years ago called Shedder that was similar in many ways and kind of felt like a remake but wasn’t.

Just like all these other titles in VHS Visions entries, Iced is a lost treasure. I wish there was a company that specifically resurrected slashers like this because the “better” ones overshadow the smaller ones like this and they are just forgotten about. We can sit around and discuss Halloween, Friday the 13th, The Burning, Sleepaway Camp, and many other popular films that will never be forgotten but we tend to forget films like this and that shouldn’t happen.