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  • Accidental Innuendo: Invoked. The rape scene in the first film wasn't originally intended to be this; it was meant to just be Jack Frost smashing Jill into the wall until she died. But when the movie got into the editing phase, the editor told the director, "You know what this looks like, don't you?", due to the shot of the carrot floating to the surface of the water earlier in the scene, as well as Jack's carrot nose not being on his face during the scene. Rather than re-shoot the whole scene (which was difficult to achieve as it was), the director went with it, and quickly shot a few shots of Jack Frost making bad sex puns after Jill's death for continuity.
  • Angst? What Angst?: Jill's seen crying when Billy's body is taken to the morgue wagon and when she leaves to meet her boyfriend her dad slut-shames her and accuses her of not caring about her brother. She says that she loved him but just needs to get out, away from him. When she meets Tommy she tells him this is to keep from succumbing to a morbid feeling about Billy but she seems more cheerful and coy than distraught and conflicted as she and Tommy start seducing each other.
  • Big-Lipped Alligator Moment:
    • Why Jill and Tommy sneak into Sam's house for their romantic rendevousz makes no sense. It is never explained and feels somewhat out of place. Jill's bubbly demeanor despite having lost her brother earlier that day (and been upset about it then) doesn't help, nor does how the event is never referenced again. It could also double as an Ass Pull.
    • In the sequel during Sam's therapy session, you see a bunch of eavesdroppers (including a construction worker and a milk lady/chef) listening in on Sam. It is never known what they are doing here and how they were allowed to listen in on Dr. Morton's conversation.
  • Broken Base: Some fans feel that the "Black Comedy Rape by a mutant snowman" setpiece and most of the preceding scene diminishes the movie as a whole and would prefer to put it under Fanon Discontinuity. For others, the phrase Just Here for Godzilla applies to that scene.
  • Ensemble Dark Horse: Several of the bigger scene stealers in the film have pretty secondary roles, including:
  • Harsher in Hindsight: Christopher Allport, who played Sheriff Sam Tiller, was killed by an avalanche in 2008.
  • He's Just Hiding: The injuries from Jill's death could have been survivable. In the sequel it's nice to think that Joe and Marla might have been rescued from the freezer on time.
  • Just Here for Godzilla:
    • The killer snowman is likely why people watch, instead of the plot and acting.
    • In the sequel, many people fast forward to the pool scene, which contains some fanservice from Stephanie Chao.
  • Memetic Mutation: Made in America!
  • Narm Charm: At one point in the sequel, one of the killer snowballs is lying on the ground, crying and near death. Jack picks it up and actually does his best to comfort it. It dies anyway and a single tear falls out of his eye. The way he utters "Now it's killing time." afterwards is nothing but pure rage. This moment should have been ridiculous if it wasn't for the voice acting and music.
  • Never Live It Down: The snowman rape scene has probably become better known than the rest of the movie, and not in a way that either the actress or the filmmakers find flattering.
  • So Bad, It's Good: The film has been noted for camp value.
  • Special Effects Failure:
    • Jack himself is portrayed with a low-budget costume that features a barely moving mouth. The sequel tops it by having obvious seamlines where the gloves of the costume attach to the sleeves and even less mobility in both the body and the face.
    • When Jack puts himself back together near the end of the first film, you can just barely make out the lip of the headpiece's opening.
    • The spawn of Frosty in the sequel are made of very primitive CGI or puppets, many of which are static.
    • Snowballs bounce harmlessly off extras.
    • Many (if not all) of Jack's kills in the second film are also combinations of the costume and primitive CGI, particularly the snow anvil. And then there's Jack's snowdiving near the end of the movie.
    • The first movie has Billy's beheading, where the head we see fly through the air is clearly an unpainted foam dummy's head with a hat on it.
  • The Scrappy:
    • The sheriff's son (i.e. Ryan) is a Too Dumb to Live kid who thought it was a good idea to put anti-freeze in his dad's oatmeal so that his dad wouldn't get cold. It didn't help that he couldn't figure out how to make a snowman's face without a snowman puppet on his hand.
    • Captain Fun from the second film, for being annoying and trying to force Sam to have fun. Some fans laughed in their review of the second film when the spawn stabs him in the eyes.
  • Tear Jerker:
    • The death of Mrs. Metzner, followed by the reaction of the sheriff and his deputies at the crime scene. They're subdued, wondering how to tell Jill that her whole family is dead, quietly noting how "she's only 18." Jack making Jill herself another victim can add to this, even if the scene is played for Black Comedy.
    • In the sequel, the deaths of the baby snowmen, and Jack's reaction to the loss of his "offspring" can evoke this in an Alas, Poor Villain way.
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Jill and Tommy. Jill did seem upset over her brother's death and had some nice chemistry with Tommy (who's being the son of Paul, who went crazy and started destroying snowmen after witnessing an attack could have meant more). After losing her whole family to Jack, she and Tommy could have had the motivation to help the sheriff fight him in the climax. All in all, both had the potential to be prominent supporting characters and help in the climax instead of just turning into Hormone Addled Teenagers who suffer a plot-irrelevant Black Comedy Sex Signals Death scene that is never referenced again.
  • Ugly Cute: The spawn in the sequel.
  • What Do You Mean, It's Not for Kids?: Not that—if you saw the movie or looked at the cover—you'd mistake it for anything but a Family-Unfriendly horror film, but it's very easy to end up confusing this with the family-friendly Jack Frost (1998) due to coming out only a year earlier and for having similar premises—that is, a man dying and reincarnating as a Snowman.
  • The Woobie: Mrs. Metzner has it tough. She's constantly treated badly by her husband, she's hinted to have an undefined mental disorder, her son is killed and when she tries to turn on the Christmas lights to distract herself from the grief her husband accuses her of not respecting the boy's death, she has to watch her husband and daughter fight, and then Jack brutally kills her. And as a final, posthumous bit of suffering, her surviving child is also attacked and apparently killed by Jack just a few hours later.

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