The holiday season is upon us, which means the Netflix charts are being taken over by Christmas movies, typically those of the romantic-comedy variety. Its most recent Christmas rom-coms include The Merry Gentlemen and Meet Me Next Christmas, but neither have a title quite as eye-catching, nor a premise quite as weird as Hot Frosty. Starring Lacey Chabert and Dustin Milligan, Hot Frosty follows Kathy, an emotionally unavailable widow who falls for Jack, the sexy snowman she inadvertently brings to life, who quickly becomes a beloved member of their small town community.
In the ever-expanding NCU (Netflix Christmas Universe), Hot Frosty ranks as one of its strangest entries, and its tongue-in-cheek humor, as implied by its paradoxical title, makes it stand out. Low budget, low stakes Christmas rom-coms are a dime a dozen, but Netflix’s predictable Christmas romances are at their best when they play with weird, unique premises that set them apart from those you’d typically see on the Hallmark Channel, exemplified no better than by Hot Frosty.
Netflix’s Weirdest Christmas Rom-Coms Are Their Most Entertaining
Netflix has plenty of bland Hallmark-esque Christmas movies in its catalog, but the predictable storylines and wooden performances are a lot more tolerable when the film has a more bizarre premise. Before Hot Frosty, T he Knight Before Christmas, released in 2019, presented a similar fish out of water premise about a time-traveling 14th century knight who falls in love with Brooke Winters, a high school science teacher played by Vanessa Hudgens. A mainstay of the NCU, Hudgens would also later star in The Princess Switch trilogy, in which she not only plays long-lost twins Stacey and Margaret, but their eccentric blonde cousin Fiona with a hilariously unplaceable accent.
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One of Netflix’s most recent original Christmas films, the aforementioned The Merry Gentlemen, abides by a classic Hallmark Christmas movie trope – a city girl returns to her quaint hometown for the holidays and finds true love thanks to the magic of Christmas. But far more compelling are the more out-there Netflix Christmas rom-coms that posit the existence of Santa Claus, like Falling for Christmas, a film that also hinges on its protagonist’s recent bout of severe amnesia. Even more fascinating is the 2022 film I Believe in Santa, about a woman who falls for a man who earnestly believes in Santa Claus, even going so far as to compare his belief in Santa to the experience of living as a Muslim in the United States (yes, really). These films require you to suspend your disbelief and buy into their simplistic, Christmas-based fantasies for approximately 90–100 minutes of formulaic fun, often falling into so-bad-they’re-good territory.
‘Hot Frosty’ Is Peak Netflix Christmas Weirdness
Hot Frosty tells the story of the unlikely romance between Kathy and Jake, a snowman come to life. During the annual snow sculpture competition in the town of Hope Springs, when Kathy stumbles across a snow sculpture of a man with washboard abs, she wraps a special red scarf around his neck, and the flash of her phone camera turns him into a real man. He soon becomes a town hero, and when the truth of his identity is revealed, the townspeople are relatively quick to accept the idea that Jake is, in fact, a snowman. As you might expect, Jack’s naivety and zest for life brings joy to Kathy’s life and teaches her how to love again after the death of her husband.
The film’s playfully contradictory title alone demonstrates a sense of self awareness and Hot Frosty, for the most part, acknowledges the unseriousness of its premise and exactly what it is people are tuning in for. Chabert brings a surprising amount of emotional weight to the film’s more serious moments that almost feels out of place, but just when Hot Frosty is starting to feel a little too earnest, Craig Robinson and Joe Lo Truglio appear to provide some much-needed comedic relief as the ambitious town sheriff and quirky deputy sheriff, respectively. The movies of the NCU often reference each other, and Hot Frosty is able to sneak in a Mean Girls reference by showing a brief clip from Falling for Christmas on Kathy’s TV, which features Chabert’s Mean Girls co-star Lindsay Lohan.
A lot of viewers are drawn to Hallmark and Netflix Christmas movies because of their predictability, and you’re pretty much guaranteed to see a happy ending where the two romantic leads wind up together, but the weirdness factor of movies like The Knight Before Christmas, I Believe in Santa, and, most recently, Hot Frosty, set them apart. They’re appealing not only because of their predictable plots and cozy small town Christmas vibes, but because of all the unanswered questions and logical inconsistencies they ask you to ignore. Why is Jake able to speak and read perfect English? Why didn’t the artist who crafted his sexy snow sculpture investigate its sudden disappearance? Why are two adults slow dancing at a middle school dance? Who cares! They might not become Christmas classics, but sometimes gathering around with your family or friends to watch a weird, charmingly bad Christmas movie is way more fun.
Hot Frosty is available to stream on Netflix in the United States.
- Release Date
- November 13, 2024
- Director
- Jerry Ciccoritti
- Cast
- Lacey Chabert , Dustin Milligan , Craig Robinson , Joe Lo Truglio , Katy Mixon , Lauren Holly , Chrishell Stause , Sherry Miller , Allan Royal , Dan Lett , Sarah Desouza-Coelho , Sophia Webster , Matthew Stefiuk , Bobby Daniels
- Runtime
- 92 Minutes
- Main Genre
- Holiday
