Its plot follows two scientists whose experiments in unlocking the secrets of immortality result instead in the creation of black-robed zombies who must be preserved at very low temperatures to continue functioning.

It achieved some notoriety for its release in the United Kingdom, where it was included on the British Board of Film Classification's "video nasty" list.

Their collaborator, Tom Girard, refuses further participation and is killed in his house by men in hooded robes who inject him with a serum.

Detective Kevin McGuire is assigned to the case, which he believes is connected to the disappearance of medical students Kirk Richard and Bob Russell.

Tom left to confess to Father O'Brien while Ann watched the students chanting "love and immortality" around a bonfire.

He tells them that Tom had said Sven was using curare on rats, then reviving them and keeping them at low temperatures to retard their aging process.

But her eternal love has a price, which Kevin pays as Lil plunges a hypodermic zombie serum into his eye.

Frozen Scream is the first of two films made by the independent Ciara Productions, followed by Hell Riders (1984),[5] a biker movie set in a ghost town.

[8] Harmon, a native of Germany who immigrated to the United States and settled in California, was working as an acting coach at Moorpark College at the time of making the film, and hired several of her students to appear in the project.

"[9] Sound supervisor James Bryan, who later worked professionally with Harmon on other projects, disputed her claim that she fully took on direction, stating: As producer, Renee kept a very effective tight control over her productions, planning and arranging for locations and cast.

[11]Additional post-production filming occurred in Salt Lake City, Utah around 1980–1981, approximately six years after the original shoot had completed.

[13][14] Vinegar Syndrome released the film in a Blu-ray and DVD combination pack in a double feature with The Executioner Part II on September 29, 2015.

[18] As Fred Beldin at AllMovie writes, Frozen Scream was "withdrawn from prosecution perhaps because the bluenoses were too confused by the film's constant flashbacks, dream sequences, and extraneous narration to focus on a few gratuitous axe murders and eye-gougings."

In The Zombie Movie Encyclopedia, academic Peter Dendle calls the film a "dismal and homely backyard effort" with "robotic acting, abrupt transitions, and annoying Wonder Years-like voice-over narration."

"[19] Glenn Kay describes the movie as a "totally nonsensical" and "forgettable little oddity" that "may supply a few laughs to bad-movie fans."

He says that the "inappropriate narration (...) would be more suited to an infomercial" and that "Every element is truly amateurish, from the wooden acting to the lousy photography to the terrible score and the hilariously bad band during a party scene.

"[21] According to David Elroy Goldweber, "Apparently, all the sound was dubbed after filming, but some dialogue made no sense, so an extra voice-over (...) was added to clarify things.

"[22] In his book Nightmare USA: The Untold Story of the Exploitation Independents (2007), Stephen Thrower wrote of the film: "One can feel the a powerful sense of alienation and disorientation from the frankly insane Frozen Scream that rivals anything achieved by more self-conscious means.

"[23] Beldin, an AllMovie reviewer, calls the film an "unintentionally surreal sci-fi horror yarn," and adds that "there's no doubt that Frozen Scream is a highly bizarre experience psychotronic devotees should enjoy enduring.