A storm is coming – and it’s bringing more than snow. Emma Thompson delivers a powerhouse turn in Dead of Winter, director Brian Kirk’s icy, nerve-shredding thriller.
After her husband’s death, widow Barb sets out to fulfill his last request to have his ashes scattered in Lake Hilda in northern Minnesota, where the two had their first date.
During a snowstorm as she drives there, she takes an unintended detour to a nearby cabin and asks a suspicious looking man, Camo Jacket, for directions. She notices blood on the snow, which he says is from a deer. When Barb reaches the lake, she sees Leah, a young woman with her hands bound trying to escape from Camo Jacket, but he retrieves her.
Barb returns to the cabin to investigate and finds the young woman tied up in the basement and overhears the man talking to his wife, Purple Lady. Purple Lady finds Barb’s mitten outside the house, along with evidence that she had been talking to the kidnapped girl. They go in search of her…
What follows is a gripping descent into survival where every gust of wind and creak of wood tightens the noose. Thompson grounds the film with steel and vulnerability, while Judy Greer as Purple Lady, and Marc Menchaca as Camo Jacket, radiate menace in roles that twist unpredictably.
Nicholas Jacobson-Larson and Dalton Leeb’s script crackles with tension, and Kirk’s stark direction transforms snowbound isolation into a character of its own. Visually striking, emotionally fierce, and utterly relentless, Dead of Winter is not just a thriller – it’s a storm of suspense you’ll feel in your bones long after the end credits roll.
Dead of Winter is screening at Palace Cinemas, Byron Bay, as part of the British Film Festival and will screen four times between Friday and Monday, November 24. palacecinemas.com.au.
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