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Snowed In: 10 Chilling Winter Set Horror Movies!

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There’s something about horror movies set in winter that makes for an added layer of dread. The dreary, sunless skies could be a factor in setting a grim mood. But it probably has more to do with the fact that the harsh winter weather makes for an added serious threat. It’s one thing to fight off an unrelenting killer with a pickaxe in a summer camp, but it’s even trickier when the battle is smack in the middle of a blizzard. If the killer doesn’t finish you off, the freezing temperatures surely will. These 10 chilling winter set horror movies make things extra difficult for the protagonists and will make you want to burrow under a warm blanket.


The Shining

The Shining is a worthwhile watch any time of year, including the 4th of July. But the very setup, in which Jack Torrance and his family take up residence in the Overlook Hotel to watch over it during the harsh winter months, means that the snowy winter months are peak viewing conditions. The Torrance family is isolated inside, slowly terrorized by the hotel’s ghosts within, while the outside world is cut off from them due to major blizzards. The unrelenting snowfall factors into the third act in a major way, making you feel the cold from the comfort of your couch.


Curtains

Six young actresses are spending their weekend at a remote mansion enduring what may be the most eccentric audition for a movie role. Naturally, it’s the perfect setting for a masked killer to start picking them off one by one, and it just so happens to be winter. There aren’t very many slashers set in icy weather, and Curtains takes full advantage of its winter setting. The most memorable kills involve the creepy masked killer using the weather against the victims, including the film’s best death sequence set on a frozen pond. Sickles and ice skating equal bad news.


Blood Glacier

Sometimes winter set horror is too bleak. Enter Blood Glacier, an Austrian horror comedy about the discovery of a strange liquid leaking from a melting glacier in the Alps, and its bizarre affect on local wildlife. As in, that red liquid is turning everything into deadly mutated creatures. This is pure camp that doesn’t take itself seriously, and delivers spit-taking lines like, “Stop eating that banana while you’re crying!” Memorable characters, monstrous creatures, and an icy mountain setting means Blood Glacier is a winter wonderland of silly horror meant to be consumed among friends.


Storm of the Century

The residents of Little Tall Island are trapped without outside access thanks to a dangerous blizzard that only continues to worsen. Trapped with them is an ominous stranger, who quickly makes a statement by murdering a long-time neighbor. Penned by Stephen King, Storm of the Century builds suspense as the stranger continues to dangle his motivations out of reach while exploiting the darkest secrets of the residents. The outside world may be dangerous thanks to harsh weather conditions, but sometimes inside is even more dangerous.


Ghost Story

Based on Peter Straub’s beloved novel, Ghost Story tells of two generations of men haunted by the same woman. The snowy New England winter setting is perfect for this tale of the supernatural; it chills inside and out. There’s an old tradition of telling ghost stories at Christmas time, and while this isn’t a Christmas movie, it is a great example of why the tradition exists in the first place. Alice Krige owns this movie, and legendary artist Dick Smith’s special makeup creations are worth the price of admission alone.


Frozen

Frozen

Often in winter set horror, the setting keeps the characters trapped in place with the killer or supernatural entity closing in around them. Adam Green refreshingly makes the weather the thing to fear in his survival thriller Frozen. A weekend getaway at a ski resort in New England becomes a harrowing fight for survival for three skiers when they’re trapped on a chairlift high off the ground. An incoming storm has the resort shut down, with no one aware that anyone was left behind. Worsening conditions means time is an urgent matter as the trio face frostbite, wolves, each other, and death. This one will make you rethink going outside during winter.


Trollhunter

Trollhunter

Before director André Øvredal unnerved with The Autopsy of Jane Doe, there was this fantastic twist to Norwegian folklore. A group of students venture into the frigid forests to investigate a series of unusual bear killings, but find something much more dangerous is responsible. The landscape plays a major factor into this stunning world, and Øvredal quickly establishes an eye for detail. The fascinating mythology and great special effects make this a fun watch, and gives a new spin on the found footage subgenre.


Cold Prey

Cold Prey

A group of five friends snowboarding in a secluded area of the mountains in Jotunheimen are forced to find shelter when one breaks their leg. They take refuge in a deserted lodge, completely abandoned save for the homicidal maniac dubbed the Mountain Man. Cold Prey is a fantastic modern slasher with a stunning snowy backdrop that does factor into the group’s fight for survival. Suspenseful, brutal, and with one of horror’s most underrated final girls in Jannicke. Cold Prey 2 is also great, and borrows heavy story cues from Halloween II. So, make it a double feature.


We Are Still Here

Similar to Ghost Story, this too is a ghost story set in 1979 New England winter, though this particular supernatural haunter is more closely aligned with the works of Lucio Fulci. Couple Anne (Barbara Crampton) and Paul Sacchetti (Andrew Sensenig) move into a new home in a rural area after the loss of their only son. Deep depression in a dreary winter would be enough for any couple to contend with, but their new home happens to be the cursed Dagmar house and its just awoken from a 30-year slumber. It’s hungry for blood. We Are Still Here takes a quiet haunted house story and revs it up to an explosive, gory finale.


The Thing

The Thing

Of course, no winter set horror list could exist without the pinnacle of movies set in sub-freezing temperature. John Carpenter’s The Thing is pure paranoid perfection. A shape-shifting alien flees from a Norwegian research station and finds solace in the American research station in Antarctica, before viciously consuming its victims and assuming their appearance in this glorious special effect driven spectacle. The sub-zero setting means there’s no place to flee, and the crew soon turn on one another as it becomes less clear who is still human. Even if they can defeat the monstrous entity, surviving the elements is far less certain.

Horror journalist, RT Top Critic, and Critics Choice Association member. Co-Host of the Bloody Disgusting Podcast. Has appeared on PBS series' Monstrum, served on the SXSW Midnighter shorts jury, and moderated horror panels for WonderCon and SeriesFest.

Editorials

‘Leprechaun Returns’ – The Charm of the Franchise’s Legacy Sequel

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leprechaun returns

The erratic Leprechaun franchise is not known for sticking with a single concept for too long. The namesake (originally played by Warwick Davis) has gone to L.A., Las Vegas, space, and the ‘hood (not once but twice). And after an eleven-year holiday since the Davis era ended, the character received a drastic makeover in a now-unmentionable reboot. The critical failure of said film would have implied it was time to pack away the green top hat and shillelagh, and say goodbye to the nefarious imp. Instead, the Leprechaun series tried its luck again.

The general consensus for the Leprechaun films was never positive, and the darker yet blander Leprechaun: Origins certainly did not sway opinions. Just because the 2014 installment took itself seriously did not mean viewers would. After all, creator Mark Jones conceived a gruesome horror-comedy back in the early nineties, and that format is what was expected of any future ventures. So as horror legacy sequels (“legacyquels”) became more common in the 2010s, Leprechaun Returns followed suit while also going back to what made the ‘93 film work. This eighth entry echoed Halloween (2018) by ignoring all the previous sequels as well as being a direct continuation of the original. Even ardent fans can surely understand the decision to wipe the slate clean, so to speak.

Leprechaun Returns “continued the [franchise’s] trend of not being consistent by deciding to be consistent.” The retconning of Steven Kostanski and Suzanne Keilly’s film was met with little to no pushback from the fandom, who had already become accustomed to seeing something new and different with every chapter. Only now the “new and different” was familiar. With the severe route of Origins a mere speck in the rearview mirror, director Kotanski implemented a “back to basics” approach that garnered better reception than Zach Lipovsky’s own undertaking. The one-two punch of preposterous humor and grisly horror was in full force again.

LEPRECHAUN

Pictured: Linden Porco as The Leprechaun in Leprechaun Returns.

With Warwick Davis sitting this film out — his own choice — there was the foremost challenge of finding his replacement. Returns found Davis’ successor in Linden Porco, who admirably filled those blood-stained, buckled shoes. And what would a legacy sequel be without a returning character? Jennifer Aniston obviously did not reprise her final girl role of Tory Redding. So, the film did the next best thing and fetched another of Lubdan’s past victims: Ozzie, the likable oaf played by Mark Holton. Returns also created an extension of Tory’s character by giving her a teenage daughter, Lila (Taylor Spreitler).

It has been twenty-five years since the events of the ‘93 film. The incident is unknown to all but its survivors. Interested in her late mother’s history there in Devil’s Lake, North Dakota, Lila transferred to the local university and pledged a sorority — really the only one on campus — whose few members now reside in Tory Redding’s old home. The farmhouse-turned-sorority-house is still a work in progress; Lila’s fellow Alpha Epsilon sisters were in the midst of renovating the place when a ghost of the past found its way into the present.

The Psycho Goreman and The Void director’s penchant for visceral special effects is noted early on as the Leprechaun tears not only into the modern age, but also through poor Ozzie’s abdomen. The portal from 1993 to 2018 is soaked with blood and guts as the Leprechaun forces his way into the story. Davis’ iconic depiction of the wee antagonist is missed, however, Linden Porco is not simply keeping the seat warm in case his predecessor ever resumes the part. His enthusiastic performance is accentuated by a rotten-looking mug that adds to his innate menace.

LEPRECHAUN RETURNS sequel

Pictured: Taylor Spreitler, Pepi Sonuga, and Sai Bennett as Lila, Katie and Rose in Leprechaun Returns.

The obligatory fodder is mostly young this time around. Apart from one luckless postman and Ozzie — the premature passing of the latter character removed the chance of caring about anyone in the film — the Leprechaun’s potential prey are all college aged. Lila is this story’s token trauma kid with caregiver baggage; her mother thought “monsters were always trying to get her.” Lila’s habit of mentioning Tory’s mental health problem does not make a good first impression with the resident mean girl and apparent alcoholic of the sorority, Meredith (Emily Reid). Then there are the nicer but no less cursorily written of the Alpha Epsilon gals: eco-conscious and ex-obsessive Katie (Pepi Sonuga), and uptight overachiever Rose (Sai Bennett). Rounding out the main cast are a pair of destined-to-die bros (Oliver Llewellyn Jenkins, Ben McGregor). Lila and her peers range from disposable to plain irritating, so rooting for any one of them is next to impossible. Even so, their overstated personalities make their inevitable fates more satisfying.

Where Returns excels is its death sequences. Unlike Jones’ film, this one is not afraid of killing off members of the main cast. Lila, admittedly, wears too much plot armor, yet with her mother’s spirit looming over her and the whole story — comedian Heather McDonald put her bang-on Aniston impersonation to good use as well as provided a surprisingly emotional moment in the film — her immunity can be overlooked. Still, the other characters’ brutal demises make up for Lila’s imperviousness. The Leprechaun’s killer set-pieces also happen to demonstrate the time period, seeing as he uses solar panels and a drone in several supporting characters’ executions. A premortem selfie and the antagonist’s snarky mention of global warming additionally add to this film’s particular timestamp.

Critics were quick to say Leprechaun Returns did not break new ground. Sure, there is no one jetting off to space, or the wacky notion of Lubdan becoming a record producer. This reset, however, is still quite charming and entertaining despite its lack of risk-taking. And with yet another reboot in the works, who knows where the most wicked Leprechaun ever to exist will end up next.


Horror contemplates in great detail how young people handle inordinate situations and all of life’s unexpected challenges. While the genre forces characters of every age to face their fears, it is especially interested in how youths might fare in life-or-death scenarios.

The column Young Blood is dedicated to horror stories for and about teenagers, as well as other young folks on the brink of terror.

Leprechaun Returns movie

Pictured: Linden Porco as The Leprechaun in Leprechaun Returns.

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