DEAD OF WINTER (2025) - Mark Reviews Movies

Dead of Winter, Vertical

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Review by Mark Dujsik | September 25, 2025

A little awareness and suspicion might have gone a long way for several characters in Dead of Winter, in which a woman finds herself trying to rescue an abducted woman from her captors. The woman, by the way, happens upon the cabin where the young woman is being held in the basement early into director Brian Kirk's movie. She even has a conversation with one of the kidnappers, thinks he's acting kind of strangely, and notices some blood in the snow outside the house. None of this means much of anything to Barb (Emma Thompson), though, and that's very convenient for the progression of screenwriters Nicholas Jacobson-Larson and Dalton Leeb's plot.

There might be a joke in here, perhaps, since the story is set in Minnesota, and Midwesterners have that reputation for being police and hospitable, no matter how odd or uncomfortable things might seem to anyone else. The whole state, after all, has a particular brand of "nice" named for it, but this movie isn't about that, either satirically or sincerely. Here, Barb doesn't think anything of the strange man's behavior, his sort-of intimidating demeanor toward her, or even that bit of blood on the ground, mainly because the whole plot could collapse if she did.

This thriller features multiple characters who fit that general mold of disinterest or ignorance, including the man in the camo jacket, played by Marc Menchaca, whom Barb encounters at that cabin. Barb's apparent shortsightedness could be justified by simple social niceties and naïveté, believing people at their word and that folks are basically decent—even if they come across as a bit unnecessarily hostile and seem to have to come up with a reason why there's blood on their property.

However, the guy in the camouflage jacket, whom we'll just call Camo Jacket a la the credits, has every reason to be skeptical and to worry about anyone snooping around the cabin. He does, after all, have a woman named Leah (Laurel Marsden) tied up in the basement, and the guy doesn't think Barb's random appearance is worth a second thought or to tell his wife (played by Judy Greer) and co-abductor—whom we'll call Purple Lady a la the credits, on account of her purple puffy coat—that someone came by the house until she figures it out on her own.

Thrillers such as this one require some benefit of the audience's doubt, of course, but it is nice when the filmmakers try to keep our doubts at bay with some story logic and at least a little intelligence on the part of the characters. The ones here, apart from Camo Jacket and a pair of hunters who briefly show up later, aren't completely incompetent, at least.

The husband's shortcomings can be excused by his inexperience in committing such a terrible crime and the wife pointing out that he is dumb enough, for example, to leave a pistol in the cabin after knowing that Barb has plans to rescue their captive. As for why Barb leaves a message written in frost on the basement window that leads the kidnappers to know that she knows what they're doing, we can only add that to ever-mounting list of actions performed or loose ends ignored by the characters that really only happen or don't happen to ensure the plot, well, happens.

To focus on these points of this or, for that matter, any thriller, though, is to miss everything else the movie is doing. It would be a disservice to the performances, which are quite good, and Christopher Ross' cinematography, which is stark to the point of feeling almost drained of color (and makes Finland, where the movie was shot, a convincing stand-in for the frozen American Midwest), and the plot mechanics that actually are engaging and create some tension.

Barb, played by Thompson with convincing grit (although the accent may be a bit too heavy on the Minnesotan "oh"s and "ah"s), isn't someone who's knows what to in this kind of situation and surely isn't prepared to be facing it while on a fishing trip. She's only there to remember her recently deceased husband, after all, but the movie's repeated flashbacks to the couple's decades-long romance aren't exactly illuminating on their own or within the context of this scenario. It's more intriguing to watch her improvise her way toward rescuing Leah with the few means available to her.

Meanwhile, Greer is unexpectedly but genuinely menacing as the main kidnapper, a woman with health issues who has justified the abduction and her plans for Leah with a rather cruel philosophical equation (It's difficult to tell if Jacobson-Larson and Dalton Leeb are attempting to keep Purple Lady's plans a surprise, since they're so obvious from the get-go). She's a fearsome foe, because the woman is willing to do anything to accomplish her goal and actually is clever enough to stay ahead of anyone in her way.

These elements don't entirely compensate for the movie's storytelling flaws—from the plot problems, to the character-based ones, to the structure sometimes undercutting the momentum. The parts that work definitely make us wish the filmmakers had considered just how many assorted contrivances are present in Dead of Winter. They get in the way of our ability to buy into a thriller that somewhat cleverly revolves around an atypical protagonist and features a rather grounded but malicious villain.

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