It’s cold outside, so stay warm inside and get your chills from our picks for scary movies set in the dead of winter.
Dead Snow
On a snowboard trip a group of spoiled 20-somethings accidentally unearth a nest of Nazi zombies, that’s right, Nazi zombies. The Norweigan-made film was a big hit at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival and it’s easy to see why, “Dead Snow” is silly, funny and very, very bloody.
Fargo
Written, directed and produced by the Coen brothers, “Fargo” is a darkly-comic murder mystery set in North Dakota in the dead of winter. Frances McDormand won an Oscar for her quirky portrayal of pregnant police chief Marge Gunderson. “Fargo” is cleverly crafted and proves that fresh blood is so much creepier when splattered on snow. And, it is about to be a mini-series shot in the Calgary area.
Let the Right One In
This 2008 Swedish-made horror movie throws a wrench into the vampire genre by introducing a lonely, but ravenously hungry bloodsucker who looks like a 12-year-old girl. An American version was released in 2010, but the original is superior. Sweden’s chilly landscape captures the desolate mood of this startingly creepy flick.
The Shining
This 1980 flick, based on the terrifying novel by Stephen King, is directed by Stanley Kubrick and stars Jack Nicholson as the wintertime caretaker of a fancy mountain hotel. Unfortunately for Jack’s wife and young son, the hulking, isolated hotel is haunted and the ghosts have a malevolent agenda.