6 Gripping Movies About Being Stranded in the Snow to Add to Your Watchlist

      As winter approaches, Casey Chong shares a curated list of films featuring characters trapped in snow, enhancing the chills...

      Movies depicting characters caught in a snowstorm for various reasons—such as a car breakdown, a plane crash in a frigid location, or seeking temporary refuge in a secluded area—have commonly been used across different genres, integrating elements of drama, thriller, and horror. Notable titles that explore these themes, including The Shining, The Thing, and The Grey, delve into feelings of fear, isolation, and survival, emphasizing the atmospheric horror and visceral tension that underline the characters’ life-threatening experiences. Below, we highlight some lesser-known films set in snowy circumstances that deserve your attention and may have slipped under your radar...

      **Society of the Snow (2023)**

      The haunting true account of the 1972 Andes plane crash has been adapted for film in various forms, such as the 1976 movie Survive! and the well-known 1993 drama Alive. J. A. Bayona's Spanish-language interpretation takes a stark and somber approach, portraying the survivors of the Uruguayan rugby team battling the harsh realities of their situation high in the Andes mountains. Drawing on his experience in horror from films like The Orphanage, Bayona emphasizes the chilling details of freezing temperatures and the escalating despair of the survivors. He insists on a mostly South American cast to maintain authenticity, and deliberately strips away melodrama to explore the emotional and psychological impacts on the survivors, leading to a visceral and compelling narrative.

      **Wind Chill (2007)**

      The lesser-known Wind Chill, which premiered around the time Emily Blunt gained fame from The Devil Wears Prada, centers on a Pennsylvania university student who shares a ride with a male classmate (Ashton Holmes) to Delaware. Neither character is named, only referred to as “Girl” and “Guy.” What begins as a road movie develops into a nightmare when their car crashes, leaving them trapped in a snowdrift. The film follows the two as they struggle for survival in isolation, allowing director Gregory Jacobs to effectively utilize the icy landscape, pushing the characters through both psychological and emotional turmoil. The initially survival-focused drama seamlessly transitions into a chilling ghost story, showcasing Emily Blunt's powerful performance as a desperate girl fighting against mysterious, nightmarish threats.

      **Arctic (2018)**

      Director and co-writer Joe Penna approaches survival storytelling without the usual melodrama in Arctic. The film follows Overgård (Mads Mikkelsen), a pilot stranded in the Arctic after his plane crash. Left in solitude, he relies solely on his survival skills amid the bitter cold. Mikkelsen's mostly solo performance presents a restrained and determined portrayal of a survivor who refuses to relent, even after his hopes of rescue by a helicopter are dashed when it crashes. The introduction of an injured passenger, played by María Thelma Smáradóttir, adds emotional depth to the film's stark depiction of cold survival. Intriguingly, the movie is nearly devoid of dialogue, featuring only a few spoken words over its 97-minute runtime.

      **Cold Meat (2023)**

      French director Sébastien Drouin, known for several short films and the miniseries Fearless, offers a raw portrayal of the harsh realities of being stranded in a blizzard in Cold Meat. The narrative begins with a driver, David Petersen (Allen Leech), who stops at a roadside diner to rescue a waitress, Ana (Nina Bergman), from her abusive ex-husband, Vincent (Yan Tual). The plot takes a subversive turn as Vincent seeks revenge, trapping David and Ana in a car with no outside assistance. Drouin skillfully builds tension without losing sight of character development, aided by the captivating performances of Leech and Bergman. The film maintains a brisk pace at 90 minutes, creating a lean survival thriller with significant stakes.

      **Wrong Turn 4: Bloody Beginnings (2011)**

      While the first three Wrong Turn films are set in rural backwoods, returning director Declan O’Brien shifts the action to a snowy locale, refreshing the slasher series while preserving its gritty essence. The fourth installment opens with a gruesome prologue set in the 1970s that details the escape of cannibalistic mutants from the Glenville Sanatorium, immediately ramping up the horror. Fans of the series will find a deeply graphic introduction of gore and violence that escalates throughout the film. The contemporary story follows university students on a snowmobile adventure during their winter break, who become lost in a blizzard and find themselves in an apparently deserted sanatorium. As the killing begins, O’Brien embraces the savage aspects of the genre, highlighting the young victims being hunted by the mutants.

      **No Exit (2022)**

      Adapted from Taylor Adams’ 2017 novel, Damien Power explores the familiar trapped-in-a-snowstorm theme in No Exit,