Dead of Winter

When Barb, a widowed fisherwoman, is driving through snowbound northern Minnesota she interrupts what looks like a kidnapping and takes charge of a frightened teenage girl named Leah. With the nearest town hours away and no phone signal, Barb has to improvise shelter, warmth and a plan while the weather and time work against them. The film stays tight to a small scale, watching how two wary strangers try to read one another and stay alive as danger circles. Tension builds through short, practical choices rather than big set pieces, and the story keeps its focus on survival instincts, fragile trust and the moral compromises that come with protecting someone else, without revealing its final turns.

Directed by Brian Kirk and created by Nicholas Jacobson-Larson and Dalton Leeb, Dead of Winter stars Emma Thompson as Barb, Judy Greer, Marc Menchaca, Laurel Marsden and Gaia Wise, and was released in 2025.

Critical and audience reaction has skewed mixed to favorable, and the film holds a 6.395/10 average from 124 votes. Reviewers highlighted themes of isolation, reluctant guardianship and moral ambiguity, noting how the harsh landscape functions as an active pressure on character choices rather than just scenery.

Emma Thompson's lead turn and the stark, snowbound cinematography prompted discussion about older women in lead thriller roles and about rural vulnerability on screen. Many viewers praised the film's spare approach and attention to survival detail, which led to conversations about quieter, character-driven suspense rather than franchise spectacle.

The picture opened broadly enough to reach specialty theaters but overall box office totals were modest and not widely reported, with most commentary focused on performances and critical response rather than commercial impact.