Dead of Winter
The land of the Great Lakes is the setting of this familiar yet entertaining thriller from director Brian Kirk. It is a cold and lonely world out there, not least for Barb Sorensen (Emma Thompson), who travels deep into the wild to spread her late husband’s ashes at the lake where they had their first date. However, the vast and desolate frozen wasteland hides many secrets. When Barb accidentally stumbles across the kidnapping of a young woman (Laurel Marsden), she must use all of her outdoors knowledge and grit to do what she feels is right and rescue the victim from her deranged attackers.
Dead of Winter sees Emma Thompson turn her hand to a role unlike any other we have seen her play since the 1990s, as a mourning widow come hardened action hero, and she does well to grip the viewer with her performance of few words, yet so much screen time. Barb is tough and experienced in the wild, thus so believable in the actions she takes. There is always something so endearing about Thompson’s presence on screen, no matter what character she is playing, and when paired on screen with the incredible Judy Greer, this excitement is ramped up even further. Greer deserves her own flowers for her work in this movie, playing the true villain of the story as a woman slowly deteriorating, both mentally and physically, in an exhausting performance.
The story darts back and forth between the present and flashbacks of Barb’s life with Carl, from their first time on the ice, to married life and lastly his passing, effectively building a deeper emotional connection between the audience and our heroine. Barb also harnesses these life experiences and uses them to her advantage in a refreshing take on an older leading woman, suggesting that with age comes greater skills and situational awareness.
Whilst the small wider ensemble cast do well to fill the vast scenery and landscape in which the action takes place, it does come with a few large plot holes that are clearly unaddressed purely to keep the story alive. You can just about look past these, however, with Christopher Ross’s beautiful cinematography and Volker Bertelmann’s bounding score keeping you on your toes as the gunfire, panic and battle for survival ensues.
The feature does follow the usual tropes and treads the familiar ground of so many of it’s kind, and there aren’t too many surprising moments that catch you off guard, but nonetheless Dead of Winter is an old school film with a lot of heart amidst the icy drama, and Thompson and Greer are worth your time and attention, as they alone do enough to carry it over the line.
Guy Lambert
Dead of Winter is released nationwide on 26th September 2025.
Watch the trailer for Dead of Winter here:
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