8 Chilling Winter Movie Favorites
I’ve been building a list of my favorite movies in my phone, sorted by appropriate viewing season, for the past year or so, and I think my winter list might just be my favorite. Since I have a feeling we’re headed into the worst part of the winter, here are 8 of my favorite murder-flicks, a mix of true horror and thriller (and a hint of black comedy), in no particular order, to chill you to the bone!
1) The Shining
Perhaps an obvious choice, the Shining had to be the first on this list because it is quintessential winter-horror. Best watched on a snow-day, it really encapsulates the brewing insanity you feel when you’re stuck in the house too long. Besides, the visuals and wardrobe in this movie are iconic (Hello Shelly Duvall’s kindergarten-teacher chic? Hello Danny’s Apollo 11 sweater?).
2) Hateful 8
This movie has a little bit of everything. Mystery, action, suspense, humor, great soundtrack, great visuals, great cast, and heaps of good ol’ goddamn bloody violence! The slow pace of it is so in-step with original movies of the western genre. It does ask you to put your discomfort with racist slurs and misogyny up on a shelf somewhere out of sight for 3 hours in exchange for viewing an awesome winter movie.
3) Fargo
Okay. I love this movie so much I have a portrait of Frances McDormand’s character from it tattooed on my arm. When the Coen brothers get a movie right, they really get it right! Fargo is a criminal thriller… comedy?… that invites you to laugh at and feel deeply for some extremely down-home, extremely misguided people. Margie Gunderson is such a unique female role too; A pregnant cop, not sexy, not desirable, but extremely lovable and admirable, whose stay-at-home husband makes her eggs in the morning and paints ducks for a living. All in the heart of a cruel Minnesota winter.
4) Let The Right One In
Not to be confused with Let Me In, the American remake featuring Chloë Moretz, this is the original Swedish vampire film. A beautiful and terrifically acted film.
5) The Revenant
I really did not expect this movie to stay with me as much as it did, as I’m not usually partial to the wilderness-survival thriller genre. However, I do end up returning to it every winter. Leonardo DiCaprio plays a man who struggles to survive alone in the woods when left for dead after a bear attack to seek revenge for the murder of his son. It’s not only brutal, but so so beautiful.
6) Misery
Granted, the original Stephen King novel is better than the film, but Kathy Bates plays the role of psychopath Annie Wilkes so deliciously that it’s a good enough substitute if you don’t have time to re-read the book. The whole story feels like Stephen King’s personal metaphor for his writing process.
7) The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
Say what you will about this film, it is one of my favorites of all time. Rooney Mara attacks the role of Lisbeth Salander so articulately that now no substitute will do. It’s a mystery that makes you hold your breath while stories weave in and out of it, and, in my opinion, is a masterful example of storytelling and “showing rather than telling” in cinema. You’ll just have to grit your teeth through an extended and absolutely brutal rape scene that is a handled a little more deftly in the book.
8) Eyes Wide Shut
This film is just… not what I thought it was going to be. At all. And multiple watch-throughs have really paid off with understanding it. Classically Kubrik.
Honorable mention: Bourne Identity
What? It takes place in winter and I just love it. They can’t all be zingers. : - )
So there you have it. 8 of my favorite wintery movies to enjoy if you happen to get snowed in for a couple days soon. Maybe the distraction will keep you from killing one another until the snow thaws! If not, you’re sure to have some interesting new ideas of how to get the job done.
