Judy Greer

Dead of Winter

05/10/25

Cineworld, Edinburgh

Dead of Winter has only been granted a limited screening in UK cinemas before moving on to streaming, but provided a multiplex near you is showing it, it’s well worth making a trip out for. This edgy action thriller has me in its tenacious grip pretty much from the word ‘go.’

Barb (Emma Thomson) leaves her remote home in Northern Minnesota to make the arduous drive to the even more remote Lake Hilda for a reason that’s only gradually revealed as the story unfolds. As you might guess from the film’s title, she’s chosen a pretty challenging time of year to undertake her journey. On the way to the lake, she stops off at an isolated homestead to ask for directions and encounters ‘Camo Jacket’ (Marc Menchaca), who is acting in a decidedly suspicious manner. Barb can’t help but notice an ominous splash of blood in the snow, which the man attributes to ‘deer.’

She continues to the lake where she engages in a spot of ice-fishing, but then witnesses a young girl fleeing from Camo Jacket. Barb watches horrified as she is dragged back in the direction of his cabin and then follows at a distance. It’s soon apparent that the girl is being held hostage in the cellar of the man’s house. But what can Barb do? She cannot call the police since there’s no phone signal in these parts, but she’s nevertheless determined to help Leah (Laurel Marsden) and will not quit, even when Camo Jacket’s trigger-happy wife, The Purple Lady (Judy Greer), turns up at the cabin and the bizarre motives behind the kidnapping are explained…

Written by Nicholas Jacobson-Larsen and Dalton Leeb, and masterfully directed by Brian Kirk, Dead of Winter alternates scenes of extreme tension with gentler flashbacks to Barb’s youth, where she’s played by Thompson’s real life daughter, Gaia Wise. While I involuntarily bristle at nepotism, I have to grudgingly admit that this is a convincing move and, happily, the enormous potential for sentimentality in these scenes is skilfully side-stepped: indeed, I find them genuinely affecting.

We’ve all seen those ‘geri-action’ movies where elderly men miraculously transform into athletic heroes, capable of throwing kicks and punches like pros, but this iteration keeps everything within the realms of believability. Barb shows the limitations of her age but also displays her stubborn determination to just keep going no matter what, putting one snow-boot in front of the other. And, having existed in this hostile land for many years, she has a few tricks in her tackle box that will give her a competitive edge.

The snowbound locations, often filmed using drones – it was actually shot in Finland – look absolutely ravishing on the big screen, and you’re uncomfortably aware of the sub-zero temperatures throughout. Those of a nervous disposition should be warned that a scene where Barb is obliged to perform surgery on herself – with a fishing hook – might make you want to avert your gaze.

It’s impossible not to watch this and picture Frances McDormand in the lead role but Thompson is a brilliant actor and captures this character in every detail, as well as doing a very creditable job of handling the Minnesotan accent. Greer is also compelling as a woman driven to unreasonable acts by her own tragic circumstances. It’s only in the final scenes that all the pieces fall into place and I manage to get my breathing back to its usual rhythm.

4.4 stars

Philip Caveney

Halloween

22/10/18

Talk about a daunting proposition.

‘Okay, we’re going to reboot one of the most famous horror movies of all time. We’re going to forget about the plethora of terrible sequels that have already reared their William Shatner-masked heads and we’ll bring Jamie Lee Curtis back to the role that made her famous. Oh yes, and for good measure we’ll try to ignore the fact that John Carpenter’s illustrious original is back in the cinemas, so anybody can see for themselves what made it one of the most imitated movies in cinema history.’

So, no pressure there.

The good news is that David Gordon Green and Danny McBride’s resulting film isn’t anything like as terrible as what has gone before. While it rarely achieves the thrills of version one, it offers some interesting twists on those classic scenes and manages to demonstrate how the horrors that Laurie Strode underwent as the world’s most ill-fated babysitter have certainly left their mark on her. There’s also a ‘twist’ that I don’t see coming, mostly because it’s so risible, but let’s pass over that.

Forty years have (quite literally) gone by since Michael Myers’ infamous killing spree in the little town of Haddonfield. Laurie Strode (Lee Curtis) has managed to survive two failed marriages and social workers removing her daughter from her care, and now lives alone in a rambling house. She seems to have mutated into a kind of suburban Sarah Connor, multi-locking all of her doors and housing a personal armoury that would take down an approaching army. She is convinced, you see,  that one day, Michael Myers will return and when he does, she wants to be ready for him. All this adds to the strain on her relationship with her now adult daughter, Karen (Judy Greer), and with her teenage granddaughter, Allyson (Andi Matichak). Michael is currently locked up in a secure psychiatric unit under the ministrations of Doctor Sartain (Haluk Bilginer), who, perhaps unwisely, allows a couple of British podcast makers to interview  him – but, since Michael hasn’t spoken a word since his arrest, that doesn’t make for great broadcasting material.

But then an attempt is made to move Michel to a more secure unit and… well, I don’t think it’s exactly a spoiler to say that soon enough, he’s on the loose again and is in possession of that mask and some navy blue overalls. (That’s still Nick Castle wearing the outfit, by the way.) The resulting rampage manages to generate some thrills, especially in an extended sequence where Laurie hunts Michael through a dark house but, whereas in the first film ‘The Shape’ had some sense of purpose, now he just seems to want to kill indiscriminately and the resulting higher body count serves to make us care less about each successive murder. What’s more, this is a good deal more visceral than its predecessor, which – to my mind at least – also dissipates some of the tension.

But still, there’s plenty to enjoy – if that’s the right word. Lee Curtis is terrific as a once meek woman now transformed into something much more assertive and it’s lovely to hear Carpenter revisiting his most famous score, in collaboration with his son, Cody. If nothing else, this beats all those other sequels, prequels and reboots into a cocked hat, resulting in a decent horror movie that manages not to crap all over the heritage it has been handed.

Maybe now though, we might let this franchise go and admit that nobody is ever going to measure up to what we saw in 1978.

4 stars

Philip Caveney