WINTER HORROR: Dead Snow, Cold Prey, Pontypool, ATM & Jack Frost

Why does a horror movie get scarier the moment the temperature drops?

Trigger warning: a brief mention of suicide as a lie in a film’s plot (Dead of Winter, about 15:05), and a recommendation of Wind River that touches on violence against women and a young woman freezing to death (about 44:50 to 46:10). Also gore in Dead Snow, and crude humor about a nude scene in Jack Frost.

It’s the second episode of our winter horror run, from December 2020. We start with why cold makes isolation horror so much worse, then dig into frost, ice and snow on screen: the French found footage film Cold Ground, Arthur Penn’s Dead of Winter with Mary Steenburgen and Roddy McDowall, Norway’s Nazi zombies in Dead Snow and its ski lodge slasher Cold Prey, the Canadian radio station zombie film Pontypool, the gloriously bad 1997 Jack Frost, the Kickstarter creature feature Harbinger Down with Lance Henriksen, and ATM. Plus two cold picks that aren’t horror: The Hateful Eight extended cut and Wind River.

Therapists Shannon and Cathy talk about how cold turns isolation into a ticking clock, how anxiety and hypothermia pile on each other until no one can think straight, the gaslighting at the heart of Dead of Winter, the narcissistic friend in ATM who blames everyone but himself, and why we need to care about characters before a horror movie can scare us.

Covered in this episode:

• Why cold, snow and isolation make horror scarier
• Cold Ground (2017)
• Dead of Winter (1987), Mary Steenburgen, Roddy McDowall and William Russ
• Dead Snow (2009), plus fast zombies versus slow zombies
• Cold Prey (2006) and its sequels
• Pontypool (2008)
• Jack Frost (1997) and Joe Bob Briggs on Shudder
• Harbinger Down (2015), practical effects from Alec Gillis and Tom Woodruff Jr.
• ATM (2012), Brian Geraghty, Alice Eve and Josh Peck
• The Hateful Eight extended version, Wind River (2017) and The Revenant

Clinical themes: isolation and claustrophobia, anticipatory anxiety, gaslighting, narcissism and externalizing blame, suspension of disbelief, attachment to characters.

Corrections and updates: The Mary Steenburgen holiday film on Hulu is Happiest Season (2020). In Dead of Winter, Roddy McDowall plays Mr. Murray, the assistant who drives Katie to the house; the doctor in the wheelchair is played by Jan Rubeš. Drake & Josh aired on Nickelodeon, not Disney.

Related episodes:

• WINTER HORROR: Krampus, Black Christmas, 30 Days of Night & Gremlins
• SHRINK CHAT: Silent Night, Deadly Night, Salem’s Lot & Near Dark
• SHRINK CHAT: All Hallows’ Eve, Art the Clown, Baby Jane & Housebound

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Two licensed therapists, one forensic psychologist, one clinical LMFT, take apart the minds behind the crimes.

Until then... sleep safe. 😴
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