Dead of Winter (2007) Movie Review, Trailer, Film Still and Poster

USA 2006
Director: Brian McNamara
Cast: Al Santos, Sandra McCoy, Ella Joyce, Brian McNamara, Alex Boyd, Don Fischer, Ashley Gardner
Rating: R
Release Date: February 2008
Running Time: 1 hour 27 minutes

The Movie Review

Dead of Winter film still 1


DEAD of WINTER
Storyline:
Cast:
Ending:
Overall:

With so many horror movies released containing bloody-drenched gore or lame-o Asian ghost remakes, an entry as brainy as Dead of Winter makes me crave of more smart horror movies. And especially after watching thriller about serial killer and stuff, seeing Dead of Winter is a joy of time. "Dead of Winter" or also known as "Lost Signal" presents a terror which has high probability to be true in a real life, plus it can happen to anybody. The terror is not in a form of a lunatic wearing scary mask whacking sex-crazed teens or creepy/giant creatures which are immune to bullets, but something more close to each and every one of us, especially those who are living in a major city or experiencing college life. But by telling you who the villain is would be a sure spoiler. However, there is a paragraph below dedicated to spoil the story, to prevent you regretting to have watched the movie, in case you don't like this type of villain.

Claiming to be based on actual events, which I truly believe that is highly possible to reoccur, Dead of Winter revolves around Kevin (Al Santos) and Tiffany (Sandra McCoy) who plans to live together in Kevin's apartment. After saying goodbye to Tiffany's parents, the two lovebirds go to have some fun in a New Year's Eve party held by Randy Martin (Alex Boyd). The party is a regular college students' party with all the booze and loud music, and eventually Kevin, Randy and Tiffany also do drugs. Afterwards they drive to their apartment through a lonely road crossing the winter woods. All of a sudden Tiffany starts to hear stuff and Kevin also sees stuff. Things are getting worse when their car hits a tree. Those two young people then try to seek refuge while trying to call 911. A sympathetic 911 operator named Nancy Caulderbank (Ella Joyce) accepts the call and tries to help them, but Kevin constantly puzzles her with his muddled up reports about their whereabouts, mainly also due to the Lost Signal.

Being lost, cold and unable to find help, as time passes by, the unfortunate couple finds things that are getting stranger and creepier in the dark snowy woods. What is really happening to them and who is really chasing them?

Interesting premise and captivating storyline, Dead of Winter is a thriller movie which requires your attention, or simply put, it won't bore you. Its storyline will keep you on guessing what's what. I'm sure fellow veteran moviegoers could relatively easy tell who the villain is when the movie hits 30-minute mark, but still, we are enticed to assure whether our guess is right or not, which we'll only get it near the end of the movie.

Note: the random characters below are deliberately put to distract our readers from inadvertently reading a spoiler
--Start of Spoiler Possibiliy Alert--
fhaiasd addd3r3rqfqaw ipefhwfy2fhao pf4f94fawfy yf9awfhah9fafaahhhfa99fa asfhsdf9f dnz83ro afhov0rq91oozo It Turns out that it's the drugs that makes them hallucinate, so there never was a serial killer or ghosts. Dead of Winter is a psychological thriller. Their minds are messing with them. Dead of Winter is about two young people who are controlled by the Uncontrolled.
--End of Spoiler Possibiliy Alert--

Seeing from the looks of it, we might tell that it's likely a low-budget one. And I was thinking that Dead of Winter will resort to scenes of several college chicks doing naughty things to keep the audience's eyes locked unto the screen, and thankfully it's not. Because any nudity exposed in Dead of Winter would totally ruin the tension that has been built up.

And I used to not expect a good ending from a horror or thriller movie, since it's difficult to get a memorable one, but what Dead of Winter has doesn't disappoint me, although it's not mind blowing, still it has quite a shocking ending twist. Overall, Dead of Winter is a good horror movie, with effective boo scares (don't worry, the script does not solely depends on them) which got me jump from my seat wrapped in a good fast pace, it should certainly be watched by horror fans and general moviegoers alike.