Dead of Winter (1987)★★☆☆☆

When I originally picked Dead of Winter for this week, I wasn’t fully expecting it to actually BE the dead of winter for us, but I probably should have. We’re blanketed in snow and it’s freezing outside. Below freezing, even.

But if I was hoping this movie would keep me warm, I was wrong. There’s a good story in there (and apparently this was a loose remake of a 1945 film?), but it takes way too long to tell it, and there’s not enough tension or action to keep the audience hooked for so long.

(Spoilers ahead) Which is disappointing, because the cast is great. Mary Steenburgen gets to show off quite a bit of range. Roddy McDowall is great - there’s something about his cartoonishly boyish looks that really works for me in scary movies. And even Alan Matthews (William Russ) was in it!

But it was so slow, and the exposition so drawn out. I was ready to give the movie three stars for the first hour or so…but then it just. kept. going. I know the slow-burn, noir-esque pacing really hits for some people. I guess I’m just impatient.

On the plus side, at least Chekhov’s bear trap went off?