Dead of Winter is a 2025 action thriller, directed by Brian Kirk from an original screenplay by Nicholas Jacobson-Larson and Dalton Leeb. It had its world premiere at the 78th Locarno Film Festival on August 8, 2025, before its cinema release on September 26. For the avoidance of doubt, it is not a remake of the 1987 film of the same name.

For a number of reasons, Dead of Winter is almost certain to be likened to the Coen Brothers film Fargo: it is set in Minnesota, as was much of Fargo; in both films, there is a lot of snow and there are a lot of panoramic-shots of desolate frozen landscapes; both plots hinge around kidnappings; both ‘heroines’ are unlikely, but resourceful and plucky woman; and both contain an awful lot of blood. In fact, the two films taken together put me in mind of the central premise of Woody Allen’s Melinda and Melinda: all stories can be told either as tragedy or comedy. Fargo is the comedy; Dead of Winter has few laughs!

So, the premise: Barb (Emma Thompson) sets out (in a blizzard) to Lake Hilda in northern Minnesota, apparently to go ice fishing. It quickly becomes apparent that this was where she and her husband spent their first date. Lost in the snow, she asks a strange guy for directions. Shortly thereafter she discovers that he has kidnapped a young woman. Then his weird wife shows up, and the film twists this way and that as Barb sets about rescuing the kidnapped girl.

The plot is a little far-fetched, although I did manage to just-about suspend my disbelief until the end, and the plot twists are reasonably compelling. However, the characterisation is wafer thin. Ignoring Barb for a moment, the two kidnappers are one-dimensional – they have their motivation for what they are doing, and that is it; the kidnap-victim is even less fleshed out – all we really learn is why she was chosen; and there are two further characters, who don’t even have the luxury of one dimension!

So back to Barb. Yes, we get an idea of who she is and why she has ventured into this frozen wasteland. Yes, ultimately there is a ‘completeness’ to her story (much of which is told in flashbacks of her with her husband). And yes, Emma Thompson is very good in the role. But for me, that was not quite enough.

This is all plot and no depth of character. If you like twisty thrillers and action movies, and if you are happy to know next-to-nothing about the characters other than their primary motivation at this moment in their lives, then Dead of Winter is for you. However, like the landscape, it left me rather cold.

Interestingly, much of the film was shot in Finland where apparently Emma Thompson has become something of a national hero, so perhaps we will see her in the next Aki Kaurismäki film!