Dead of Winter

In terms of camera work, lighting, pace and direction in general, this is a fine piece of film-making. Penn knows all the bells and whistles as usual and Mary Steenburgen is quite amazing in her roles. I'm put off as I am so often by the many critics who look to film for verisimilitude (the "if it couldn't or wouldn't ordinarily happen in real life" brigade) that sets us so far behind our European counterparts. The film has a remarkable sense of entrapment and claustrophobia in the dead of winter in the middle of nowhere. As far as whether the events really could happen like that, I suppose I was more interested in the style, craftsmanship and general concept than of probabilities or even possibilities. The camera work and rhythm at the end of the film are magnificent. As for the "damsel in distress" nonsense, how many thousands of movies fall into that genre anyway? Are they all uniformly bad because they use a successful formula? This is the kind of movie where it's fun to sit back and enjoy the fireworks without bothering about split infinitives and the like.

Curtis Stotlar

Enjoyed the 1945 film, "My Name is Julie Ross", 1945 starring Nina Foch, which was a great thrilling film for 1945. However, this 1987 remake held my interest from beginning to the very end. It was full of horror, thrills and plenty of chills in a very winter time of year with plenty of snow and howling winds and a creepy old home. Mary Steenburgen, (Julie Ross) plays the role of a struggling actress and tries out for an audition and secures the acting position and is required to stay in the producers home. Roddy McDowell, (Mr. Murray) guides Julie Ross into a large spider web of murder, torture and secret panels in the walls and plenty of blood. Jan Rubes, (Dr. Joseph Lewis) plays the so called doctor and producer who simply adores Julie Ross and simply does not want her to leave and go home to her husband. Mary Steenburgen gave an outstanding performance along with the great former actor, Roddy McDowell. Enjoy

I didn't know what to except, reviews didn't give a clue what I'm going to watch.

Well first of all, big minus for the beginning, somewhere in 10 minutes or so you get the idea of whole movie. Don't get me wrong, this was very interesting and very well acted and all, nicely put together, and the ending was little twist that saved a lot.

Few parts doesn't make any sense in the movie but that didn't bother me. It was lovely to watch the whole movie with huge interest for the ending.

Truly worth of watch if you can handle thrillers and 80's style doesn't bother you.

And for the last words, this was pretty original for a thriller.. legendary maybe. Now I got lost in nostalgic, enjoy!

The critics for this movie in the local newspaper and also on IMDB said this movie is a give away thriller. I totally disagree. It may be true that it takes too much time before we are confronted with the new personage Steenburgen has to play, but overall this is a nice Mousetrap. The actors are very well casted on I was sometimes surprised with the plot twists. Music helps keeping up an eerie atmosphere. Don't watch this movie if you're alone at night

This Arthur Penn-directed remake of My Name Is Julia Ross represents yet another attempt to revive an old Hollywood formula, in this case the lady-in-distress thriller. There are of course some new, kinky wrinkles in this film, which has some grisly moments. For the most part the movie worked well for me. Mary Steenburgen makes an attractive and sympathetic heroine as a woman trapped in a snowbound mansion by two very strange men. There are some shocks along the way but in the end the movie is fairly conventional, a technical exercise, if you will, featuring some good, offbeat performances. The movie, in other words, delivers the goods, and is unashamedly old wine in a new bottle. It's no classic, but if its genre appeals to you, it's reasonably effective in its quiet way.