Dead of Winter

An extremely improbable assemblage of obnoxious d-bags head out into the snow for a scavenger hunt. Who will win?

Who cares.

Not the director, because the plot is quickly abandoned once the bodies start stacking up. In short order essentially nameless cast members are decapitated, ripped limb from limb, pincushioned with arrows, and so on. The big mystery is: who is responsible for the murders?

Who cares.

It turns out the director doesn't care about the mystery either, because the killer is shown firing the cross bolt halfway through the film. So much for the mystery. Half the movie to go and we have no plot and no mystery. Oops.

Poor acting, though that is more due to the "and then" nature of the script than a lack of effort from the cast. And then the bus blows up, and then a girl has her arms tipped off, and then a guy is decapitated, and then... No story, no plot, no rising action. Just a series of unconnected scenes. And then a guy is shot with arrows, and then...

The music is laughably bad. The less said about it the better.

On the plus side the scenery is pleasant and the threatened found footage video cam filming from the beginning was mercifully quickly forgotten.

Four stars.

Short and sweet, no spoilers.

Actually...I felt it was between 4 and 5 but rounded up.

This is a very average independent, low budget film. The overall bent of the characters being picked off one by one is not new, but the plot itself is a new take on an old trope. Thankfully, the acting is average to slightly above, so at least it's (a little) "believable." We get no subtext or history on the characters, so what you see is what you get, which is very little so there is no real development or attachment to anyone except what is formed during the movie. I would compare the group of geohunters to their own "Breakfast Club," since each one is a cliché. That's not a bad thing, only an observation.

The direction, cinematography, script...all average to above average. There are some good moments in the cinematography, as the snowy (and legitimately cold) landscape offers some great opportunities. The story and script are the worst offenders, as the story content is at times sickeningly cliche (eg "love" interests, "speeches")

Re: parental content:

• no sex or nudity
• very little profanity. It's there but not gratuitous
• the directors include violence that might otherwise be gory but for the relatively bad CGI fx. There are a couple of practical fx scenes, but for the most part the blood and "gore" are all digital...and not very well done "digital" at that
• I suppose some scenes could be considered intense, but for the most part the intensity comes with the killings.

Overall, it's a very "meh" film. I don't regret watching it, but I wished it had been more. Small budgets don't mean a movie is damned from fx but this could have been a really fun, bloody, gory slasher had there been a little cash behind it. Don't go out of your way to watch this, but if you find it on late at night, it will kill the time.

It should be noted...it's a bit slow. And by slow, I mean there are multiple areas where the pace lags behind what the viewer wishes.

Hated the end.

Started off great minus the weird and annoying theme song. Some decent acting and great scenery.

The treasure hunt makes for an interesting storyline though. Worth watching if not much on.

If you can bear the early caricature introductions, poor plot development and lack of real suspense, you might enjoy the wintry scene and last until the final few minutes where some action finally breaks the tedium.

Movie set in freezing nowhere. Check. Characters that are actually DRESSED FOR THE WEATHER! HATS,GLOVES, COATS!!!!! This stopped that ridiculousness in every sub zero wilderness movie where some chick whines that she is freezing,mainly because she's dressed like she's hitting the town in tampa bay on a july evening,dedpite being in a place with literal snow on the ground. So kudos to the filmakers for that,because it truly looked cold as heck! As for this story?!?!? Meh. I sided with the killer, ESPECIALLY after the first scene and the tale he told,and was hoping he would take them all out,because they were annoying as all get out. The one lady had really nice curly hair. Acting was decent,killer had excellent reasoning,but really this movie just moved woodenly and bizarrely. Decent scenery,acting,and hell yeah i included stars for tbose warm clothes,because i have seen that stupidity play out in so many other movies,but ultimately this is just a meh movie.