Wallow in Winter With These 13 Cold AF Movies
Brrr, it's cold in here. There must be some movies in the atmosphere.
Some people like to escape with a balmy beach movie when winter storms surround them in the real world, and others prefer to lean in with films that are are frozen as they are. If you count yourself in the latter camp, here are some cold movies to watch while you’re trapped inside.
These are some of my go-to recommendations for this time of year, across the genres and the decades. Though, for some reason, the years 2004, 2013, 2014, and 2023 are all represented on this list twice. Not sure how that happened. Listening, learning, will do better and eventually get around to watching Doctor Zhivago, etc.
For the most part, these films are tied to a weather phenomenon or a season and not any specific holiday. As much as I wanted to include The Holdovers, I think there are enough lists of Christmas movies. Don’t you agree?
Inside Llewyn Davies (2014)
I am aware that the most obvious winter weather Coen Brothers movie is Fargo. Please do not come for me. Today, I am using my platform to talk about Inside Llewyn Davis and the concept of romanticizing the cold at your own detriment. Every time the wind chill drops, I crave the soothing sounds and self-sabotaging styles of one Llewyn Davis.
Oscar Isaac’s character is a folk singer bemoaning his own lack of success after the death of his partner. He does not think he deserves warmth of any kind, and actively chooses the cold at every turn. Llewyn refuses a warm coat when one is offered. He leaves the window open. He walks through the snow, not around it, on more than one occasion. So sad and so cold.
Frozen (2013)
Is it a basic answer to this prompt? Yes. Does the lyric “my soul is spiraling in frozen fractals all around” still tickle my brain to this day? Also yes! Bless Idina Menzel, queen of the “fuck it” anthem. Frozen is the platonic ideal of a winter movie. It’s not tied to any particular holiday. The snow looks magical because it is magical. It’s a musical. Who could ask for anything more?
Snowpiercer (2013)
Seriously, what was going on in 2013-2014 that made Hollywood crave cold movies, huh? We’ll get out of this decade in a second, promise. But you can’t talk about freezing on film without Snowpiercer! In director Bong Joon Ho’s class satire/action thriller, society has been condensed to a single train traveling the circumference of the globe. A climate catatrasophe turned the Earth into, basically, a snowball. What other choice do they have? The constant threat of freezing to death in severe temperatures outside the “safety” of the high speed rail looms over at every tense, horrifying, and/or darkly comic moment. Bonus: Chris Evans’ scrappy protagonist Curtis wears the hell out of a beanie.
The Day After Tomorrow (2004)
If nothing else, The Day After Tomorrow serves as another useful reminder that occasional cold fronts do not mean that global warming does not exist. Sure, the science in this film about a freak Ice Age event is debatable. That’s why it’s fiction, y’all! Watch a documentary like March of the Penguins if you want accuracy. Are you not entertained by Jake Gyllenhaal and Emmy Rossum running around a frozen Manhattan? Is your heart not warmed by that one guy who refuses to let the survivors burn a copy of the Gutenberg Bible? Disaster movies rule!
Chilly Scenes of Winter (1979)
This is an underrated anti-romantic comedy from an underrated auteur, Joan Micklin Silver, that I cannot recommend enough. Set against stunning snow in Salt Lake City, this fascinating film is about a man named Charles (John Heard) reflecting on a romantic relationship with his coworker, Laura (Mary Beth Hurt). He’s delusional in a way that only a man written by a women would dare be depicted. The season finally changes when Charles figures out how to move on, which might remind you of another romantic comedy about an ill-adjusted man who was, unfortunately, very much written by one as well.
The Ice Storm (1997)
Ice storms are the worst. Sure, it’s pretty when the trees look like they’re made of glass… but at what cost? They’re as dangerous as a blizzard and you don’t even get to go sledding when they’re over. And few things are icier than the American suburbs, as Ang Lee showcases in this period drama set over Thanksgiving weekend. It’s depressing, stressful, bleak in its outlook, and you don’t even get to go sledding when it’s over. (At the same time, this movie is what introduced me to the concept of a “key party,” so make of that what you will. That’s what this writer took away from it when she first watched it as a teenager. Ah, the 70s!)
Society of the Snow (2023)
If you’re still haunted by what happened to Jackie on Yellowjackets, and haven’t yet seen this Academy award-nominated film about one of the true stories behind it, this is your sign! Written and directed by J. A. Bayona, the film dramatizes the plane crash that stranded a Rugby team in the Andes mountains in 1972. Yes, several of the initial survivors died before the group was eventually rescued. Yes, some of them did engage in cannibalism–though not quite as brutally as the fictional soccer team they inspired. Nor are they as brutal as snow survivors in other movies like The Grey and The Revenant.
The Shining (1980)
Hot or cold, extreme weather will drive you nuts. One has to imagine that, even with all the ghosts and ghouls roaming around the Overlook Hotel, Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) would have been able to keep it together if it was a little warmer outside. It makes the whole family all the more isolated and stir crazy. Of course, there’s also the frosty ending to consider–but if you’ve somehow made it to 2026 unspoiled, I won’t say another word!
Force Majure (2014)
Alright, promise, one more twenty teens film for the road. You may be more familiar with the 2020 English-language remake Downhill starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Will Ferrell. But we have to pay reverence to Ruben Östlund’s award-winning original black comedy about a man who ditches his wife and two children when it looks like an avalanche is going to wipe all of them out in an instant at a ski resort. What follows is as awkward and deranged as the choice to take a family vacation in a cold weather location to begin with.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
I still don’t know why Clementine (Kate Winslet), a Long Island resident, is so willing to drop everything and hop all the way up to Boston to walk on the frozen Charles River. A good portion of this trippy, dream-like film takes place during the winter. Sorry to do this, but: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind perfectly captured “snow on the beach” eighteen years before Taylor Swift. B
ut there’s also, of course, the clinical coldness of the memory-erasing procedure. Every single character, from Jim Carrey and Winslet as the fated lovers at the center of the plot, to the hilarious and tragic trio that is Mark Ruffalo, Elijah Wood, and Kirsten Dunst’s Lacuna employees, pushes back against that and I think that’s beautiful.
Groundhog Day (1993)
There’s a reason that Groundhog Day, which is ostensibly a comedy and a romantic one at that, serves as a metaphor for depression. Feel like your life is a monotonous loop you can’t escape? Does the promise of Spring’s warmth feel like it’s both at an arm’s length and controlled by a metric as arbitrary as a rodent seeing his shadow? That’s mental illness, baby! It’s also the plot of this Bill Murray movie, directed by Harold Ramis, about a misanthropic weather man forced to relive a winter day over and over and over until he gets his act together and finds joy again.
Anatomy of a Fall (2023)
A lot of Justine Triet’s courtroom drama (dramedy if you ask me, but…) takes place inside where everyone is warm and dry. However, the titular alleged murder happens at a mountain chalet while a boy and his dog are taking a walk in some pristine snow. Sandra Hüller’s character and her husband are more than a little stir crazy in their isolated, frigid environment. The way the French legal system dissects a marriage is its own kind of bitter cold. Good outerwear, too. It’s a chilly movie all around.
Snow Day (2000)
This movie’s greatest contribution to society is probably the song “Another Dumb Blonde” by Hoku, which was featured on the soundtrack ahead of the artist’s eponymous album release, despite having truly nothing to do with the plot. But a PG-rated hangout comedy could do a lot worse.
Snow Day will transport you to a time and place that feels so ancient it’s almost mythical: when school was actually canceled during the snow and kids came up with elaborate schemes to turn one day off into two. Fun fact for ancient millennials like myself: it was originally supposed to be part of the Adventures of Pete & Pete universe. RIP!
(featured image: Focus Features/Studio Canal/Warner Bros.)
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