Dead of Winter

Story:

Nicholas Jacobson-Larson and Dalton Leeb wrote the screenplay for the 2025 American action thriller Dead of Winter, which was directed by Brian Kirk. Emma Thompson, Judy Greer, Marc Menchaca, and Laurel Marsden are among its stars.

Prior to its theatrical release on September 26, 2025, the movie made its world premiere on August 8, 2025, in the Piazza Grande section of the 78th Locarno Film Festival.

Plot

Widow Barb sets out to carry out her husband Karl’s final request, which was to disperse his ashes in the isolated Lake Hilda in northern Minnesota, the location of their first date. She makes an inadvertent detour to a nearby cabin while driving there during a snowfall and asks Camo Jacket, a suspicious-looking man, for instructions. He claims that the blood she sees on the snow is from a deer. Barb observes Leah, a young woman with her hands bound, attempting to flee from Camo Jacket when she gets to the lake, but he catches her.

When Barb goes back to the cabin to look into it, she discovers the young woman shackled in the basement and hears the man speaking to his wife, Purple Lady. Outside the house, Purple Lady discovers Barb’s mitten and proof that she had been in contact with the abducted girl. They set out to find her. On the frozen lake, Barb sets up her husband’s ice-fishing hut as a trap. Camo Jacket tumbles through a hidden hole on the ice as the couple approaches brandishing pistols. Barb enters their cabin in the meantime, douses the fire, and soaks all of the clothes, blankets, and curtains in water after trying to liberate Leah. Before Barb can flee, Purple Lady shoots her in the arm as the couple reappears. Barb goes back to her truck, the wiring of which has been ripped apart.

Purple Lady looks for Barb by herself because Camo Jacket is hypothermic after plunging into the ocean. Before Camo Jacket interrupts her, Barb goes back to the cabin and breaks into his car to use the CB radio to ask for assistance. Barb stabs him in the foot during their altercation. Purple Lady turns out to be a hospital staffer who is gravely ill. They are trying to save Purple Lady’s life by harvesting Leah’s liver, but time is running out. Leah was brought to the hospital following a suicide attempt.

Barb serves as a distress signal by setting her truck on fire. When Purple Lady encounters two hunters on the road, they all return to look into the cabin, but Purple Lady shoots and kills the hunters. As a ruse, Barb discovers a dead Camo Jacket in her car. After shooting Purple Lady in the leg, Barb wakes up shackled to Leah in the basement after Purple Lady knocks her unconscious. Barb is able to break free, but before they can get away, Purple Lady catches her. At gunpoint, Purple Lady has Barb and Leah go back to the lake with her.

When Purple Lady arrives to a temporary medical tent in the middle of the lake, she makes Barb duct tape Leah to a surgical bed and quickly marks her torso so that the liver may be removed. Leah escapes the burning tent onto the ice when Purple Lady and Barb fight, setting the tent on fire. Barb drags Purple Lady into the freezing water while handcuffing her. Barb lets go of a metal box containing her husband’s ashes as the two injured women sink to their deaths. Now safe, Leah starts to cross the ice after looking at a picture of Barb and her husband from their first date.