George and Josh Bate
For some, the holiday season means snuggling up on the couch and watching Home Alone, Elf, It’s a Wonderful Life, and a slew of other Christmas classics. For others, winter is a time for darker, more psychologically unsettling fare that makes for great viewing on a snowy day spent cozily indoors. If that interests you, check out these ten cozy snowy psychological thrillers to watch this winter below.
Dead of Winter (1987)
A decent movie titled Dead of Winter, starring Emma Thompson, was released this year, but the Dead of Winter we’re referring to here is the 1987 thriller from director Arthur Penn. Dead of Winter takes place around New Years and stars Mary Steenburgen as Katie McGovern, a struggling actress desperate to secure a gig. After an audition with the mysterious Mr. Murray, played by the legendary Roddy McDowall, Katie is invited to the upstate New York mansion of Dr. Joseph Lewis (Jan Rubeš) to film scenes in Lewis’ movie after the previous leading lady dropped out. But the film shoot takes a twisted turn as Katie unravels the real reason she was brought to the mansion.
Dead of Winter is the kind of snowy and cozy psychological thriller perfect for winter viewing. The film takes plenty of time building up to its final confrontation, during which the audience is treated with the coziness of an old-fashioned Gothic estate, the characteristic silliness of Roddy McDowall, and all manner of hints that suggest something isn’t quite right.
The Lodge (2019)
From directors and co-writers Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala, The Lodge is a slow-burn and atmospheric psychological horror film worthy of a watch this winter. The film stars Riley Keough as Grace, the fiance of Richard Armitage’s Richard Hall. After the death of his ex-wife, Richard brings Grace and his children Aiden (Jaeden Martell) and Mia (Lia McHugh) to his family’s remote Massachusetts lodge to get to know each other. When a work obligation forces Richard to head back into the city, Grace is left alone with Aiden and Mia as secrets of her past threaten to come to light.
The Lodge won’t be for everyone, but those who enjoy horror films that unsettle, rather than outright terrify, will probably get a kick out of this one. The film is beautifully shot by Thimios Bakatakis, a frequent collaborator of Yorgos Lanthimos, and draws inspiration from Alfred Hitchcock’s classic Rebecca. A meticulously crafted screenplay walks the audience through plenty of false twists before landing on an unpredictable revelation. All of these twists and turns occur amidst the silence of isolation, with a snowy landscape serving as the backdrop for a delightfully cozy house that becomes anything but cozy by the end.
The Blackcoat’s Daughter (2015)
Oz Perkins has become a big deal in the horror/thriller space in recent years, but, before the stardom take came with Longlegs, the writer/director helmed The Blackcoat’s Daughter, an underappreciated, quiet and wintry psychological horror movie. Imagine if Alexander Payne’s The Holdover was a horror movie and you pretty much have The Blackcoat’s Daughter. Unfolding on the lonely campus of an all-girls Catholic boarding school, the story follows two students, Kat (Kiernan Shipka) and Rose (Lucy Boynton), left behind during winter break when their parents fail to pick them up. As a brutal snowstorm settles in and the school empties out, the girls start to sense that something sinister is lurking within the academy’s darkened corridors.
Like some of the other films on this list, The Blackcoat’s Daughter rewards patient viewers with a haunting and unexpected conclusion. Until that conclusion arrives, however, there is plenty of dread, isolation, and wintery thrills to feast on. Perkins uses the blank whiteness of winter to contrast the shadowy interior spaces, creating a brilliantly atmospheric and unsettling film. It’s a grim but oddly cozy experience from one of contemporary horror’s most prolific and renowned filmmakers.
The Wolf of Snow Hollow (2020)
If you haven’t heard of Jim Cummings (the filmmaker, not the Winnie the Pooh voice actor), seek out his movies, because they are phenomenal. One of his best efforts is The Wolf of Snow Hollow, a genre-bending thriller that mixes dark comedy with the paranoia of a werewolf mystery. Cummings writes, directs, and stars as John Marshall, a small-town deputy struggling with anger issues, alcoholism, and the declining health of his sheriff father, played by the legendary Robert Forster in his final performance. When a series of brutal murders coincides with the full moon, John’s fragile sense of control begins to unravel as the town panics over the possibility of a supernatural killer.
Propelling forward with brisk pacing, Cummings’ film is bursting at the seams with wintery atmosphere. Snow Hollow feels like a lived-in mountain town blanketed by both winter and anxiety. Cummings’ offbeat sense of humor adds a touch of warmth to an otherwise chilly tale, creating a cozy-but-tense backdrop for an enthralling mystery that culminates in a great ending and fits perfectly among other snowy and cozy psychological thrillers.
The Hateful Eight (2015)
Perhaps the most well-known film on this list, Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight is a contained thriller drenched in blood, paranoia, and blizzard winds. Set in post–Civil War Wyoming, the film brings together eight dangerous strangers inside Minnie’s Haberdashery, a remote cabin that becomes impossible to escape when a fierce snowstorm roars into town. Samuel L. Jackson’s Major Marquis Warren, Kurt Russell’s John Ruth, and Jennifer Jason Leigh’s Daisy Domergue lead an ensemble cast of crooks, bounty hunters, and liars who all have something to hide.
Though epic in scope and technical mastery, The Hateful Eight is structurally intimate, unfolding like a tense psychological pressure cooker, not dissimilar from an Agatha Christie mystery. Tarantino uses the howl of the wind outside and the creaking floorboards inside to emphasize the claustrophobia of being snowed in with untrustworthy company. The warmth of the cabin’s lanternlight contrasts with the cold brutality of its characters, making the film a cozy yet vicious winter viewing experience.
A Simple Plan (1998)
Likely appealing to fans of Fargo, Sam Raimi’s A Simple Plan is one of the great wintry thrillers of the 1990s, a morality tale set amid the stark snowfields of rural Minnesota. The story follows Hank (Bill Paxton), his brother Jacob (Billy Bob Thornton), and their friend Lou (Brent Briscoe) as they stumble upon a crashed plane buried in the woods containing over four million dollars in cash. What begins as a dream scenario quickly twists into a nightmare as suspicion, deception, and desperation drive the trio further and further away from their original “simple plan.”
The film’s snowy landscape is more than a backdrop; it becomes a quiet accomplice, swallowing sound and isolating characters as tensions mount among the character. Raimi keeps the thriller grounded, allowing the natural coziness of cabins and small-town life to clash with the violent impulses that money awakens. Raimi crafts a cold, methodical unraveling of human nature that feels perfect for a winter night.
Smilla’s Sense of Snow (1997)
Based on Peter Høeg’s bestselling novel, Smilla’s Sense of Snow is a chilly, cerebral thriller you probably haven’t heard of. After a neighbor falls to his death from an apartment roof, glaciologist Smilla (Julia Ormond) begins investigating, convinced that the official explanation doesn’t make sense. Her search for answers leads her from icy city streets to an Arctic expedition filled with corporate secrets and scientific intrigue.
The film uses winter not just cosmetically, but thematically: Smilla’s identity, intuition, and emotional defenses are all bound up in snow and ice. Director Bille August creates a crisp, contemplative atmosphere that somehow feels both cozy and alien. Nearly 20 years after its release and the film still packs a punch.
Murder on the Orient Express (1974)
Sidney Lumet’s 1974 adaptation of Agatha Christie’s classic whodunit is a old-school mystery perfect for wintertime viewing. Albert Finney stars as Hercule Poirot, whose journey aboard the famous train is interrupted when a snowdrift strands the passengers and a wealthy American is found murdered in his cabin. Surrounded by an all-star ensemble—Ingrid Bergman, Lauren Bacall, Sean Connery, and more—Poirot must unravel the complicated web of motives and identify the murderer in his midst.
The coziness of the train’s narrow hallways and warmly lit compartments contrasts beautifully with the blizzard raging outside. Lumet’s version revels in vintage charm, turning the Orient Express into both a refuge from the cold and a locked-room stage bursting with psychological tension.
No Exit (2022)
No Exit, directed by Damien Power, is a compact and claustrophobic thriller that went under the radar for many in the flurry of post-COVID steaming releases but is certainly worth a watch. Havana Rose Liu stars as Darby, a young woman who becomes stranded at a rest stop with a group of strangers during a winter storm. When she discovers a kidnapped girl hidden in a van outside, Darby realizes that at least one of her companions is far more dangerous than they appear.
The strength of No Exit lies in its simplicity: a storm, a roadside shelter, and a cast of characters who are shrouded in mystery. The blizzard outside adds a cozy-but-suffocating sense of entrapment, turning a mundane travel stop into a perfect storm of nightmares for our lead.
The Alpines (2021)
Probably the film on this list most people haven’t heard of, The Alpines is an independent psychological thriller directed by Dante Aubain that takes place in the seclusion of a remote winter cabin. The film follows a group of college friends who reunite for a weekend getaway, only to discover that each of them has been lured there for reasons connected to a shared, unspoken past. As the snow settles around the cabin and communication with the outside world fails, the group becomes convinced they are being watched—and manipulated—by an unseen presence.
Though the acting leaves much to be desired, The Alpines excels in leaning heavily on mood and character tension. The snug cabin setting contrasts with the emotional distance among the friends, and the creeping sense of something wrong outside the snow-covered windows gives the film a slow sense of unease. The final twist at the end works great in a film that will satisfy fans of intimate, dialogue-driven thrillers.
