Cold Weather Horror
November 10, 2024 3:19 PM   Subscribe

I'm looking for works of horror fiction with a snowy/icy setting where the setting contributes to the horror (ie, the characters are coping with the dangers of isolation/exposure/freezing to death while also dealing with ghosts etc).

- Michelle Paver's novels Dark Matter and Thin Air are good examples of the kind of thing I'm looking for.

- I am familiar with Who Goes There?/The Thing, The Terror and At the Mountains of Madness.

- I have a slight preference for books but recommendations for movies/other media are also welcome.

- I would prefer to avoid sexual violence if at all possible.

Thank you!
posted by darchildre to Media & Arts (44 answers total) 19 users marked this as a favorite
 
The Shining is the gold standard in this genre. The book and the movie both have their charms.
posted by XtineHutch at 3:21 PM on November 10 [3 favorites]


Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air, about an extra-bad Mount Everest expedition, is all the more horrifying for being true. The characters are indeed coping with the dangers of isolation/exposure/freezing to death while also dealing with hypoxia-induced hallucinations and encounters with maybe-alive-maybe-not expedition members.
posted by heatherlogan at 3:26 PM on November 10 [6 favorites]




Popcorny thrillers:

Dean Koontz' Phantoms (bad things happen in a ski resort town)

Several of Preston & Child's books featuring Corrie Swanson/Nora Kelly that can be read independently:
White Fire (bad things happen in a ski resort town, but different)
Old Bones (continuing adventures of the Donner Party)
Dead Mountain (dead people on a mountain, but not the Donner Party)
posted by phunniemee at 3:38 PM on November 10 [2 favorites]


The series Fortitude comes to mind. From what I remember the premise was interesting, but it goes in a strange direction. Can't remember presence or absence of sexual violence either.
posted by Lucy_32 at 3:40 PM on November 10


Frozen (decidedly _not_ the Disney film) has some of this although I don't think it has any supernatural elements.
posted by gauche at 3:44 PM on November 10 [2 favorites]


Dead Snow (2009) is a Norwegian horror comedy about some people stuck in the mountains and fighting off nazi zombies.
posted by SaltySalticid at 4:13 PM on November 10 [5 favorites]


The film The Lodge was quite effective and stuck with me. There's implications of possible past sexual inappropriateness (one of the characters grew up in a cult) but you don't see anything graphic onscreen.
posted by Nibbly Fang at 4:16 PM on November 10


It's more of a thriller than a horror movie (and also, to be honest, bad), but Whiteout. It's based on a comic, which is better (but not my favorite, although I'm not a huge Greg Rucka fan).

I don't remember any sexual violence in either but some sexism (but we're supposed to know it's bad).
posted by edencosmic at 4:25 PM on November 10 [2 favorites]


The most recent season of the HBO series True Detective definitely fits the bill. (It’s an anthology series so the seasons are independent and you don’t have to watch 1-3 first.)
posted by staggernation at 4:34 PM on November 10 [5 favorites]


As it progresses the show Yellowjackets hits the intersection of horror, winter, freezing, spooky stuff. No sexual violence but definitely a lot of highly disturbing violence including cannibalism.

I haven’t seen it but there was also a show called The Terror that was set on a 19th century ship.

“The first season begins with the Royal Navy's polar explorer ships HMS Erebus and HMS Terror having recently left Beechey Island in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, heading south toward King William Island into uncharted territory, seeking to find and confirm the existence and navigability of the fabled Northwest Passage. The ships are soon frozen and trapped in the ice, and those aboard must survive the harsh weather conditions and each other, while being stalked by an elusive menace.”
posted by forkisbetter at 4:35 PM on November 10 [2 favorites]


Maybe a tad early for a Christmas movie, but Krampus is a holiday-horror-comedy which hinges on a family being trapped in their home by a terrible snowstorm.
posted by ejs at 4:36 PM on November 10 [2 favorites]


How do you feel about space as a setting rather than winter on earth? It's cold and isolated. Themes perhaps more often aliens and/or psychosis than actual ghosts, but manifestations can be ghostlike. Some examples in this Reddit thread and Variety article.
posted by aincandenza at 4:55 PM on November 10


Ararat by Christopher Golden.

"When a newly engaged couple climbs Mount Ararat in Turkey, an avalanche forces them to seek shelter inside a massive cave uncovered by the snow fall. The cave is actually an ancient, buried ship that many quickly come to believe is really Noah’s Ark. When a team of scholars, archaeologists, and filmmakers make it inside the ark for the first time, they discover an elaborate coffin in its recesses."
posted by Flexagon at 5:10 PM on November 10


I Remember You by the Icelandic author Yrsa Sigurdardottir fits most of your criteria. The book has two parallel stories that converge, both set in Iceland, one following a psychologist dealing with the death of his child, and the other involving multiple people trying to restore an isolated cabin in the national park to the north. She has some good character moments, and the horror-mystery plot is entirely serviceable, but the setting is extraordinarily well used, particularly if you're the least bit familiar with that part of the world. I don't recall any sexual violence in it, as well.
posted by ayerarcturus at 5:36 PM on November 10 [3 favorites]


The 1991 anthology Cold Shocks edited by Tim Sullivan is fantastic. It contains the only story that ever scared me.
posted by goatdog at 5:47 PM on November 10


If another planet setting is ok, consider the book Arkangelsk by Elizabeth H. Bonesteel. It's set on a cold planet that's just barely in the habitable zone for humans.

Someone upthread mentioned Krampus. If that's in your range, consider the movie Rare Exports. It's from Finland, and it's Christmas-adjacent, which may not be what you want though.

If you don't mind a true story, Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing is good. Caveat: Shackleton is one of my personal heroes, so YMMV. But I listened to the audiobook version, and was up till 3AM because I didn't want to stop listening.
posted by Archer25 at 6:04 PM on November 10 [5 favorites]


Yeah, the true story of Scott’s Antarctic expedition is all that.
posted by Melismata at 6:38 PM on November 10 [3 favorites]


Ascension by Nicholas Binge is a little smart and a little stupid, but either way should give you what you're looking for.
posted by babelfish at 6:42 PM on November 10


The Dead Mountaineer's Inn by the Strugatsky brothers is a good one, I think. It's more on the weird side, in both senses of the word, but I definitely enjoyed it.

The Wendigo certainly fits. Excellent short story/novella by Algernon Blackwood.
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 7:08 PM on November 10 [1 favorite]


Smilla's Sense of Snow might be a good addition. Both a book and a movie. The Grey might also we worth checking out.
posted by Molasses808 at 7:21 PM on November 10 [3 favorites]


Let The Right One In
posted by knobknosher at 7:37 PM on November 10 [7 favorites]


Norwegian comedic thriller flick: In Order of Dissappearance

Not proper horror, but a favorite of mine.

- I am familiar with Who Goes There?/The Thing, The Terror and At the Mountains of Madness.

Charlie Stross's: Autrocity Archives
posted by sebastienbailard at 7:55 PM on November 10


The Fearless Vampire Killers!
(trailer)
posted by Rash at 8:16 PM on November 10


The Revenant (2015 film)
posted by danceswithlight at 8:42 PM on November 10 [1 favorite]


Not horror in the conventional sense but sobering and somewhat creepy, and snowy: The Brief History of the Dead by Kevin Brockmeier.
posted by Erinaceus europaeus at 9:26 PM on November 10


The TV miniseries Katla may be a good match. In a small town in Iceland, revenants (of the dead, the departed, or even the living) appear on the frozen slopes of the volcano and descend into the community below, as a terrible storm is closing in....
posted by Harvey Kilobit at 11:03 PM on November 10 [3 favorites]


I Remember You by the Icelandic author Yrsa Sigurdardottir fits most of your criteria.

Seconded.

A more recent one by the same author is also a good fit: The Prey, again set in Iceland. We have three main threads: one follows a man working at an isolated radar station, one follows a woman on a search and rescue team looking for two missing couples, and the third follows one of the missing women. There is some cruelty but no sexual violence (as far as I recall).
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 1:44 AM on November 11


The Taiga Syndrome
posted by sepviva at 1:51 AM on November 11


The last part of Stephen Graham Jones’ The Inly Good Indians is a harrowing chase through snow. His Don’t Fear the Reaper is set in an isolated mountain town facing a brutal winter storm and 2-3 serial killers, depending on how you count. Jones’ use of the dangers of the storm and the confusion caused by limited visibility and mobility to increase tension is really excellent. No sexual violence specifically, but a slasher’s linking of sex and murder, plus some very gory descriptions, might put you off. It’s the central part of a trilogy, so reading the first one (not very wintry) to set up some of the characters is recommended. Reading the third one, which is good, isn’t necessary for enjoying the second.
posted by GenjiandProust at 5:22 AM on November 11


Quite a lot of Frankenstein happens in v icy conditions.

I recently enjoyed Near the Bone by Christina Henry, but there are strong themes of domestic violence so CW for that.
posted by rd45 at 5:36 AM on November 11 [1 favorite]


Also more "thriller" than "horror" -

The movie Till Death. A woman is lured to an isolated winter lake cabin and winds up handcuffed to her dead husband.

The book Dead of Winter by Darcy Coates. A tour bus on its way to a ski resort in the Rocky Mountains crashes in an unexpected blizzard. The survivors find shelter in a nearby small cabin, and get picked off one by one as the snow storms prevent them from leaving.
posted by soundguy99 at 5:38 AM on November 11




Uh, I'm surprised not to see To Build a Fire by Jack London?
posted by tiny frying pan at 7:00 AM on November 11 [2 favorites]


The Shining - both stephen king's book and the movie. Author takes a job in a summer resort, snowed in in the off season.
posted by billjings at 8:26 AM on November 11 [1 favorite]


The scene 'The Blizzard' from Kurosawa's Dreams is a good example. The entire sequence is worth watching, of course.

The Making of The Representative for Planet 8 by Doris Lessing is a story influenced by accounts of the Scott Expedition.

There's also Altman's Quintet...
posted by ovvl at 9:33 AM on November 11


The most recent series of True Detective is at least as scary as many of the other suggestions here.
posted by Iteki at 9:44 AM on November 11


XFiles tv show had an episode where they were trapped under freezing blizzard conditions. Season 1 episode 8 called Ice.
posted by The_Vegetables at 11:20 AM on November 11 [2 favorites]


30 Days of Night?
posted by gottabefunky at 11:54 AM on November 11 [2 favorites]


Seconding Moon Of The Crusted Snow recommended above. It's a post-apocalyptic book - set in a rural Anishinaabe community in northern Canada, where the power starts to go wonky just as winter is setting in. The community doesn't think anything of it (they're used to the power going down all the time now and then), but then one of their community's kids who'd gone off to college comes back to say that this time it's a worldwide phenomenon, and shit's about to get real.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 1:11 PM on November 11




Ally Wilkes' All the White Spaces and Where the Dead Wait (polar exploration horror).

Seconding Nicholas Binge's Ascension and Stephen Graham Jones' wintry works.

Victor LaValle's Lone Women isn't entirely cold, but it definitely gets there!

Adam Nevill's No One Gets Out Alive isn't explicitly a winter book, I think, but it feels raw-to-the-bone cold. The Ritual would also work!
posted by quatsch at 5:50 AM on November 12 [1 favorite]


Ghost Story by Peter Straub! Book or the movie, really. I remember both as being cold, icy, snowy.
posted by mygothlaundry at 12:37 PM on November 12


Dan Simmons' novel A Winter's Haunting. Also, his novel The Terror was the source for the arctic expedition miniseries The Terror mentioned above -- both are excellent
posted by diodotos at 10:09 AM on November 13 [1 favorite]


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