Cool Off With These 18 Horror Movies Set in the Freezing Cold

John Carpenter ’s The Thing , which turn over 35 at the closing of June , is always the first movie we turn to during a summer heat wave — or any prison term we sense like watching something both figuratively and literally scarey But it ’s by no way the only great repugnance celluloid arrange in freezing conditions . drum the summer heat by making your blood pass cold with these movies .

18) Alien vs. Predator

This 2004 picture show is nobody ’s top pick in either franchise , but the scifi battle royale does have second that are stupidly gratifying . It ’s set on a stock-still island off the seashore of Antarctica , the only piazza on the planet where Predators can cover the underground pyramid they use as an arena for Alien hunting . This strange mutant requires hosts to grow the aliens in the first post — namely , homo who are singular , greedy , and/or unintelligent enough to adventure to the ends of the Earth . This round , it ’s a team in military service of the Weyland Corporation , recklessly endangering its employee even 150 days before the events of Alien . Who wins in the end ? Nobody … except the hybrid “ Predalien ” that stars in the sequel .

17) The Abominable Snowman

Just a few months after establishing himself as a Hammer superstar in The Curse of Frankenstein , Peter Cushing retort to the bighearted screen in 1957 for the studio to take on a very different behemoth — one that lurks high in the Himalayas . He play a way more openhearted scientist here , while Forrest Tucker play the spoiled - dude doctor with Yeti victimization on his brain . Most of The Abominable Snowman was shot on a hardening , but special effects and location shots of actual mountains help instal that “ the man - beast of Tibet ” indeed dwell in a harsh , outside stead .

16) The Thing

Posed as a prequel to Carpenter ’s cinema , this translation of The affair is set at the Antarctic Norwegian enquiry base that first encounters the shape - shift quad monster — you know , before it transform into the dog that scamper toward MacReady and ship’s company over at U.S. Outpost 31 . The stamp is mostly genuine Scandinavians ( including Kristofer Hivju , who ’d move on to other cold-blooded - ass locating as Tormund Giantsbane on Game of Thrones ) , though Mary Elizabeth Winstead gets top charge as an American palaeontologist muster up to investigate the team ’s mystic discovery in the chalk . It ’s a comme il faut monster moving picture , but the plot is more or less identical to Carpenter ’s 1982 film ( which needed no improving upon in the first spot ) , and it must be noted that the newer picture show ’s special personal effects are way less awing .

15) Whiteout

Kate Beckinsale plays a U.S. Marshal toiling in Antarctica who take on one last font before her much - desired retreat . ( She also get a cascade vista that ’s way more heart candy than psychotic homage . ) Of course , it ’s a nervous murder whodunit that twist out to be way more complicated than it first seem — and the cruel winter elements only make things more dangerous . Though Whiteout is more of a suspense thriller than a repugnance movie , it reach in effect use of its isolated environment , and gets points for containing a very cringe - inducing frostbite / amputation scene .

14) The Children

The mood of one extended family ’s Christmas holiday shifts from winter wonderland to gruesome hellscape when all the untried nestling become infected with a computer virus that turns them into deplorable teras . The parents do n’t really infer what ’s happening at first , because who wants to accommodate that their offspring have become actual little monsters ? And then , once the truth ca n’t be denied , who want to fight down their own tot to the death ? Though it ’s adjust late in the snow-clad countryside — sincerely , the perfect place to stage a dreaded sledding “ accident”—the plot of land might really be the coldest part of The Children .

13) Ravenous

Is there any other movie quite like 1999 ’s Ravenous ? Its quality of pitch - black comedy and themes of cannibalism and aboriginal American mysticism mesh weirdly well with its diachronic military background ( an icy outstation in the Sierra Nevadas , circa 1850 - ish ) and its gloriously offbeat cast , which includes Guy Pearce , Jeremy Davies , Neal McDonough , Jeffrey Jones , and David Arquette . Robert Carlyle , of grade , plays the bloodthirsty cat you ’d least want to be maroon with in any type of survival situation , much less one involving the devil - driven intake of human flesh .

12) Dreamcatcher

One of the weirder Stephen King adaptations out there , Dreamcatcher marries some of the author ’s familiar image to a genuinely bizarre taradiddle . puerility pals meet for their one-year reunion in the snowy Maine wood , but these are no ordinary champion , because they ’re psychically link ( they ’re played as adults by Thomas Jane , Damian Lewis , Timothy Olyphant , and Jason Lee , plus Donnie Wahlberg as the most “ extra ” among them ) . Also , this is also no ordinary patch of Maine woods , because there are unfriendly aliens lurking around , admit one that starts possessing member of the group . All that — plus guns , detonation , and gore , as well as Morgan Freeman in a very rare nefarious performance .

11) Jack Frost

Nope , not the 1998 kin comedy starring Michael Keaton — this is the 1997 horror comedy starring Scott MacDonald , though you ’d be forgive for bedevil the two , especially regard both moving picture are about workforce who die and come up back as snowman . The evil edition of Jack Frost sees a serial slayer ( who happens to be named … Jack Frost ) mutate into a deathly snowman after a main road crash postulate a prison transportation fomite , a tank driver hold in gallons of weird science , and a convenient snowdrift . Hey , it could happen !

10) 30 Days of Night

Any sentence you have a situation where the sun disappears for a long time period of time , you ’re going to have to consider the possibility of lamia . That ’s what happens 30 day of Night ’s small-scale Alaska burg , which becomes infested during the region ’s one-year carry polar nighttime . Produced by Sam Raimi and direct by David Slade ( who ’s helmed multiple episodes of American Gods and Hannibal ) , 30 Clarence Shepard Day Jr. is the rare repulsion motion picture that actually lives up to its clever premise — no doubt bolstered by its beginning as a well - receive IDW comic script . Danny Huston , last seen cabal with Doctor Poison in Wonder Woman , pull in an eerie impression as the dead - eyed head bloodsucker .

9) Wind Chill

Around the clock time of her breakout in The Devil Wears Prada , Emily Blunt made this twisty , Twilight Zone - ish tale about a New England college educatee whose route head trip home for Christmas gets very threatening and phantasmagorical . First , the atmospheric condition report warns of a serious incoming storm ; then , the guy she ’s doing the drive - percentage with reveals he ’s kind of a creep . However , those fear are soon eclipsed by the horrors that wait when the duo takes a shortcut that lead them down a very haunted highway . Never get off the primary road , Thomas Kid — or you might find yourself in a situation where freezing to destruction is the most pleasant option .

8) Frozen

There ’s nothing Disney about this Frozen , about a trio of skiiers erroneously strand on a ski lift after the recourse shuts down forrader of a touch-and-go blizzard . It ’s a lean set - up that resembles diving revulsion movie Open Water , but or else of being stranded in the sea , the kids are suspend richly above the ground in the operose cold … and instead of shark , they ’re being stalked by athirst wolves . Both films , however , prey on the “ left behind ” fear that may make you rethink your next vacation destination ; this one ’s just way , way , way cold .

7) Dead Snow

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R19KagZyU40

A gang of good - take care young Norwegians place out for a sight getaway , stick around in a cabin several hundred snowdrift aside from civilization . unluckily for them , it turn out those abundant snowdrift conceal a painful secret : Nazi soldiers , frozen for ten but now furiously revive and quick to reclaim their steal gem and take out any spicy bodies that get in their way of life . Tommy Wirkola ’s splat - tastic film has become a craze classic for a lot of reasons — two word : German Nazi zombies — but its deadpan sense of humor lifts it splendidly over the top .

6) The Thing From Another World

The first pic to be adapted from 1938 scifi novella Who Goes There ? , the original affair moie ( which can be glimpsed playing on a boob tube in John Carpenter ’s Halloween ) was directed by Christian Nyby in 1951 with help from Hollywood ex-serviceman Howard Hawks , whose influence is very patent in the write up ’s speedy - fire tempo and dialogue . The tarradiddle differs from Carpenter ’s take peculiarly in regards to how the giant regurgitate , but there are small dissimilar details , too ( for one thing , it ’s go under at the North Pole rather than Antarctica ) . This Thing is , obviously , also fashion more bare - bones in the special effects section — but it ’s still scary , nail-biting , and expectant fun to watch .

5) Let the Right One In

In the frigid , austere suburbs of Stockholm , Sweden , a bullied boy forms a meaningful bail with an ancient vampire who looks like a female child just his old age . ground on John Ajvide Lindqvist ’s best - seller ( he also write the sceenplay ) , Let the Right One In spends a circumstances more sentence examining human nature than it does cart out lamia image — which in the end spend a penny for a more muscular tale . That said , there ’s still lot of blood - sucking and agony tuck amid all the awakening emotion .

4) Pontypool

A radio receiver disk jockey and his crowd hold it down on the air as a zombi eruption ravages their Ontario town during a snowstorm . The cause ? An apparent computer virus within the English language . If Pontypool — base on the script Pontypool change Everything by Tony Burgess , who also adapted it for the screen — sound outlandish , it in spades is . It ’s also quite original ( though it does take up some from Orson Welles ’ legendary War of the Worlds program ) and weirdly funny .

3) The Last Winter

thing start out going very , very wrong for a mathematical group of Arctic oil drillers in Larry Fessenden ’s cult thriller — but is it due to a natural causes … or supernatural ones ? necessarily , the survivors begin to call on on each other with increasing fervor as the Earth itself seems to start claiming life sentence , but intriguing characters ( played by Ron Perlman , James LeGros , Connie Britton , and others ) and a singular plot make The Last Winter an specially in effect terror - in - closing off tale .

2) The Shining

Stanley Kubrick ’s classic begins with struggling writer Jack Torrance ’s job interview to serve as winter caretaker for the rambling Overlook Hotel . He ’s specifically informed about the “ tremendous sense of closing off ” that can happen when a person is tuck away from the world for a catamenia of months , but he ’s confident he can handle it ( plus , he ’s desperate for the gig ) . Jack is n’t warned about the resident evil purport , but he meet them presently enough , and a over genial equipment failure shortly follows . There are n’t too many ways to escape the Overlook in the dead of winter , peculiarly when your receiving set and your snowmobile have been destroyed by a madman , but even a madman ca n’t ignore the cold forever .