Dead of Winter 2025

After her husband’s death, Barb sets out to scatter his ashes in Lake Hilda, a place that marks the moment they first began. A brutal snowstorm pushes her off course, and a detour to a nearby cabin leads her to a tense encounter with a looming danger. She asks for directions from the Tall Hunter, who explains the blood on the snow is from a deer, but the tension in the air suggests something far darker is at play.

Back at the cabin, Barb discovers Leah bound in the basement, and she overhears the Tall Hunter alongside the Purple Lady plotting to kill the girl. The revelation hits hard: a disturbing plan is unfolding right under Barb’s nose, and she realizes the danger isn’t just outside the cabin walls—it’s right there in the room with them. The sense of pressing urgency grows as the two would-be killers discuss their method and motive, while Leah’s fate hangs in the balance.

Desperation drives Barb to act. She lures the couple in with the old hunting gear belonging to her husband, causing the Tall Hunter to fall into a concealed ice hole. The trap is brutal but effective, and Barb’s resolve hardens as she races to keep Leah safe. The cabin becomes a ticking clock, and Barb’s next move is to flood the space with water, hoping to flush the assailants out. When they return, Barb is shot in the arm, and the narrow margin between survival and catastrophe becomes painfully clear.

With the Tall Hunter slipping into hypothermia, Barb seizes a chance to call for help on the truck radio and to grab a pistol before making her exit. But the man interrupts, and a chilling truth emerges: his wife is sick, and Leah’s selection wasn’t random—it was tied to a darker history. Barb resolves to get the authorities involved and convinces the man to drive to the nearest town, where the police can be alerted, before any more lives are put at risk.

Barb tries to buy time and draw in more help by rigging the truck to explode, drawing a couple of hunters back to the cabin in a bid to save Leah. The plan seems to be working until the Purple Lady detonates a new wave of violence, shooting the hunters and revealing that she has already killed her husband. Barb narrowly avoids a fatal confrontation and, in a brutal turn, is forced to surrender to the danger she’s trying to escape.

The trio’s ordeal moves to the lake, where a makeshift medical tent sits in the icy expanse. Leah learns that the woman intends to take Leah’s liver to transplant it elsewhere, a chilling extension of the venomous scheme. Barb is forced to tie Leah, but she loosens the bonds enough to mount a counterattack when the moment allows. A stray shot hits the box containing Barb’s husband’s ashes, creating a chance Barb uses to strike back. The woman’s plan unravels as Barb and Leah contrive a risky escape from the precarious ice.

In a desperate struggle, Barb uses the same handcuffs that once restrained her to bind the woman, and both plunge into the hole in the ice. The lake swallows them as Barb scatters the ashes of her husband into the dark water, a poignant finale to a harrowing pursuit. With Leah’s bonds finally broken, she discovers an old photograph of Barb and her husband, a haunting reminder of what Barb lost and what she fought to protect.

Throughout, the film maintains a steady, restrained tone, letting the stark Minnesota landscape mirror the characters’ fear and resolve. The tension builds not from explosions or twists alone, but from the quiet choices Barb makes under pressure—choices that redefine what protection really means and what someone is willing to sacrifice when they’ve already lost so much.