Why so much hype?

It is a performances centric movie

Don't listen to the negative reviews

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

The movie dragged without creating enough suspense. I don't mind slow- paced movies if there's a point. Hitchcock, for example, was genius at this. In this one, it felt like there has wasn't enough script or plot points, so they slowed it down. That's what happens when you ask a B-list cast to fill in the gaps. I like Roddy McDowell, but after all, he's just a poor man's Vincent Price. And Mary Steenburgen is very average. I did like the storyline enough to give it a 6. However, it had the potential to be much better.My scale: 1-5 decreasing degrees of "terrible", with 5 being "mediocre"6- OK. Generally held my interest OR had reasonable cast and/or cinematography, might watch it again 7 - Good. My default rating for a movie I liked enough to watch again, but didn't rise to the upper echelons 8- Very Good. Would watch again and recommend to others 9- Outstanding. Would watch over and over; top 10% of my ratings10 - A Classic (6 of 430 movies have received this)

Mary Steenburgen plays Katie, a down on her luck actress who is told that she is being considered to take over a film role that was being played by someone else who greatly resembles her. The casting director (Roddy McDowell) tells her that the first actress had a breakdown and ran away from the set. She is taken to a snowbound country house in remote upstate New York to film an audition tape for the elderly, wheelchair bound producer (Jan Rubes.) After she arrives, things begin to look as if they are not what they seem. Katie soon realizes she is in incredible danger and attempts escape.With a premise straight out of a 40's suspense melodrama, I didn't expect much from this film. Like most bad thrillers, the most entertaining portions of the film occur in the last twenty minutes, after the damsel in distress finally pieces things together and has to fight for her life. But the majority of the movie is just tedious set-up and scenes of Katie acting like an idiot as she uncovers what her hosts are really up to.Is she so desperate for a job that she'd go to a remote house out in the country with a complete stranger, just to shoot an audition tape? If you see your drivers license burning in a fireplace, would you not automatically question your hosts? The movie is filled with situations where Katie is forced to do something stupid in order to move the story along. I've seen this so many times in so many of these kinds of movies, but at least sometimes it's exciting. Not here.Like I said, things pick up in the last act. When Katie's evil Doppelgänger shows up, things get interesting, mainly because we get to see Steenburgen play two different roles, one timid and afraid, the other heartless and evil. Unfortunately for the film, but not for me, their final confrontation is so absurdly shot and choreographed, the scene intended to be tense turns out to be hilarious camp straight out of a Joan Crawford or Bette Davis thriller from the twilight of their careers.To sum things up the movie isn't a complete disaster, it's just too derivative of films of the past, and doesn't add anything new to the 'woman in distress' thriller sub-genre. Steenburgen is pretty good, even if her character can be a complete idiot at times, and Roddy McDowell has some demented fun when the poop finally hits the fan during the climax.

Once upon a time (1945 to be exact) there was a B-film from Columbia called MY NAME IS JULIA ROSS starring Nina Foch, Dame May Witty and George Macready. It caused quite a stir even though it played the lower half of double bills and lasted a mere 65 minutes.DEAD OF WINTER is rather transparent in borrowing from MY NAME IS JULIA ROSS (the heroine's name is Julie Rose, for example), and it has taken the original material, expanded it with some clever additional plot lines, taken the Cornwall atmosphere and transported it to wintry New England for a weather-beaten effect, and turned out a smart little thriller that will give you plenty of winter chills no matter what the temperature is outside.It's another one of those tales where nothing is what it seems. A pretty young actress (MARY STEENBURGEN) is a down on her luck gal who accepts the offer of a film test from a producer (RODDY McDOWALL) who invites her to his secluded mansion where the test will take place. Sure, it's an unbelievable plot contrivance, but that's part of the fun. Nothing is to be taken too seriously from this point on.When a series of rather unpleasant incidents take place, the woman realizes she is in a trap, but neither she nor the audience understands why she is there and what the purpose is of keeping her prisoner.STEENBURGEN is excellent as the frightened woman (who should have had more common sense than accepting such an offer), and McDOWALL's polite cat-and-mouse game with her is fascinating as it unfolds. It's a creepy film, filled with authentically wintry atmosphere and it builds toward a surprising and violent climax.Under Arthur Penn's direction, this expanded version of the B-film is every bit as cleverly plotted and written, no matter what some of the other commentators here have said. It's an atmospheric mystery that's guaranteed to give you some satisfying wintry chills--and then some.

Unconvincing potboiler takes a ridiculous premise and does nothing to enhance it. Steenburgen, a fine actress in numerous other films, can be forgiven for accepting this showy 'triple' role; suffice to say, she's not responsible for the resulting blandness. Roddy McDowall tries hard to enliven the supposedly creepy plot shenanigans, but his efforts are undermined by the fact that his compatriot, Jan Rubes, had just played Santa Claus in ONE MAGIC Christmas, far more convincingly in that than as a villainous mastermind here.Esteemed veteran Arthur Penn took over directing after first-timer (and co-screenwriter) Marc Shmuger was fired. His heart doesn't seem in it, however, and the lackadaisical effort wastes some fine sets and wintry Ontario locations. Note co-scripter Mark Malone's amateurish stumbling and bumbling as Steenburgen's brother.