10 Underappreciated 80s Thrillers You Must Watch
3. Dead Of Winter
Mary Steenburgen plays a struggling actress who passes an audition and is asked to come to an isolated mansion to partake in a screen test.
The pretence is that she is a likeness for the actress cast in a film and they need her to be that actress’s double. She is taken to the mansion in blizzard conditions to meet Dr. Lewis, a kindly but creepy wheelchair-bound man and his assistant, an even creepier Roddy McDowall. We soon realise there are much darker things going on in the mansion and it becomes clear that Steenburgen has been brought there on false pretences and is in a great deal of danger.
This is a film which frustrates as much as it thrills, but that is the clear point of the movie. As the viewer we see and learn the truth before Steenburgen putting us in a similar position as we will her to recognise the danger and escape before being drawn in deeper. The ability of the film to put you in this through this alongside the protagonist is its absolute strength and the location and isolation felt through the snow surrounded mansion lends further suspense to a strong thriller.