Winter sucks. There’s no other way to say it. It’s cold and depressing and dark and the air hurts your face. Why do you live in a place where the air hurts your face? Though winter sucks, it has played host to a number of films. Winter-set films are breathtaking to look at and, sometimes, the weather itself acts as almost a character in its own right. But, because the character is winter, it’s always the villain of the movie. Make yourself a cup of hot cocoa. Light a fire. Put on a snuggie. Draw yourself a bath. Most importantly, turn on some of these films and be glad that you’re home safe and not hanging out in a place where the air hurts your face. These are the 5 Best Winter-Set Movies.
5) Groundhog Day (1993)
Wanna know what’s worse than winter? Having to relive the same day in winter over and over again. Unfortunately for Bill Murray, that’s exactly what happened to him in the 1993 film Groundhog Day. Murray stars as Phil Connors, a cynical, egotistical weatherman who ventures to the small town of Punxsutawney Pennsylvania to report on whether a groundhog sees its shadow. School children know that, on Groundhog Day, if the groundhog doesn’t see his shadow, the country is promised 6 more weeks of winter. 6 weeks is bad enough but, soon, Phil realizes he keeps living the same cold day over and over again. At first, it’s annoying. But he then uses it to his advantage and begins breaking all the rules that we normal folks living in a real timeline must abide by.
4) The Day after Tomorrow (2004)
If you don’t believe Global Warming is a thing, we don’t know how to help you. This 2004 movie from famed disaster film director Roland Emmerich is about a “superstorm” that develops and threatens to destroy most of the country. Dennis Quaid stars as a climatologist who saw all the warning signs of this impending storm but delivered them to deaf ears. Now, his son (played by Jake Gyllenhaal) is trapped in New York City with his classmates, including his crush, Laura (played by Emmy Rossum). If you like disaster flicks, you could do much worse than The Day After Tomorrow. It’s terrifying. We would much rather deal with a comet or a bunch of invading aliens than a huge snow storm.
3) Dumb and Dumber (1994)
Dumb and Dumber is a buddy comedy from the Farrelly Brothers, starring Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels as two best friends named Lloyd Christmas and Harry Dunn. After Lloyd meets a beautiful stranger during a routine limo-driving pickup, he instantly falls in love with her and he and Harry decide to take a cross country trip to deliver a briefcase that she had seemingly forgotten about. She mentioned to Lloyd that she was going to a little place called Aspen and so that’s where he and Harry decide to go.
Aspen, as you may know, is a huge ski-town in the Rocky Mountains. If you like skiing, it’s a beautiful town full of beautiful people. If you don’t ski, it’s cold and snowy and boring. Lloyd and Harry spend an extremely cold night in the park, trying to warm themselves by a trash fire, when the briefcase opens during a melee, revealing thousands of dollars. They use that money to get some nicer accommodations because they too know how much winter sucks.
2) Wind River (2017)
In the film Jeremt Renner plays a wildlife officer who finds the body of an 18-year-old on an Indian reservation. As Lambert and Jane Banner (played by Elizabeth Olson) seek to uncover details about the girl’s death, they soon find themselves in danger – not only from the weather, but also from those trying to keep the girl’s death a mystery. Wind River was a fascinating film to watch, not only because the story was interesting, but also because of how much it got right about Wyoming weather.
1) Frozen (2013)
If we have to hear Elsa sing ‘Let it Go’ one more time, we’re going to break her snow-conjuring hands.
(No fictional, animated Disney characters were harmed in the writing of this article).
