With campus shut down and winter weather disrupting routines, students may be wondering how to fill their unexpected free time. Classes and clubs are canceled, leaving long, unstructured days and plenty of time to cozy up indoors.
Leaning into the weather outside the window, here are five films that feature relentless snowstorms and freezing conditions that keep their characters trapped.
Frozen
When Queen Elsa of Arendelle has her icy powers exposed, a magical winter engulfs the kingdom in the middle of summer, freezing fountains, trees and the surrounding harbor solid.
Elsa’s sister, Anna, forms an unlikely team — an ice harvester, his reindeer and an animated snowman — to convince the queen to undo her spell. Their journey takes them from mystical trolls to the peak of a towering mountain, all within a newly snow-covered landscape.
Although Anna leaves the kingdom in search of her sister, most of Arendelle remains trapped under snow and ice, with residents bundled up and sharing hot soup and blankets, a situation that may ring familiar to Tennessee residents.
The Hateful Eight
An eclectic group of strangers seeks refuge from a brutal blizzard inside a remote sewing shop, including two bounty hunters, a fugitive and a newly appointed sheriff.
As the storm rages outside, tensions rise within the small space as secrets, grudges and mysterious pasts begin to surface. The character-driven narrative heightens the feeling of isolation, keeping viewers uncertain of who to root for — or trust.
Forced together by the weather, the group’s growing chaos parallels the experience of being snowed in with family or roommates, where close quarters can quickly turn uncomfortable.
No Exit
A recovering addict named Darby becomes stranded at a mountain rest stop during a snowstorm, surrounded by strangers who initially appear harmless.
Everything changes when Darby discovers a kidnapped child hidden in one of the vehicles. What follows is a tense race against time as she tries to identify the kidnapper without revealing what she knows.
The anxiety of navigating danger while trapped by icy conditions may feel familiar to Tennesseans dealing with power outages, heating issues or unreliable Wi-Fi as winter weather drags on.
The Shining
Stanley Kubrick’s horror classic follows struggling writer Jack Torrance, who becomes isolated with his wife and son while working as the winter caretaker of a remote hotel.
As heavy snowfall continues to cut the family off from the outside world, Torrance’s mental state rapidly deteriorates. Meanwhile, his son Danny experiences terrifying visions tied to the hotel’s dark past.
The looming sense of paranoia and confinement hits close to home for anyone who has stared out at a snow-covered landscape, wondering if that strange noise is the heat struggling to keep up, or something worse.
The Thing
Set in Antarctica, John Carpenter’s sci-fi horror film follows a group of researchers at an isolated outpost after a violent snowstorm prevents escape.
When an alien life form capable of imitating humans infiltrates the station, fear spreads faster than the ice outside. With no way to leave and no certainty about who is still human, the group’s isolation becomes a matter of life or death.
“The Thing” takes fears of being snowed in to the extreme, turning isolation into a fight for survival and making it a chilling but fitting watch during the icy lockdown.
