I've always had a love of soft-spoken, restrained villains who don't wear their treachery on their sleeves. In Arthur Penn's Dead of Winter, we are confronted with Dr. Joseph Lewis, a villain who at first seems so genuine, kind, and gentle that the eventual revelation of his wickedness can only be met with incredulity. After botching an experimental therapy treatment that led to the death of his patient, he lures an actress named Katie McGovern to his isolated, snowy estate under the pretense of having her star in a movie. However, his true motivations are much more insidious: he intends to use Katie as blackmail bait against the party responsible for his patient's death since she looks almost identical to her. Unfortunately, this plan will eventually result in Katie's death. When Katie discovers the scheme, she must formulate a plan to escape from the terrible yet polite Dr. Lewis. My favorite scene in this film was when Katie managed to summon two policemen to Dr. Lewis' house only for him to convince them that she was a violent mental patient. There is some real horror in the idea of being falsely accused of mental illness. After all, who are the authorities going to believe? The doctor or the disheveled, crazed-looking woman? Overall, I liked this film. It was one of the few thrillers that I have seen recently that actually, y'know, thrilled me.
7/10
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