Wind Chill

College student Emily Blunt gets a lot more than she bargained for when she accepts a ride home for Christmas from geeky outsider Ashton Holmes. They crash on a remote country road and an intense relationship develops between the pair as they're forced to brave both the harsh winter elements and a ghoulish legacy. Nasty cop Martin Donovan is the clue to their supernatural nightmare, yet the most disturbing chills come when Holmes reveals his stalker-like crush on Blunt. The ghost story ingredients are familiar, but director Gregory Jacobs (Criminal) uses the bleakest of landscapes to create some icy scares. Before plausibility vanishes, the tension is well maintained by the use of claustrophobic car interiors, juxtaposed with sudden apparitions of eerie frostbitten figures. Both actors give fine performances in what is basically a two-hander, etching a believable connection in the face of death.