I like them both. I thought The Ruins film was the best adaptation it could get, b/c the premise is actually ridiculous. I liked that the end seems hopeful, but it's actually terrible.
It's a Halloween movie for most, but I consider Ghost Story a good "bleak winter film." It has a lot of winter scenes, the ghostly stuff makes you feel cold and damp, and it's just a good...ghost story. Complete with moral and everything.
Fargo is another favorite winter film.
My main winter 'entertainment ritual' is reading The Wendigo by Algernon Blackwood on the first really cold and windy night, though.
I'm struggling with the prompt because there are so few films that I think are truly bleak. Most things I'd think of as being in a "bleak" winter setting have positive elements somewhere. Although I do agree that The Shining is bleak (mentioned by @138930193-aine in another comment).
I guess I'm not sure if John Carpenter's The Thing was actually set in winter, but given its location it's definitely winter-esque, and it sure as hell is bleak!
Certainly others are darker but shout out to The Shop Around The Corner (remade decades later as You Got Mail) which is fairly bleak for long stretches, and also very good.
I thought I had a great one with The Vanishing (the Danish film), because my misty memories of it are cold and gray, but it takes place in a lovely summer. Weird! But definitely bleak and definitely worth watching if you can stand it.
John Carpenter's The Thing. Dread and fatalism from first shot to last. The bleakest interpretation of the ending is its the start of an invasion that will eventually consume all life on Earth.
Not to be too obvious but I thought Winter's Bone was pretty great.
Let The Right One In-the original
Lion in Winter for the ultimate dysfunctional family Christmas.
Frozen 2010-seriously dark. Stuck on a ski lift.
Dead of Winter 1987- A forgotten Mary Steenburgen gem. An actress is hired under false pretenses.
ATM 2012-Also a Christmas film! 3 people trapped in an ATM after their Christmas party.
All are on Prime right now.
A Simple Plan (the book) is even more shocking. An incredibly well-crafted tale.
Scott Smith is really good at writing books about people turning on each other, but The Ruins adaption was far less successful than A Simple Plan.
I like them both. I thought The Ruins film was the best adaptation it could get, b/c the premise is actually ridiculous. I liked that the end seems hopeful, but it's actually terrible.
Tucker and Malone are particularly great in it.
I wish Smith would write more novels.
Good call with Frozen!
Fargo, The Shining and Leo’s hissy fit for an Oscar, The Revenant
Fargo was the first title to come to my mind.
Definitely agree about The Shining. I never saw The Revenant, mainly because it looked bleak 😀
Hateful Eight was both pretty damn good and pretty damn bleak.
30 Days of Night was horror bleak and also pretty entertaining.
The Grey, an almost nihilistic survival horror movie marketed as a Liam-Nieson punch-em-up in one of the most deceptive ad campaigns in recent memory.
It's incredibly good (if very very bleak) but is nothing like what it was marketed as
It's a Halloween movie for most, but I consider Ghost Story a good "bleak winter film." It has a lot of winter scenes, the ghostly stuff makes you feel cold and damp, and it's just a good...ghost story. Complete with moral and everything.
Fargo is another favorite winter film.
My main winter 'entertainment ritual' is reading The Wendigo by Algernon Blackwood on the first really cold and windy night, though.
Does Fargo count as bleak though? The tone is so whimsical, and the character of Marge is so uplifting.
It is funny, but it's also about greed and murder, so...Maybe?
I'm struggling with the prompt because there are so few films that I think are truly bleak. Most things I'd think of as being in a "bleak" winter setting have positive elements somewhere. Although I do agree that The Shining is bleak (mentioned by @138930193-aine in another comment).
The bleakest movie I've ever seen is A Serbian Film, and I wouldn't recommend it.
Everyone involved in that film deserves a bat to the skull.
Love Actually
I guess I'm not sure if John Carpenter's The Thing was actually set in winter, but given its location it's definitely winter-esque, and it sure as hell is bleak!
Certainly others are darker but shout out to The Shop Around The Corner (remade decades later as You Got Mail) which is fairly bleak for long stretches, and also very good.
Wouldn't have expected that. Is it worth watching? (I enjoy You've Got Mail but assumed the source material might be kind of lame.)
Not lame and definitely worth watching, especially if you've never seen any of Ernst Lubitsch's stuff.
I thought I had a great one with The Vanishing (the Danish film), because my misty memories of it are cold and gray, but it takes place in a lovely summer. Weird! But definitely bleak and definitely worth watching if you can stand it.
The Harold Ramis directed movie The Ice Harvest is a comedy but centered around crime and greed so pretty bleak.
Bleak isn't usually my favorite thing but Fargo was pretty bleak while still being watchable for me
That weird one with Colin Farrell and the horse.
And I honestly love it cause it’s terrible.
John Carpenter's The Thing. Dread and fatalism from first shot to last. The bleakest interpretation of the ending is its the start of an invasion that will eventually consume all life on Earth.
"First goddamn week of winter." - MacReady