I remember seeing this movie on HBO when I was just a teenager. I remember being freaked out by the "finger" scene.

The basic plot is that this down-on-her-luck actress goes to an audition and is chosen to play the part of another actress who the producer says can no longer fulfill her role - that she went mad.

The producer entices the starving actress to come to northern New York state for a screen test at the director's house. As it turns out, the producer and director are frauds. They are really looking to blackmail a wealthy woman whose sister they had been in cahoots with - the wealthy woman had her sister murdered to keep quiet about another murder, and, well, they had to find someone who looked like the dead sister to convince the wealthy sister that she was still alive - therefore to get even more money. The plot is semi-confusing, unless you are sitting there watching the movie.

I love Mary Steenburgen in this movie, playing triple roles. And Roddy McDowall is also awesome, and uber-creepy. The only reason this movie gets 4-stars from me is from its obvious cheesiness, which is only plot-driven, not the actors themselves.

My favorite thing about the movie is the scenic setting in upstate NY.

Good movie to watch on a cold January night. It's not terribly frightening; just interesting and a bit odd.

Great movie...came out years ago and watched it all the time..Mary Steenburgen plays three different caracters and Roddy McDowell is priceless.Be sure to settle in and watch this classic thriller on a cold winter afternoon.

In his review for Amazon Tom Keogh asks why the director Arthur Penn would have anything to do with this movie. Well in '87 Penn's career wasn't exactly on fire after the back to back flops Target and Four Friends. So the question is why wouldn't he be attracted to it. On the surface it's a very well written, tightly paced and moody story. And it was his last watchable feature film (he followed it with the not so watchable and somewhat ironically titled Penn & Teller Get Killed after which his career was effectively over). Not to mention the fact that it's based on a 40's film noir which always seems to be a favorite genre for many directors to draw on. Keogh also states that Roddy McDowall plays a "crazy millionaire". This part was in fact played by Jan Rubes. McDowall plays Rubes man servant.

I faintly remember watching Dead of Winter when I was younger and being a big fan of suspense/thrillers, I decided to check it out again! Based on the lack of reviews, I'm assuming this has become a forgotten treasure that hopefully people will re-discover as I did. The cold, isolated, snowy blizzard atmosphere adds the perfect mood for this underrated thriller. An actress thinks she is going to audition for a movie role but has no idea what her captors really have in store for her! I won't give away too much except that she will have to use her own wits in order to survive and escape the horrible nightmare that surrounds her. The cast was excellent and you do not know what their motives are until later on in the film. And once you do, the suspense still builds nicely and will hold your interest the entire way through. 4 stars!

This is, frankly, not a very good film! My rating is for the quality of the transfer, which is excellent. Apparently the film was a project of Arthur Penn's son, but Penn himself had to take over to complete it and it's therefore attributed to him. He appears to have directed most of it. It's a remake of Joseph H. Lewis's `My Name is Julia Ross', and the original is much better. One of the characters in the Penn film is called Joseph H.Lewis!
Robin Wood.