Winter Cinema Survival Guide (Part Two): What the Cold Leaves Behind

There’s much more to worry about in part two of this Winter Cinema Survival Guide. The films that matter explore the human condition than just deal with Jack Frost having a bad sneeze.

Map to nowhere - Winter Cinema Survival Guide Not every recent film will hit the mark in what winter frost means when it comes to survival horror. It’s merely decoration with Ghostbuster: Frozen Empire, but with Frankenstein, as revealed in part one, it’s about the heart and how to deal. In part two of our Winter Cinema Survival Guide, just how people deal comes to the fore with the most well known marking the end. No ghosts will be found here, only other terrors!

Read on to find what it is.

Interstellar (2014)

Interstellar (2014)The frozen planet in Nolan’s cosmic odyssey is anything but serene. Its calm surface hides betrayal beneath the ice. Dust coats not just the land, but the truth itself. Sometimes the coldest places provide perfect cover for the warmest lies, and in the silence of space, that absence of warmth becomes deafening. Just how anyone can survive depends on matters of the heart, and surviving entering a black hole!

👉 Easter Egg: If the cold doesn’t get you, the tenet of time dilation might, mercifully without the lectures.

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Frozen Worlds, Human Hearts: A Winter Cinema Survival Guide (Part One)

In this Winter Cinema Survival Guide, these films prove the cold doesn’t just test survival—it shapes it. From Snowpiercer to Let the Right One In, each story turns ice and snow into a mirror for the human condition, revealing warmth in the bleakest places.

Winter Cinema Survival GuideWith winter in full swing and some cities either buried under snow or still digging out, in cinema, things can often become far worse. No, this isn’t about the usual wave of disaster movies where the weather goes feral. Those dominate lists easily enough. Instead, this Winter Cinema Survival Guide focuses on films where the environment itself becomes a player, a tool, or a symbol wielded by heroes and villains alike. Snow and ice aren’t just scenery here, they’re characters in their own right.

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Alien vs. Predator (2004)

Alien vs. Predator (2004)Antarctica as a gladiatorial cage? Absolutely. A hidden pyramid buried beneath centuries of ice becomes the battleground where two apex hunters collide, with humans reduced to witnesses rather than participants. The cold isn’t mute here, it’s a referee. You’re either prepared for it, or you freeze in place.

What makes this film especially ripe for revisiting now is how neatly it aligns with modern alien conspiracy lore. The idea of an ancient, non-human structure concealed in one of Earth’s most remote regions suddenly feels less pulpy and more uncannily familiar. A Dark Pyramid hidden beneath the ice? Stranger theories circulate daily.

👉 Easter Egg: Sanaa Lathan’s character earns the honorary mark of a Predator, arguably the coldest cosplay badge ever awarded.

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Straatcoaches vs Aliens: When Gentrification Gets Outrageously Slimed

From tar pits to turf wars, Straatcoaches vs Aliens (Straight Outta Space) proves even extraterrestrials aren’t immune to the politics of who belongs.

Straatcoaches vs Aliens
This movie played at Fantasia Film Festival on Aug 2, 2025.

Spoiler Alert

Straatcoaches vs Aliens (American title: Straight Outta Space) is a Dutch entry in the rarely explored subgenre of urban sci-fi survival—and it surprisingly fits the mold. In 1982, something extraterrestrial crash-landed into a tar pit and attacked a construction worker before the Schijndrecht apartment complex and neighbourhood were fully built. Although no investigation followed, this vague, Thing‑like prologue sets the stage for a film that, while chaotic, plays as a sincere homage to broader genre traditions.

According to IMDb, the script has an unusually large roster of writers—Daan Bakker, Nico van den Brink, Paul de Vrijer, Ashar Medina, Fadua El Akchaoui, and Michael Middelkoop, who also directs. Middelkoop aims for an absurdist tone reminiscent of Ghostbusters and Evil Dead, but it doesn’t always land. Uneven pacing and tonal shifts get in the way—especially since the film never fully explains how the alien’s vomit zombifies people.

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The Good Ol’ Boys and Girls Are Feuding in Alien Country, It’s Just A Hoot and a Hollar!

When Utah is more known for its barren landscape than its lush pine forests, this state can be Alien Country for those UAPs often seen high in the sky.

Alien Country Movie PosterNow available on VOD (Google Play, YouTube)

It should come as no surprise that UFOs seen in the State of Utah are more visible than elsewhere. It should be known as Alien Central than Alien Country–the title of this film. Whether that’s because it’s where free famous ecological landmarks converge–The Rocky Mountains, the Great Basin, and the Colorado Plateau–or something else, it seems the fictional town of Blue River is the focus. In this film directed by Boston McConnaughey, I get the sense he wanted to deal more with the rednecks drama going on here than the aliens, which are often kept away at arms length until those moments matter.

That’s because of the drama that’s happening between Jimmy (K.C. Clyde) and Everly (co-writer Renny Grames), whose on-again/off-again relationship is very front and centre. She’s pregnant, and he can’t figure out what she wants. When she wants to make it big as a singer-songwriter, all he cares about is to survive the next crash and burn. Also, he has abandonment issues. His father disappeared when he was young.

These days, he’s a demolition derby driver and considering he’s putting his life at risk every-day, I’m sure his girlfriend wants him to change careers. It took a while for me to get invested in their drama, but once that’s in place, that’s when the fun starts. They accidentally open a portal to some world, and when the aliens come busting out, it’s up to them to save their town from this invasion! Continue reading “The Good Ol’ Boys and Girls Are Feuding in Alien Country, It’s Just A Hoot and a Hollar!”

Oh My Heavens: The Boy And His Robot is set to Explode at Fantasia Fest 2024!

Despite being a very cliche-ridden plot, Heavens: The Boy and his Robot is fairly entertaining and worth the watch on the big screen.

Heavens The Boy and His Robot Movie PosterScreening July 27, 2024 3:35 PM
Auditorium des diplômés de la SGWU (Théâtre Hall)

Singapore filmmaker Rich Ho has an idea, and that’s to create a franchise that is “Heavens” above all other giant robot films. In Japan, they’re known as mecha, and what I’m seeing in Heavens: The Boy And His Robot is a genuine love letter to the genre. After a very Transformers and Macross inspired introduction to explain how the Second Great War started, Kai (Jonathan See) becomes the focus of this tale. The boyish charm that this actor has sold the fact he’s a fish out of water. Or should I say he’s a small fry?

After his father died in a prior conflict, he’s anxious that his mother won’t come back either. She’s been called to duty, and even though his god parents raise him well, he still wishes mom to come home. Nothing is directly said if she’s dead or not, but I think she’s gone. Upon turning 18 years old, he wants to join the Mecha Corps with the goal of finding his parents. Instead of asking to join the science arm of this military group, he wants to be in the field.

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