The story
About Wind Chill
Two university students who barely know each other share a car home at the start of the Christmas holidays. He suggests a scenic detour off the highway, an oncoming car runs them into a snowdrift, and they are stranded overnight on an empty, freezing back road. As the cold closes in, so do the people who have died on that stretch over the years, and the more the two learn about each other, the less either of them wants to be trapped there. A two-handed winter ghost story.
The CineClaus verdict
Two students who barely know each other share a lift home for Christmas, take a detour, and spend the night in a snowdrift on a road that remembers everyone who died on it. It is almost a two-hander, and Emily Blunt and Ashton Holmes are better than the script, which piles on one peril too many.
Christmas is only where they were heading, so treat it as a chilly winter ghost story for grown-ups, not one for Christmas Eve.
The family desk
Can the kids watch?
Our take: rated 15 by the BBFC for strong horror. Not one for children or younger teenagers: the ghostly threat is frequent and strong, a man tries to throttle a woman, and the mood stays bleak and frightening throughout.
Content advice & accessibility
- Our age guidance
- Editorial, separate from the official 15 certificate, and never looser than it.
