What a stinker. The only reason I bothered to watch until the end was to see Steenburgen and see how bad it could get. Pretty bad. Steenburgen is supposed out of work actress, living in NYC. Maybe she just moved there from Klamath Falls. It never occurs to her to get any real names, addresses or verify anything... just like a New Yorker, right? It was filmed in 1987, not 1927, when people might have been a little more trusting. So off she trots with one of the bad guys, not having been paid one dime yet. She arrives in the lovely house, gets a tour and goes to bed. Next day, the big shoot. She knows her lines. She's "hired." But when she tries to call home, the phone lines are dead. Next day, the car won't start. Then she see that her driver's license is burning in the fireplace and finds all her identification is missing. What to do. Now I realize that she's under a lot of pressure. But trying to run out of the house while the two evil doers are still puttering around and then running up a hill in a snow storm, leaving tracks all the way seems... dumb. Later having lost only a finger so far, when the evil ones leave the house trying to find her, she kills her "sister" (not), manages to change clothes with her, dump her in the window box and then wander around the house in her mink coat instead of just leaving (the "sister" arrived so she must have had a car or did she come by broom?) Meanwhile, the Keystone cops are getting an earful from her husband and are on the way... they had failed to figure out anything the first time, they believe the "dr." was treating her. Later, back in the attic, the movable body has once again appeared in a closet. Now stop a minute. This body is of the woman who Steenburgen was supposed to impersonate and she's been dead about 10 days... no embalming. Whew! No one smelling anything yet? This movie has one of the worst plots I've ever scene in this genre. I'm surprised that Steenburgen allowed her name to appear. Where the credits list her with her three roles, it should have listed the actress as "Madame X". Obscurity is best sometimes.
Review of Dead of Winter
