Snow

There’s been a lot of snow recently. For many, the landscape seems to herald Christmas and be populated with ruddy cheeked children laughing as they build snowmen.

For me, the immediate association of snowy landscapes will always be horror films.

Let The Right One In and 30 Days Of Night are recent examples. How about The Shining as well? I tried to find a picture from the frozen lake scene from The Omen, but couldn’t. Add your favourite snowy horror fim/scene in the comments below.

What is it about snow?

Could it be from Shelley’s Frankenstein, where the monster wanders off into the frozen wastes of the Arctic. Or is it from further back when Dante imagined Satan locked in the centre of a frozen lake in the final circle of The Inferno?

I’m thinking it’s from further back still when Pagans would huddle together in bivouacs, waiting for the longest, coldest nights to pass; terrified of the fickle Gods who would impose such cruel conditions on them; munching away on hallucinogenic plants until spirits entered through the ceiling to give them gifts and tell them the worst was over.

As I say, nothing to do with Christmas.