A group of friends—the couple Andy and Em, along with Kit, River, and Eden—journeys to the secluded ski town of Snow Falls to spend New Year’s Eve at a remote cabin owned by River’s family. They intend to stay just overnight, but a fierce winter storm traps them inside, turning a casual getaway into a tense survival situation. The cabin’s power flickers and then dies, leaving them in the cold as they try to reckon with their dwindling supplies and dwindling time.
As days creep by, the group struggles to stay warm, fed, and sane. Eden, who is studying to become a doctor, urges practical steps: rationing food, bundling up, and keeping everyone awake to avoid hypothermia. Her sober, methodical approach clashes with the group’s earlier carefree partying, and the stress begins to warp their perceptions. Soon, the group starts to experience disturbing hallucinations. River and Em grow convinced that the falling snow outside is poisoned and that everyone has been infected by simply being present in the cabin after their earlier revelry. In a panicked bid to “contain” the sickness, River empties the car’s gasoline, a desperate step that underscores how fragile their situation has become.
Em, caught in delirium, ventures outside without adequate protection and later opens her stomach with a shard of a broken mirror, believing this drastic act will purge the group of the sickness—yet she survives, her body barely holding on to life. Inside, Andy tries to bring warmth by chopping wooden furniture into firewood, a decision he makes to help the group but which triggers a fierce confrontation. River’s fear and frustration culminate in tragedy when Andy, during the argument, sustains a fatal blow and dies from a head injury.
With no immediate rescue in sight, Kit volunteers to brave the storm and seek help, leaving the others to face an increasingly precarious night. River and Eden attempt to keep the cabin livable by heating water, while Em, still delirious and inadequately dressed, ventures toward the car to gauge how much gasoline remains—she succumbs to exposure and dies. When River and Eden discover Em’s body, they realize Kit has also perished from exposure after stepping into the cold again.
Returning to the cabin, River experiences a final, disturbing hallucination in which Eden seduces him, and he strips off his clothes before stepping into a cold shower that proves deadly. In the aftermath, a frantic Eden finds River’s body as the power suddenly returns to the cabin. Realizing how close they all were to salvation, she waits outside as emergency services finally arrive, bringing a grim, hard-won sense of rescue at last.
Throughout this harrowing ordeal, the film maintains a quiet, tense atmosphere that leans into isolation and the creeping sense that the environment itself may be the real antagonist. The interplay between rational planning and irrational fear drives the characters toward decisions that blur the line between survival and tragedy, leaving viewers with a sobering reflection on how quickly a simple winter getaway can devolve into a fight against the elements—and against one’s own mind.
