On a New Year’s Eve trip to a remote ski cabin in the fictional town of Snow Falls, a tight-knit group of friends—Andy, Em, Kit, River, and Eden—travel to celebrate in a place tied to River’s family. What starts as a simple overnight stay quickly grows complicated when a sudden winter storm traps them for longer than planned, isolating the cabin from the outside world. The group settles into a routine of warmth, music, and drinks, trying to keep spirits up as the weather howl outside grows more menacing and the lights flicker before dying.
As the days stretch on, supplies dwindle and the cold becomes a real threat. Eden, a medical student, urges prudence: rationing food, bundling up, and staying awake to stave off hypothermia. Her practical approach clashes with the growing unease among the others, and a creeping paranoia take hold. The party begins to believe that the snow itself might be poisoned, a fear that seems to stem from their earlier indulgence and fear of the unknown. River and Em become convinced they’ve already contracted some “sickness” because of what they consumed during the party, which drives a sense of urgency and doom through the cabin.
The fear morphs into desperate, dangerous actions. River empties the vehicle’s gasoline in a misguided attempt to contain the perceived threat, while Em, delirious and scantily dressed, wanders outside and later uses a shard of a broken mirror to cut open her stomach in a misguided bid to purge the sickness—yet she survives. Andy, trying to help warm everyone up, begins chopping wooden furniture to make firewood, ignoring River’s warning about the antiques scattered throughout the cabin. The tension erupts in a fight, and River ends up killing Andy with a fatal blow after the clash escalates.
With things spiraling, Kit volunteers to brave the storm and seek outside help. As River and Eden tend to hot water, Em, already weakened by exposure and fevered thoughts, tries to gauge the car’s fuel and ultimately dies of exposure in the cold. Kit’s own fate follows soon after, dying from the brutal weather after leaving to find assistance. Devastated, River and Eden return to the cabin, only to discover that Kit never made it back and that the peril was not just fear but a very real death toll.
Back inside, River experiences a final, disorienting vision in which Eden appears to seduce him. In the delirium, he strips down, then steps into a cold shower, a moment that proves deadly in the frigid air. When Eden discovers River’s body, she also faces the stark reality of their fragile situation, and just as hope seems to fade, the power mysteriously returns. Emergency services arrive soon after, arriving to a scene that is closer to salvation than they had dared to believe just hours before, and the survivors are left to confront the consequences of the nightmarish storm and the choices it forced them to make.
