Snow can be magical, softly blanketing the landscape, making everything look beautiful and unreal. But snow and ice can also be dangerous and menacing, and in the hands of horror authors, cold weather can create an atmosphere of real terror. To send a truly memorable shiver up your spine, all that’s needed are some not-so-friendly creatures lurking among the snowdrifts…
Some classic examples of creature feature stories set in freezing temperatures are H. P. Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness and John W. Campbell’s Who Goes There?, which provided the basis for John Carpenter’s The Thing. You might turn to these classics each winter in the way that some people reread A Christmas Carol (or, let’s be real, rewatch The Muppet Christmas Carol) every December, but if you’re looking to add some variety to your cold-weather creature feature reading experience, then here are five of my personal favorites.
The Shuddering by Ania Ahlborn
This winter-set horror tale begins with a group of friends (plus a very good dog) traveling to a fancy cabin in Colorado for a skiing holiday. Unbeknownst to them, people in the surrounding area are being gruesomely picked off by unidentified creatures that aren’t bothered by the cold (just like Elsa from Frozen! But not quite). The friends think that the biggest challenge they’ll be facing in this winter wonderland is their messy group dynamic, but that all changes when a blizzard blows in and they’re left stranded in their secluded cabin with monsters creeping ever closer.
Once the creatures attack the group, things descend into absolute chaos (in the best possible way). The Shuddering is like the literary equivalent of a fun and gory Saturday night monster movie. All that perfect white snow? It’s quickly saturated with blood. Ahlborn’s descriptions of the nightmarish creatures and the carnage they inflict are delightfully grotesque.
Stolen Tongues by Felix Blackwell
Stolen Tongues started life as a story on Reddit (which is why the main character’s name also happens to be the author’s name) before being self-published and gaining traction through word of mouth. Like The Shuddering, the story is set in a remote cabin on a mountain, but this one is of the more rustic variety. Faye and Felix are having a quiet break away from their hectic lives to celebrate their engagement when Faye begins speaking in her sleep—only it doesn’t sound like incoherent dream ramblings. Instead, it sounds like she’s having an actual conversation.
The nightmarish thing that she’s speaking to is revealed slowly. Rather than splattering blood across the page right from the start, Blackwell builds intense dread, occasionally punctuating it with sharp moments of terror. The snowy setting adds great atmosphere but it’s the dark and creepy woods that are the real star of the show, here. The next time you’re out for a nature walk after reading Stolen Tongues, you’ll be left wondering if there’s something uncanny and dangerous lurking out there with you.
“The Things” by Peter Watts
Most of the stories on this list are told from the point of view of humans, but Watts’s short story “The Things” flips that on its head, telling the story of Carpenter’s The Thing from the perspective of the invading alien beings. Just as we are disgusted by the distorted shapes that the Thing takes on while transforming, it is equally disgusted by our individuality and inability (and unwillingness) to change. In this story, it’s humans that are the creatures.
Viewing humanity through alien eyes is fascinating, but in the hands of Watts it’s also deeply chilling. The story begins with the shape-shifting biomass merely trying to survive but as it comes to understand human nature and biology, things take a more sinister turn. The last line is a proper gut-punch. As the story is so short, it’s understandably light on the wintery atmosphere but it makes a great companion piece to Carpenter’s snow-filled film. Even if you haven’t seen the movie (why not?!), Watts’s story is still well worth the read.
Near the Bone by Christina Henry
Near the Bone begins with Mattie, who lives an incredibly isolated life on a mountain with her husband, finding a dead fox and some bizarre tracks in the snow—tracks that aren’t human, but aren’t quite animal, either. This is the furthest thing from a comedic Harry and the Hendersons-style tale, however; the unknown predator doesn’t want to be friends and Mattie’s home life is far from happy (so much so that the novel merits a content warning for various forms of abuse). A large creature prowling around is already pretty bad, but things get worse when three cryptid hunters show up. What follows is an intense story of survival that goes to some very dark places.
The monsters in Near the Bone are of both the human and non-human variety. Henry blends sickeningly true-to-life horrors with the fear evoked by a vicious (and thankfully fictional) beast. Then there’s also the danger of the elements, as the characters are trapped in freezing temperatures for much of the story. Although it can be harrowing and disturbing at times, it’s also a thrilling page-turner—one you’ll definitely want to read under a cozy blanket.
The Hunger by Alma Katsu
Most people know the broad strokes of the tragedy that befell the Donner Party: particularly bad winter weather trapped the travelers in the Sierra Nevada mountain range, leading to many deaths and cannibalism. If you want a non-fiction account of the incredibly grim story then check out The Indifferent Stars Above by Daniel James Brown. The Hunger adds a supernatural twist to this tale, in the form of a beast that Katsu has borrowed from folklore and made her own.
In Katsu’s version of the story, the weary travelers are being stalked by something…and that something is ravenous. While the eerie presence of monsters is not the driving force of the story, it intensifies the general feeling of fear and paranoia that grips the migrants, as well as adding an unknown element for readers already familiar with the historical account. The Hunger is also full of the real-life difficulties that plagued the westward-bound wagon train. Humans—both through error and intent—prove to be just as dangerous as the monsters and deadly snowfall.
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Have you got any recommendations for stories that feature monsters in chilly settings? Let’s discuss in the comments below!
Originally published January 2023
Lorna Wallace has a PhD in English Literature and is a lover of all things science fiction and horror. She lives in Scotland with her aforementioned rescue greyhound, Misty.
