Movie Review: Centigrade (2020)
⭐️⭐️⭐️☆ (3/5)

Centigrade (2020) is a chilling survival thriller that takes a simple premise—two people trapped in a frozen car—and stretches it into a tense, claustrophobic battle of endurance. Inspired by true events, the film explores not just physical survival, but the emotional toll isolation and hopelessness can take on a relationship.

Genesis Rodriguez and Vincent Piazza play a married couple who pull over during a snowstorm in Norway and wake up the next morning completely buried in ice. With no cell signal, no way to open the doors, and sub-zero temperatures creeping in, what starts as a bad situation slowly becomes a nightmare.

The film is commendable for how it uses its confined setting. There are no flashy effects, no cutaway scenes—just two people in one location, slowly unraveling. The performances carry the film, especially Rodriguez, who convincingly portrays a pregnant woman balancing fear, hope, and desperation. The tension comes not from jump scares, but from watching time tick by as food runs low and tempers flare.

However, Centigrade isn’t for everyone. The pacing is deliberately slow, and some may find the repetitive setting tiresome by the third act. The script occasionally flirts with melodrama, and viewers expecting traditional survival action may be disappointed.

That said, for fans of minimalist thrillers like Buried or Frozen (2010), Centigrade delivers a cold, unnerving experience that asks what we’re really made of when there’s no way out.