Centigrade (2020) is a chilling survival thriller that traps its audience—quite literally—in a frozen nightmare. Directed by Brendan Walsh and inspired by true events, the film is a claustrophobic, slow-burn journey into the raw limits of human endurance, emotional strain, and the terrifying quiet of isolation.
The story follows Naomi (Genesis Rodriguez) and Matt (Vincent Piazza), an American couple traveling through Norway in the early 2000s. During a blizzard, they pull over to the side of a remote road to wait out the storm and sleep in their car. But when they wake up, they find themselves completely encased in ice and snow, trapped inside their vehicle, cut off from civilization, with no cell signal and dwindling supplies.
To make matters worse, Naomi is eight months pregnant.
As hours turn into days and the temperature continues to drop, the couple must battle not just the brutal cold, but their own fears, disagreements, and physical deterioration. What begins as a fight for survival quickly becomes a test of their relationship, sanity, and will to live.
Centigrade thrives on its minimalism. Nearly the entire film takes place inside the cramped interior of a car. The camera captures every icy window, every frost-covered breath, and every moment of rising panic. This tight setting amplifies the emotional pressure and creates an almost unbearable sense of realism. The performances are raw and grounded—Genesis Rodriguez delivers a particularly powerful portrayal of a woman pushed to the edge, balancing maternal instinct with rising desperation.
What makes the film compelling is not action or high-speed thrills, but its slow and agonizing realism. It asks what most people would do in a similar situation—wait for help, or risk death trying to escape? The psychological tension becomes just as dangerous as the freezing temperatures outside.
Centigrade is not about grand heroics. It’s about quiet suffering, tough decisions, and the brutal truth that nature doesn’t care about you. It’s also about the strength it takes to hope when everything seems hopeless.
Bleak, intimate, and emotionally intense, Centigrade freezes you in place and makes you feel every hour, every degree, and every difficult choice.
Sometimes, survival is just the decision to keep breathing—one minute at a time.
