Do you know a film in which a prison or camp escape goes according to plan? Of course not, right? And of course this is not the case in “Whiteout”, which will be released shortly in the USA, as you can see in the trailer here:
There is something very direct and raw about survival thrillers. It’s all about survival – as the name of this subgenre suggests. The new production from the US indie studio Saban Films (“Gasoline Alley”, “Panama”) even has two major dangers in store for its protagonists, who have run away from a Russian work camp: relentless pursuers and the merciless winter in barren nature.
After being screened under its old title “Walking Supply” at various festivals in North America in 2023, the film will be released there as video-on-demand on November 22, 2024. When and how “Whiteout“ is coming to Germany has not yet been reported.
The thriller was directed and scripted by Derek Barnes, who is making his feature-length debut as a director here. The whole thing is based on his 2016 short film “Walking Supply”. In order to raise money for the work, Barnes worked in the years between projects as a stuntman for the series “Star Trek: Discovery”, “Titans” and “The Umbrella Academy”, among others.
The film stars James McDougall (“Becky”), Douglas Nyback (“Defiance”) and Joel Labelle (“Shadowhunters”). McDougall and Nyback had already worked on Barnes’ short film and are also listed here as co-writers of the script.
“Whiteout”: That’s the story
In a complete surprise to the people working there, the Russian branch of a US company is stormed by armed men. They pose as government officials and kidnap several employees without them having a chance of fighting back. They are deported to a work camp that is already hopelessly overcrowded with prisoners.
There they are told that they will be released as soon as their company pays a large ransom. Until then they would have to work until they collapse if they don’t want to starve. Newcomer Henry (McDougall) has trouble settling in. He therefore has to be protected from aggressive prisoners by the veterans Kurt (Nyback) and Anthony (Labelle).
Henry repairs electrical equipment for Kharzin (Jonathan Goad), the camp commander. This gives him the chance to steal the key to a transporter and enable the trio to escape. His plan is to make his way to the Finnish border. But will the three of them – assuming they continue to elude Kharzin’s brutal henchmen – really be able to cross the icy desert?
A survival thriller that is also set in an icy scenario but is quite different in terms of story has just been released for home cinema. In the following article you can read everything about “Cold Meat” and watch the trailer:
German trailer for the survival thriller “Cold Meat”: Ice-cold horror in the white hell
