The Ice Tower
October 8th, 2025
MOVIE: THE ICE TOWER
STARRING: CLARA PACINI, MARION COTILLARD, AUGUST DIEHL
DIRECTED BY: LUCILE HADZIHALILOVIC
AMovieGuy.com’s RATING: 3 ½ STARS (Out of 4)
RATED: PG-13
RUN TIME: 117 MINUTES
A typical complaint I have about modern cinema is the poor lighting. Whether it’s horror directors afraid to show the monster in daylight, budget cuts to the lighting department, or a cinematographer who simply doesn’t know how to shoot in the dark, too many films fail to make low light visually compelling. Lucile Hadžihalilović’s The Ice Tower is a rare exception. It not only embraces darkness- it thrives in it, delivering stunning imagery even in the gloomiest settings.
A grim reinterpretation of the classic children’s story The Snow Queen, The Ice Tower trades fairy tale charm for psychological dread. It follows Jeanne (Clara Pacini), a 15-year-old orphan living in a group home in rural France during the 1970s. Longing to escape her bleak surroundings, Jeanne runs away, though leaving behind her younger companion, Stéphanie (Marine Gesbert), weighs heavily on her. During her journey, she stumbles upon a Hollywood film set and takes refuge behind the scenes. There, she discovers her favorite actress, Christina (Marion Cotillard), is portraying the Snow Queen, and Jeanne soon finds herself drawn into a fantasy that may be more real, and more perilous, than she imagined.
Some viewers may dismiss The Ice Tower as “boring,” but that criticism confuses slow pacing with a deliberate, atmospheric build. Co-written by Hadžihalilović and Geoff Cox, the film constructs a cold, oppressive world mirroring Jeanne’s inner landscape. Like Osgood Perkins’ Gretel & Hansel, this isn’t a lush spectacle like Wicked– it’s the opposite: icy, desaturated, and enigmatic. Shades of blue, gray, black, and fog dominate as Jeanne treks through snowbanks, accepts a ride from a suspicious assistant named Max (August Diehl, in a chilling performance), and ascends the eponymous tower to confront the Queen, in a dreamlike echo of Sleeping Beauty.
The cinematography, by Jonathan Ricquebourg, is as essential to the film’s impact as Hadžihalilović’s direction. Together, they craft a visual language that’s haunting and hypnotic. Scenes are lit by moonlight, dashboard glow, splashes of red, or nothing at all, yet the film remains visually stunning throughout. It’s no small feat to make darkness feel beautiful, but The Ice Tower does exactly that. The result is a hazy, nocturnal dreamscape that feels like a slow walk through an enchanted, silent forest.
Through these technical achievements, The Ice Tower becomes a quiet nightmare. The encounters between Jeanne and Christina unfold with the unsettling tension of a witch offering a poisoned apple, only here, there’s no apple, and neither woman’s intentions are entirely clear. That ambiguity is what draws us in: walking beside Jeanne, we ask what it really means to be part of a fairy tale- and whether the fantasy is worth the cost. Sometimes, as this chilling tale suggests, the home we long to escape may offer more warmth than the cold illusions we chase.
3 ½ STARS
THE ICE TOWER IS PLAYING IN SELECT THEATERS AND WILL BE AVAILABLE TO RENT/BUY DIGITALLY ON OCTOBER 21ST, 2025.
Written by: Leo Brady
