Weather at the multiplex

Ice Storm: 'The Ice Harvest'Ice storms don’t get enough credit. Coating everything in a sheen of frozen water turns simple tasks like opening a car door or getting the mail into a complex endeavor. “The Ice Harvest” follows two men as they wait for the proper time to leave town after robbing a local strip club. While buying their time, Christmas and ice hang on everything. Sliding cars, double-crossings, and troubled relationships pepper this dark and funny film. This is one of John Cusack’s better comedies.Blizzard: 'The Thing'I learned recently that blizzards and snowstorms are two different kinds of storms. Blizzards are snowstorms with high winds and low visibility. Setting “The Thing” in Antarctica makes this the perfect blizzard film. Here is another horror film that uses the weather to increase tension for its characters. Having the frozen continent isn’t enough; the film has a blizzard where the characters must use a tether to get from building to building. Visibility and extremely cold temperatures make death a real and quick possibility outside. This is another film I wish to watch when winter weather gets hairy.Snowstorm: 'The Shining'With spring around the corner, I want to mention the winter films on the list since the coldest of our seasons is still fresh in our memories.Anytime I think of snowstorms, I always think of the cold isolation of “The Shining.” Kubrick’s dark and nightmarish story climaxes in a snowstorm that heightens the sense of dread and helplessness Danny and his parents feel. How can you imagine “The Shining” without picturing the hedge maze covered in snow? When I hear snowstorm in the forecast, I immediately want to reach for this classic horror filmView the list »
Nicolas Cage in 'The Weather Man'

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I love inclement weather. I love being snowed in or struggling to get through dense fog. I may passionately hate people who don’t know how to drive in it, but I’ll take harsh forecasts any day of the week. I love seeing Mother Nature go all out, whether it’s a tornado or crippling blizzard. Since these storms have some wide-ranging devastation with them, I do prefer to see the most severe destruction in films. Hurricane Katrina and Post Tropical Storm Sandy are terrifying more than they are exciting. But had it been in a film…

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To celebrate my love of weather at its most vicious, here is my list of my favorite films that correspond to most major storm fronts and bad days. Though I’d love to include “The Weather Man” with Nicolas Cage, no such blockbuster style damage occurs. And I immediately disqualified “The Day After Tomorrow” since it covers the gamut of dark sky creations.

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  • Snowstorm: 'The Shining'With spring around the corner, I want to mention the winter films on the list since the coldest of our seasons is still fresh in our memories.Anytime I think of snowstorms, I always think of the cold isolation of “The Shining.” Kubrick’s dark and nightmarish story climaxes in a snowstorm that heightens the sense of dread and helplessness Danny and his parents feel. How can you imagine “The Shining” without picturing the hedge maze covered in snow? When I hear snowstorm in the forecast, I immediately want to reach for this classic horror film
  • Blizzard: 'The Thing'I learned recently that blizzards and snowstorms are two different kinds of storms. Blizzards are snowstorms with high winds and low visibility. Setting “The Thing” in Antarctica makes this the perfect blizzard film. Here is another horror film that uses the weather to increase tension for its characters. Having the frozen continent isn’t enough; the film has a blizzard where the characters must use a tether to get from building to building. Visibility and extremely cold temperatures make death a real and quick possibility outside. This is another film I wish to watch when winter weather gets hairy.
  • Ice Storm: 'The Ice Harvest'Ice storms don’t get enough credit. Coating everything in a sheen of frozen water turns simple tasks like opening a car door or getting the mail into a complex endeavor. “The Ice Harvest” follows two men as they wait for the proper time to leave town after robbing a local strip club. While buying their time, Christmas and ice hang on everything. Sliding cars, double-crossings, and troubled relationships pepper this dark and funny film. This is one of John Cusack’s better comedies.
  • Fog: 'The Mist'It would sound like a given to pick “The Fog,” but it pales in compare to uneasiness “The Mist” creates. When a bizarre mist descends on a town after a bad thunderstorm, members of the community take shelter in the local grocery store. With a glass front, the store provides little shelter from whatever might be lurking beyond the parking lot. With religious fanatics amongst them and tensions rising, the mist slowly shows what it is hiding.Though I’ve only seen fog that thick once or twice, the film pops into my head whenever it gets thick enough to affect normal driving conditions.
  • Rain: 'Identity'Another of John Cusack’s films, “Identity” is drenched with rain. Though there could be an entire list made of movies with lots of rain, this one sticks out in my mind. On a stormy night when the roads are washed out, a collection of strangers wait for the weather to break in a dinky motel. But their fates are more interconnected than they think.This film always sounds like a miserable shoot. Almost every shot of the film, it’s raining. Being wet constantly just sounds awful, which makes watching this film even more suspenseful. And with an interesting twist, the movie is always one I’ll watch if I catch it on TV.
  • Tornado: 'Twister'This one seems like the most obvious choice on the list. Jan de Bont’s film is a wild ride perfect for any aspiring storm chaser. Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton became so cool to me when I saw this on the big screen as child. Being a resident of Tornado Alley, I’ve seen just how destructive these funnels can be. Growing up, they were my favorite type of weather to study. I hope to one day see one face-to-face, but I understand all too well how foolish that can be.
  • Tsunami: 'The Impossible'The sub-genre of hurricane and tsunami films is noticeably minuscule. Though films like “Poseidon” and “The Perfect Storm” tackle harsh seas, I found “The Impossible” to be more visceral in capturing the devastation of water coming much further inland. Unlike the other films on this list, “The Impossible” explores the devastation and loss victims of these storms. Anchored by a fantastic performance by Naomi Watts, “The Impossible” has become synonymous with coastal storms in my mind. Pulling on your heartstrings and taking you on the journey of a family attempting to find each other is intense and palpable; something that makes bad weather more relatable and frightening.
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, Cedar Rapids Movie Examiner

He has been an avid fan of film since a young age, is currently a student at Iowa State University. An Advertising major with a minor in Creative English, Adam spends a great deal of his free time discussing and watching movies. Since the summer of 2009, he began blogging regularly about film,...

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