'Centigrade' movie, produced by Highland Park native Bradley Ross, is bone-chilling

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Centigrade is as bone-chilling to watch as it was to make.

The film follows an American couple who travel to Norway and become trapped in their SUV under layers of snow and ice.

Not for the faint of heart, the story is based on several real incidents.

"We were really intrigued that this story happens far more often than people think. Truth is always stranger than filmmaking even when you are making fiction," said producer Bradley Ross.

A claustrophobic thriller with two people is certainly a challenge.

"My initial thoughts that went into making the film was keeping the camera trapped inside with the actors. Putting the actors in real situations to make them feel the cold and make them feel the terror," said director Brendan Walsh.

"We really wanted to take on the challenge of not leaning into visual effects when it came to the breath you see coming out off people's mouth. So what we did was we went to upstate New York and found two of the cars we liked. And then we found an ice cream freezer in Staten Island New York," he said. "And we drove these vehicles into an ice cream freezer, we shoved a crew into this ice cream freezer put these actors into this ice cream freezer in the middle of a heat wave in New York City and we shot the entire movie in this freezer."

Ross garnered an Oscar nomination in 2015 for the documentary "Cartel Land."

Not bad for a kid from Highland Park.

"My mother still lives there with her husband Rich, my aunt still lives. And I still keep in touch with some of those high school teachers at Highland Park High School that transformed my life and introduced my to film editing," Ross said.

Centigrade is now on demand, for rental or purchase and playing in select Chicago area theaters.