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The script saddled Roberts with the most outdoor screen time, regularly pitting her against Canada’s winter.

“She lives in Hollywood, California, so it was a real shock to the system, but she was great to work with and very professional,” Menzies says. “We did our best to keep her warm and, ultimately, she loved the shoot and loves the movie. We all knew what we were getting into. There’s no hiding the fact that it was going to be cold.”

The Ottawa crew were, of course, more accustomed to nights of -40. But on one of the final days of Roberts’ shoot, during a scene in which her character suffers a major breakdown in the snow, NASA recorded warmer temperatures on the surface of Mars, Menzies says.

But facing off against Old Man Winter has paid off. The producers say February is the first film ever financed and made in the Ottawa area to be officially selected for TIFF. They hope the high-profile spotlight leads to more local film productions, and a major distribution deal.

Having Roberts in the lead should help. The 24-year-old has become a megastar of the fright genre after multiple seasons on TV’s American Horror Story, and being cast in the hotly anticipated fall series, Scream Queens (Fox/City) – which, like February, is set on a blood-soaked campus. February may be a natural climate for Roberts after all (she’s even born Feb. 10).

The film’s chilling tale of childhood dread and tragic loss finds a bloody Joan (Roberts) trekking across a desolate, frozen landscape (the Ottawa winter’s chance to play scene stealer) towards a stately, all-girls private school. There, two girls – Kat (Shipka) and Rose (Boynton) – are mysteriously stranded for the winter break. As Joan draws closer, Kat is increasingly haunted by disturbing visions and taken over by an evil force.