Winter Kill is a 1974 American made-for-television mystery-thriller film directed by Jud Taylor and written by John Michael Hayes and David Karp.
It stars Andy Griffith as Sam McNeill, the police chief in a small resort town in the mountains of northern California.
The film is mystery-suspense drama about McNeill's attempts to solve a string of local serial killings linked by messages left at the scenes of the crimes.
The first adaptation attempt was 1973's Isn't It Shocking?, starring Alan Alda as police chief Dan Barnes and the setting relocated to Oregon.
Two more reworkings followed in 1976 and 1977 starring Griffith, with the character's name restored to Abel Marsh: The Girl in the Empty Grave and Deadly Game.