Wendigo

Rating:
Summary: Finally, an intelligent horror movie
Review: This is a very smart film that actually has a message about human nature and the horrors of real life. If you're looking for CGI monsters, vapid teenagers and dialogue that hits you over the head like a hammer, look elswhere. If you are a fan of the smarter, more subtle horror films of the late 1960's and 70's, snatch this one up immediately.

Rating:
Summary: Low Budget Bomb
Review: Low budget, boring, bad script, bad acting . . . not much more to say. As far as comparisons with "The Shining" and "The Blair Witch Project" go - yes it's obvious that they ripped off a few effects from both movies, but it's still a bad movie. Save your money or buy "The Shining" or "The Blair Witch Project" instead. If your still unsure, rent it first. You'll be glad you didn't buy it.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting take on familiar genre
Review: This movie starts off in a manner typical for the horror genre --a family from the city is driving out to their new house in the country, where sinister supernatural forces await. The trouble for this family (the parents are played by Jake Weber and Patricia Clarkson, their son by Erik per Sullivan) starts before they even reach the house. Their Volvo station wagon hits a deer that three local hunters had been stalking. The ensuing confrontation is an interesting study in culture shock. The hunters are your typical movie rednecks; one has a particularly large chip on his shoulder and is furious that the deers' antlers were damaged in the accident. The city folks are quintessential yuppies who look upon locals who hunt the way a 19th Century English explorer might have looked at tribesmen deep in the Amazon jungle. Naturally, it turns out that these locals are going to be their neighbors. Much of the film's supernatural content revolves around the son, who is given a strange figure by a mysterious American Indian who only he can see. The figure, he is told, represents the ferocious Wendigo, a powerful and perpetually hungry spirit. The film does not fall into the predictable pattern of the Wendigo stalking the house and its inhabitants. Instead, we see more of the family's often tense interactions and further conflicts with the angry neighbor. Most of the thrills are very understated and we are often uncertain what is really happening and what is in the boy's imagination. Some of the scenes invite obvious comparison to The Blair Witch Project, as both use the natural eeriness of the woods as a primary device. While Wendigo has some compelling scenes and the performances are all good, the various elements don't exactly mesh. We are never told why or how this Wendigo manifests; it is all quite vague. The ending is dark and ambiguous, forcing the audience to speculate about the meaning. This was appropriate for The Blair Witch Project, but seemed like cheating with the more conventional set-up of Wendigo.

Rating:
Summary: There's nothing here
Review: I watched this movie today. For more than an hour, nothing happens. We get to see this city family muddle about in a country cabin, get into a spat with a backwoods redneck, go sled riding and shop at a thrift store. This goes on for more than an hour. And still, NOTHING HAPPENS. When things FINALLY get interesting, we are treated to an amateurish looking monster and a inane ending. This movie is pure boredom and a total waste.

Rating:
Summary: Good mvie but.....
Review: This was a really good movie but the only complaint I have was the endingIt's like there was no "real" ending to the film.Maybe someone out there can explain to me what exactly the ending of the movie meant.But overall a really good "creepy" film.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent & refreshing -- a different kind of horror film
Review: I finally saw this film after much waiting, and gladly, knowing almost nothing about what to expect.

Director Larry Fessenden will hopefully have many more films ahead of him. With Wendigo he has created the antithesis of the Hollywood film. By this, I don't mean nihilistic, amateurish, abstract, or any of the other qualities that, good or bad, are usually suggested by that concept. Well acted, beautifully photographed, with solid dialogue and even stronger visuals, Fessden has put his trust in the audience to take the lead and enter the path that he has pointed out to us.

He manages to maintain a very low key, deliberately paced atmosphere of discomfort. This is all the more distubing when broken by his startlingly visual bursts. He never cinches once and for all whether the supernatural elements are real or just images brought on by paranoia and fear (or even just symbolism on the part of the filmmaker). Because of this, any "flaws" in the creature effects are rendered moot. The "realism" of the effects simply don't come into play. They serve their purpose splendidly. Just enough to get the point across without having to serve a whole garnished platter repleat with apple-mouthed pig.

All of the performances seem almost underplayed. As a result, particularly with the family, we get a sense of reality in their relationships and situation. Very fly on the wall. There are many scenes that are almost mundane in their content, having little or nothing to do with the plot, but everything with giving us a feeling that we are watching real people.

The parents, played wonderfully by Patricia Clarkson and Jake Weber, are often seen in a manner that you would never see in Hollywood. Casually cursing in front of their child, having minor squables, revealing their everyperson flaws, in other words, behaving like real world parents. There is no sense that these people need to be role models or have any fear of being admonished by the audience. The completely divergent ways that they, in one scene, try to calm their son's (Erik Per Sullivan -- revealing intelligence well beyond his so convincingly vapid Dewey on Malcom in the Middle) sudden wave of sad feelings are so true to life. Dad's "Boys against the girls" comment rings with such truth of life. Marvelous stuff!

See this film. It is so unlike anything you will see come out of Hollywood and for all the right reasons. Larry Fessenden deserves a round of applause, not for making a perfect film (it isn't), but taking a chance to make a film the isn't way it supposedly "has" to be made, but instead is the way it NEEDS to be made.

Rating:
Summary: Wendigo Falls Short
Review: I want to start off by saying that I enjoy almost every horror/suspense/thriller movie ever made. As soon as I heard about Wendigo, I was instantly pulled in. I waited a year and a half for this DVD to come out, so I could finally see what all of the praise and commotion was about. Well, the story line is somewhat simple. Kim (Clarkson), George (Weber) and their eight-year old son, Miles (Sullivan), are city folk taking a weekend away at a friend's country farmhouse. On the way to the country farmhouse, they hit a buck that jumps out in front of them. Well, it just so happens that a creepy hunter named Otis and his 2 friends were following/hunting this buck. Otis clearly comes off as a psycho. Otis is quick to blame Geroge for hitting the buck and cracking its antler, like Gerorge had any other choice. Otis puts the buck out of its misery and continues to hassle Goerge on why he hit it. George explains that it was an accident that couldn't be avoided, but that's not a good enough reason as to what happened for Otis. Otis soon becomes extremely annoying before returning to his creepy state.

This incident supposedly awakens the spirit of the Wendigo, which is an evil, flesh-eating, spirit that is half man and half animal. Then the movie begins to drag. In fact the first hour doesn't really go anywhere. There is no building of tension, or answers given to what's going on. Onle a couple of creepy things happen in the first hour. One is Otis peeking in on Miles parents having sex in the living room, and two, the visions that Miles has throughout the first hour.

Miles finds relief from all of the traumatic events that have taken place in the form of a chimerical monster he invents, based on the legend that the Indian spirit told him. The Wendigo is an elemental spirit that appears in various forms, taking the shape of wind, trees, or a hungry deer-man with sharp antlers that roams the wilderness. All we are told is that it can fly at you suddenly without warning.

The last half hour of the movie is where everything comes full circle, and the movie begins to pick up pace. I don't want to give the ending away, but you do get to see the Wendigo or at least a couple forms of it. I also want to say that the movie relied a lot on shaking. Like in House on Haunted Hill(1999) when you see the doctor and he shakes violently. The father does this, and the Wendigo is mostly about this. In fact, most of the forest shots are jolted like this.

The best thing Fessenden pulls off in Wendigo is the amazing performance by Erik Per Sullivan (the youngest brother on Malcolm in the Middle). Sullivan's face conveys so much while seeming to do so little. You can see the fear in his eyes and even begin to understand where his character is coming from. There is a lot of promise in this young actor.

Although this movie takes a different pace from others, it lacks something that is needed to pull the audience in and keep their attention. Several people watching the movie got up and walked away because it was dragging so badly. When they came back 30 minutes later, it was like they never left. The story hadn't moved anywhere. Wendigo reminds me of the Blair Witch because the first hour is just beating around the bush, except the Blair Witch is building tension with the characters finding clues and realizing that they are lost and being hunted. In Wendigo, Miles is just seeing images. Also, the conversations between the adults become very repetative. I do have to say that for a low budget film, it was pretty good and that's why I gave it 2 stars. Mainly just for the last half hour. Though, Fessenden did his best with what he had to work with.

The ending leaves a lot to the imagination of the audience. If that is what you are looking for, then this is your kind of movie. There are some big suprises in the ending, well, one in particular that I didn't see coming. I would highly recommend watching Session 9 if you really want a dark, genuinely scary movie. Session 9 really has that creepy, hide your face, I can't believe that just happened kind of mood. It has to be one of the best horror movies of 2001 and I highly recommend the DVD.

As for the Wendigo DVD itself, it gets 4 stars in my book. Well, the cover is interesting to say the least. Special features on this disk include: 16:9 Widescreen Presentation, 5.1 Dolby Digital, 2.0 Dolby Surround, Searching for the Wendigo - Behind the Scenes Featurette, Director Commentary, Art Gallery, Trailer, Director and Cast Filmographies, Interview with Director Larry Fessenden, Subtitles: English and Spanish, Scene Selection, Digitally Mastered, and Interactive Menus. The feature running time is approx. 92 minutes. Rated R for a stong sex scene, language, and violent images.

Rating:
Summary: Very integre and intelligent horror film
Review: When I saw this movie earlier this year at the Rotterdam Film Festival I was pleasantly surprised. At the beginning the analogy with 'The Blair Witch Project' and 'The Shining' pressed itself upon me, but seeing it through to the end the conclusion was very different. Instead of the forementioned movies where the menace (whether supernatural or not) is quite objectively registrated by the characters, 'The Wendigo' gives a very distinct, subtle handling. It has much more pathos and integrity, and triumphs by the use of what Lovecraft termed 'supernatural realism'.

The child Miles is witness to dramatic, disrupting events in his life, such as the shooting of his father, the threats of the locals, the mystical isolation of the forests. But instead of these events being triggered by the Wendigo, the Wendigo is rather a non-existent entity that Miles uses to weave the irrational events of adulthood into a discourse coherent to his young mind. Miles does not have a supernatural linkage to the Wendigo, but creates the Wendigo with the lore and idol that was given him to make sense of reality.

Thus, the Wendigo is not some blood-starved monster running around killing people, rather it is the mythology of the primtives to make sense to a hostile world in which they have been thrown that is put to use by a small child. Therefore I find the ending absolutely not disappointing: Miles' power of the imagination simply fails to put into coherence the most dreadful, and concluding, event of all.

Granted, there are some quirks in the movie, such as the camera work at the beginning after the deer has been hit by the family's car - I appreciate the attempt to create adrenaline and fright, but it is simply too persistent; or the unintentional laugh the scene provides when the local yokel spies on Miles' parents getting it on in the livingroom. But overall, the realism, the believeable characters, the disturbing portrayal of the Wendigo's movements, and the integrity with which the subject matter is handled sets this way above the average film product, and has made me enthusiastic enough to track down other Fessenden productions.

Rating:
Summary: The Shining meets Deliverance in the wake of Blair Witch.
Review: A thirty-something couple embark on a trip to the country for a winter vacation with their young son, Miles. Nearly at their destination, they hit a large buck on the road, which brings them the unwanted attention of a creepy backwoods hunter. The incident also awakens the spirit of a Native American myth long overdue for movie-monster treatment, the Wendigo. As things get weirder and weirder, Miles' parents attempt to help him make sense of things, but in fact Miles is the only person privileged to the Wendigo's full mystery.

Director Larry Fessenden has fashioned an entertaining, if not fully polished, film. His characters and plot are adequate if rarely surprising, and he relies largely on innovative camera work to draw his audience in, a strategy that works more often than not. Fessenden uses time-lapse photography and well choreographed sequences of woodland still shots to bring the forest to life around his characters. He also demonstrates remarkable restraint in relying on simple suggestion and the expressive winter landscape to animate his Wendigo. If Fessenden's themes are a little too obvious to be convincing, and if he falls back on a few cliches along the way, the smart visuals at least make "Wendigo" a frequently engaging film.

Rating:
Summary: Fessenden's third in a trilogy
Review: Wendigo is Larry Fessenden's third film in his horror trilogy, of which the previous two were No Telling and Habit. This film has more in common with No Telling than with Habit in that there is an emphasis on family--rather than the single life portrayed in Habit--and unfortunately also suffers from a weak ending, as did No Telling.

Yet the first 3/4 of the film is solid. One of Fessenden's real strengths is his ability to portray fully realized characters, giving them enough substance so that their interactions with other characters are both credible and fulfilling. The family dynamics here are very well developed.

Yet there's a missing element: the portrayal of Miles, the 8-year old son, is somewhat too sketchy to bring about the appearance of the monster, when it arrives, and what ensues. Because the appearance of the horrific is linked to the boy, there should have been a stronger link between his personality/ psychology and the supernatural. It's there, but nowhere near fully realized. This missing substance makes the film unsatisfying as it moves down to its conclusion.

For that reason, after an excellent buildup it feels like the film just--ends. It's an abrupt wrapup; the point here is not that no questions are answered, but that the film does not do what it should have done, which is to have provided substantially more of a connection between why Miles is the way he is and why, therefore, a monster might emerge based on his psychology.

So it feels like Fessenden is leaving too much up to the "imagination" of the viewer, kind of a lazy man's way of doing a psychological horror movie. Too bad, because most of the film is excellent.