Wendigo
**1/2
DVD
Directed by
Larry Fessenden
Writing credits
Larry Fessenden
Patricia Clarkson .... Kim
Jake Weber .... George
Erik Per Sullivan .... Miles
John Speredakos .... Otis
Christopher Wynkoop .... Sheriff Tom Hale
Lloyd Oxendine .... Elder
Brian Delate .... Everett
R
91 min
http://www.thewendigo.com/
Artisan
Home Entertainment, after a string of second-rate direct-to-video
titles, tries its level best to improve with Wendigo. I've got to
admit, if you judge solely by the DVD menu they've got a real winner on
their hands. The menu comes packed with a montage of vaguely
interconnected scenes that let you know, in no uncertain terms, that
SOMETHING IS REALLY VERY WRONG HERE and that you'll probably want to
find out just what. An effective use of background music, especially if
you have the surround sound equipment to back it up, augments the eerie
atmosphere the menu projects.
When you finally push the play
button, a series of playing cards appears on the screen before finally
launching the movie. A clever touch, I think... It adds that extra note
of "hey, what's going on here, anyway?"
What we've got here is the start of a family vacation that will a little too obviously be "going very wrong" (tm) shortly.
Indeed,
it does. When the family car accidentally collides with a deer on the
road, it also causes the family to run afoul of a hunting party that
had been tracking the victim deer for several hours.
Now, I
don't know how many of you are deer hunters, but living in a state that
considers opening day of deer season a marginal state holiday, I can
understand and tell you that these guys are gonna be sublimely pissed
off. Indeed, one of them, Otis, is profoundly pissed off, making
several threatening gestures with his scoped rifle in the direction of
the father of our movie family.
Otis isn't the type to give up
without a fight--the family reaches its temporary residence and finds a
bullet hole in the window and a bullet embedded in the wall.
Yipes, buddy! You've just taken your family on a vacation in the Cahulawatchee River valley!
This
leads to the discovery of what's causing most of the bizarrities in the
area--the Wendigo. I hand it to Artisan here for actually making the
story connect with other similar wendigo stories, especially as in the
one offered up in Ravenous. This is almost identical to Ravenous' story
of the mythical beast.
The most bizarre part of the movie comes
about an hour in, when Miles (played handily by Malcolm in the Middle's
Erik per Sullivan) is chased through the woods by twigs. Seriously. The
shot is of course a first-person shot chasing Miles, but all we see are
a couple of twigs in the shot. There's nothing more indescribably weird
than this. I'm watching a child being chased through the woods by twigs.
Simply
put, you're going to have to pay REALLY CLOSE ATTENTION to the last
half hour of the movie. Plain and simple. Men in deer suits attack
pickup trucks demanding the return of their livers, special effects pop
up for reasons I still can't understand. Hospital scenes come and go.
Finally, the movie fades into a folk-rock, acoustic guitar song at a
junction in which I was expecting them to actually EXPLAIN SOMETHING.
The
special features are a lot less confusing and offers up subtitles and
audio options. Also included are a trailer, interviews with the
director, an art gallery, filmographies of the cast and director, and a
small documentary called "Searching for the Wendigo," which is actually
rather interesting.
So, really, Wendigo is actually a pretty
decent attempt on Artisan's part. It's two thirds of the way there--if
only someone had paid attention to that last half hour to make sure it
actually worked with the first hour.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
While I've got your attention, I want to direct you all to my brand-new, totally self-designed website, right here:
Reeladvice.50megs.com
Cheers,
Steve
**1/2
DVD
Directed by
Larry Fessenden
Writing credits
Larry Fessenden
Patricia Clarkson .... Kim
Jake Weber .... George
Erik Per Sullivan .... Miles
John Speredakos .... Otis
Christopher Wynkoop .... Sheriff Tom Hale
Lloyd Oxendine .... Elder
Brian Delate .... Everett
R
91 min
http://www.thewendigo.com/
Artisan
Home Entertainment, after a string of second-rate direct-to-video
titles, tries its level best to improve with Wendigo. I've got to
admit, if you judge solely by the DVD menu they've got a real winner on
their hands. The menu comes packed with a montage of vaguely
interconnected scenes that let you know, in no uncertain terms, that
SOMETHING IS REALLY VERY WRONG HERE and that you'll probably want to
find out just what. An effective use of background music, especially if
you have the surround sound equipment to back it up, augments the eerie
atmosphere the menu projects.
When you finally push the play
button, a series of playing cards appears on the screen before finally
launching the movie. A clever touch, I think... It adds that extra note
of "hey, what's going on here, anyway?"
What we've got here is the start of a family vacation that will a little too obviously be "going very wrong" (tm) shortly.
Indeed,
it does. When the family car accidentally collides with a deer on the
road, it also causes the family to run afoul of a hunting party that
had been tracking the victim deer for several hours.
Now, I
don't know how many of you are deer hunters, but living in a state that
considers opening day of deer season a marginal state holiday, I can
understand and tell you that these guys are gonna be sublimely pissed
off. Indeed, one of them, Otis, is profoundly pissed off, making
several threatening gestures with his scoped rifle in the direction of
the father of our movie family.
Otis isn't the type to give up
without a fight--the family reaches its temporary residence and finds a
bullet hole in the window and a bullet embedded in the wall.
Yipes, buddy! You've just taken your family on a vacation in the Cahulawatchee River valley!
This
leads to the discovery of what's causing most of the bizarrities in the
area--the Wendigo. I hand it to Artisan here for actually making the
story connect with other similar wendigo stories, especially as in the
one offered up in Ravenous. This is almost identical to Ravenous' story
of the mythical beast.
The most bizarre part of the movie comes
about an hour in, when Miles (played handily by Malcolm in the Middle's
Erik per Sullivan) is chased through the woods by twigs. Seriously. The
shot is of course a first-person shot chasing Miles, but all we see are
a couple of twigs in the shot. There's nothing more indescribably weird
than this. I'm watching a child being chased through the woods by twigs.
Simply
put, you're going to have to pay REALLY CLOSE ATTENTION to the last
half hour of the movie. Plain and simple. Men in deer suits attack
pickup trucks demanding the return of their livers, special effects pop
up for reasons I still can't understand. Hospital scenes come and go.
Finally, the movie fades into a folk-rock, acoustic guitar song at a
junction in which I was expecting them to actually EXPLAIN SOMETHING.
The
special features are a lot less confusing and offers up subtitles and
audio options. Also included are a trailer, interviews with the
director, an art gallery, filmographies of the cast and director, and a
small documentary called "Searching for the Wendigo," which is actually
rather interesting.
So, really, Wendigo is actually a pretty
decent attempt on Artisan's part. It's two thirds of the way there--if
only someone had paid attention to that last half hour to make sure it
actually worked with the first hour.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
While I've got your attention, I want to direct you all to my brand-new, totally self-designed website, right here:
Reeladvice.50megs.com
Cheers,
Steve
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