| BABY, IT'S COLD OUTSIDE : Larry Fessenden's 'Wendigo' (2001) [6/10] |
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| Sunday, 15 October 2006 | |
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An unusual and ambitious little chiller, Wendigo has steadily built a reputation among horror aficionados in the half-decade since its release. And with writer-director Larry Fessenden's eco-fable The Last Winter emerging as one of the critical favourites of this September's Toronto Film Festival, Wendigo's profile looks set to continue its steady rise towards cult/sleeper status. But while there's much to like, admire and appreciate here, the picture's numerous flaws - which become more apparent as it goes on - make this more of a calling-card than any kind of minor masterpiece. The many fans of Patricia Clarkson should, however, definitely consider adding this title to their collection - the 'queen of indie' is on fine form in one of her rare forays into 'genre' cinema. She plays Kim, a New Yorker who with husband George (Jake Weber) and young son Miles (Erik Per Sullivan), travels to the snowy Catskill Mountains for a weekend at a friend's farmhouse. Even before they've arrived at the residence, George and Kim encounter hostility in the form of surly local huntsman Otis (John Speredakos), a beerswilling redneck who makes no attempt to hide his disapproval of these city-slicker "outsiders." The resulting tensions disturb the over-sensitive, bookishly intelligent Miles - who encounters another source of potential menace when he learns of a shapeshifting spirit known to the area's Native Americans as the 'Wendigo'... Though Sullivan is third-billed behind Clarkson and Weber (who contributes another of his weakish, beta-male characters), this is essentially Miles's story: Fessenden (doing his own editing) deploys a variety of jittery visual and aural tricks to tell the story from the child's slightly skewed, fear-heightened perspective. Terry Stacey's cinematography plays a crucial role, his lighting and camerawork (including some disorienting close-ups of innocuous objects) adding rich layers of menace to the spooky events and their crisp wintry settings. A shame, then, that the script should ultimately fall short of the high standards set elsewhere: the picture's jangly atmospherics only get us so far, and there comes a point where Fessenden must buckle down to the bothersome matter of plot. He does so by falling back on a distinctly outdated, sinister-mystical idea of Native American lore, while the resolution of the crucial Otis subplot is hackneyed and unsatisfying. The entire climax has a hurried, perfunctory feel, and it seems Fessenden wasn't quite able to tie together all his various strands and themes into a properly unified whole. He also unwisely disobeys the cardinal rule of low-budget horror: if you can get away with not showing your 'monster,' then don't. Neil Young 15th October, 2006 WENDIGO : [6/10] : USA 2001 : Larry FESSENDEN : 88 mins (BBFC timing of UK DVD) seen on DVD at home in Sunderland (UK), 27th September 2006
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