Scanialara You won't be disappointed!

GetPapa Far from Perfect, Far from Terrible

Rpgcatech Disapointment

Siflutter It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

NateWatchesCoolMovies Larry Fessenden's Wendigo is a film that has stuck with me since I saw it years ago, a glowing textbook example on how to create chilly, effective and engrossing horror on a minimal budget, to maximum creepy effect. Set in the snowy drifts of Upstate New York in the dead of winter, a stressed out family heads up to a remote cottage for a rest. Following an accident, a dead deer and the subsequent altercations with angry locals, things take a turn for the supernatural as some dark force takes up residence on the cottage grounds, shaking the family to their collective core. There's an old legend out there about a spirit called Wendigo, a vengeful ghost that latches onto traumatic events, haunting those involved often right to their graves. These poor people awakened it, and it won't go away. Jake Weber, Patricia Clarkson and Dewey from Malcolm In The Middle are great as these folks, compelling in their sense of confusion and dread. The creature is rarely seen, save for a single stark image that I haven't forgotten since: after the car accident, the child looks a ways up the road and sees it standing there, a freaky spectre, all shadows, antlers and such. Spooky stuff.

d-webb-1 The opening scene of this film sets the pace for the entirety of its ninety minutes. The shots are generic, conventional, and of television movie quality. The snow drenched scenery is gorgeous, yet the characters held with in it have a similar quality to that of looking at a photograph of such scenery, the overwhelming feeling being that of distance. Some of the editing is fairly high quality and the work of an veteran professional, the dialogue however is clunky and artificial, having little bearing on 'real' conversations at all seemingly. Any emotional insight is displaced in favour of swearing, which is of course the way in which everyone shows their true feelings. The action is slow and underwhelming, the overall feeling being one of someone trickling cold water over your head, but so slowly that you barely notice, yet eventually you feel pathetic and slightly sorry for yourself for being caught in such a incomprehensible situation.The mixture of genres that the Fessenden has seemingly tried to use; psychological thriller, horror and family drama, although commendable suffers from a serious lack of tension and interesting dialogue. The way in which the husband, wife and child trio interact is particularly unrealistic. The themes of family relationships being played out in haunting setting have been covered countless times before by far superior films, an instant example being that of The Shining (1980). The family unit here are torn by innocuous troubles which are hard to understand or sympathise with considering the relative ambiguity of the script.The family unit is hardly stalked throughout the film, Fessenden playing down the thriller possibilities of the narrative in favour of a slow family drama for the majority of the running time. The 'stalker' figure Otis has few apparent motives for his behaviour and despite being perhaps the most interesting and well acted character is still very underdeveloped. The main characters are empty husks of people who it was extremely hard to relate to, their relationships with each other being particularly void of any sentiment or feeling. Although the ignorance of the Erik per Sullivan's young character by his parents is presumably part of the story, surely any reasonable person would question their son if he allegedly spoke to someone who seemingly doesn't exist? People can accept this film as intelligent because of its relative lack of conventional aspects regarding creature based horror movies but this film fails in respect of whichever genre you wished to pigeonhole it in. You can read deep psychological meanings into every single minute detail of anything if you should so wish to but I think people would be better off over analysing their carpet for some deep emotional meaning, rather than these vacuous sub-human creations.

Golgo-13 It was a cold winter night and I was driving home slowly because of the snow-covered roads. Suddenly, as I peered through the falling flakes, there it was, right in front of me. I ended up with nearly a thousand dollars damage to the front of my truck…dang wendigos! I liked Wendigo but it's not really for everyone. It's a bit slow moving in parts and I'm sure some would just find it dull. Also, it's easy to tell the budget was limited during some of the creature's scenes. Still, I enjoyed it. I had read several short stories about this legend in my younger years and it was pretty cool to see it brought to film in a serious, even sometimes creepy, manner (as opposed to Troma's very silly Frostbiter). This film was able to give me a feeling that this forest spirit could possibly exist for real, at least more so than similar films. The story was not always focused on the Wendigo and when it was, it was mostly by way of the young boy. The way this was handled is what gave this movie its air of believability, as if we are KNOWING it through the child's eyes, the eyes we all used to have. Anyway, the acting was, for the most part, good and the direction low-key yet stylish. For me, Wendigo captured the imagination that I had as a child…that there was "something" out there but really only I knew or at least, thought, about it. Life still went on as normal, of course, but from time to time, in the background, those feelings came to me, just like in the movie.Larry Fessenden's Habit is also worth a watch.

penisandtesticles I recently viewed this film for the first time. Now, I do admit that I am a fan of gory horror movies, but at the same time movies that intrigue the human mind. By no means should a horror movie be classified by the amount of gore because there have been dozens of great movies in the past that have scared the wits out of me without the need of graphic violence. Now as you read the first half of my comment, you see that I have yet to talk about the film. The film was quite similar in that the first half all but gave me the greatest sleep I've had in years. The opening scene possibly makes you think something exciting is going to happen and yet nothing does. To be perfectly honest, as I was watching, I had to check the genre classification of this film to make sure I saw right because in now way could this be viewed as a horror film as there is NOTHING scary about it what so ever. The actual creature (which I practically laughed at when it first appeared on screen) that is supposed to scare you did nothing of the sort. The only person who gave the movie any life was John Speredakos whose character (as little as it appeared) was still quite plausible. The movie was only an hour and half long and the first hour had NOTHING. Yet, they still managed a sex scene which proves to me that the director felt that sex would grab the audience's attention more so than an actual "thrill". The acting was good, but there was no substance to the plot and I was very disappointed. Luckily, I caught it on IFC and did not have to pay money for such a wrongly-classified film.