Vielfach ausgezeichnet und von der Presse euphorisch bejubelt: Mit geradezu minimalistischen Mitteln zaubert Larry Fessendens (HABIT) Indie-Film eisiges Gruseln in die Phantasie der Zuschauer und berichtet nachdenklich, packend und bemerkenswert philosophisch von der gefräßigen Macht eines zornigen Geistes. Ein stilles Meisterwerk.

Larry Fessenden approaches the themes and thrills of the classic American horror movies through a determinedly modern approach, as if John Cassavetes had been working for Universal in the early 30’s … for those in search of something different, WENDIGO is a genuinely bone-chilling tale.” New York Times

“A lean, brainy horror fable.” Variety

“A darkly beautiful, genuinely scary movie.” LA Weekly

“One of the best indie features in years.” Fangoria
Top

Larry Fessenden is a filmmaker with an uncanny gift for the creation of unsettling moods, capable, among other things, of bringing out the spookiness and menace inherent in a bleak winter landscape. He makes unusual, almost handmade art horror films, of which the eerie "Wendigo" is the latest example.

"Wendigo" is the third film (the excellent Manhattan vampire film "Habit" was the first, "No Telling" the second) in what the writer-director-editor calls "a trilogy of revisionist horror movies" that take a fresh, unencumbered look at some of the classic fright film themes.

In this, Fessenden is an interesting successor to producer Val Lewton, whose much-admired low-key 1940s horror films such as "I Walked With a Zombie," "The Body Snatcher" and "Bedlam" have been enormously influential and admired. And, reminiscent of recent non-American horror films such as Alejandro Amenabar's "The Others" and Guillermo del Toro's "The Devil's Backbone," Fessenden's films depend on atmosphere more than shock to unnerve us.

"Wendigo" is named after a terrifying creature out of Native American mythology that has been utilized by everyone from poet Ogden Nash to the creators of "The X-Files" and Marvel Comics. As described in the film by a mysterious tribal elder, this half-man, half-deer shape-shifter is "always hungry, never satisfied. There are spirits to be feared because they are angry. He who hears the cry of the Wendigo is never seen again." If that sentence sends a bit of a chill down your back, you'll appreciate this kind of filmmaking.
Certainly psychoanalyst Kim McClaren ("High Art's" Patricia Clarkson), her photographer-husband, George (Jake Weber), and their 8-year-old son, Miles (the self-possessed Erik Per Sullivan), are not thinking of dreaded mythological beasts as they drive through upstate New York on the way to a vacation weekend at a friend's borrowed country house.

Then, suddenly, a large deer bounds out of the woods and is hit by their car. Almost immediately, a trio of ragged local hunters emerges in the animal's wake, and their leader, the in-your-face Otis (John Speredakos) uses a pistol to kill the buck in front of an unnerved Miles. This causes a disturbing confrontation between the family and the hunters, which gets even creepier when it turns out Otis lives very close to their destination farmhouse.

Though they try, it's hard for the family to have a relaxing time after what has happened, with Kim still angry and George, the kind of guy who has a deer on his sweater, not in his rifle sights, looking especially overmatched. The incident has the strongest effect, however, on young Miles. He's a worried, susceptible child, prone to checking closets for dangerous creatures and in fact visited by ghostly apparitions when the lights go down.

Even in daylight, however, strange incidents begin to happen both around the house and in the town. Is this a case of excitable city folks being unable to cope with the solitude of rural life, or is something strange, something truly sinister, about to go down?

Working with cinematographer Terry Stacey and having the benefit of a wonderfully eerie score by composer Michelle DiBucci, Fessenden is the right director to capture the nuances of this sum-of-all-fears situation... " LA Times
Top

Credits