Film Review: Wendigo (2001)

Horror films, at least those that don’t rely on shock and similar exploitation cinema tactics, depend on imagination. This is something children usually have in much greater supply than adults, which makes them useful as protagonists in such films. One example can be found in Wendigo, a 2001 film written and directed by Larry Fessenden.

The protagonist in question is Miles (played by Erik Per Sullivan), a 10-year-old boy from New York whose father George (played by Jake Webber) works as a photographer for an advertising agency. Feeling stressed at work, George decides to take a winter vacation and spend it with his wife Kim (played by Patricia Clarkson) and Miles in a cabin in the Catskill Mountains. While travelling, they hit a deer, and while inspecting the incident, George is confronted by Otis (played by John Speredakos), the angry leader of hunters who claims they were hunting the animal. Following this unpleasant situation, George and his family arrive at the cabin, which seems to be a dark, foreboding place with traces of violence. During a trip to a local store, Miles is given a figurine representing the Wendigo, a shapeshifting part-tree, part-animal creature from Native American mythology. Miles later begins to imagine seeing the Wendigo, especially after a series of disturbing incidents that might be the work of a vengeful Otis. All this escalates when George gets shot.

Larry Fessenden is known as a character actor, but he has also built a career with low-budget horror films made in different styles, usually with a strong environmentalist or social message. Wendigo, which features a mythological creature that many interpret as the Native Americans’ explanation of white colonists’ greed and destruction, fits into this pattern. The film is well-directed, well-written, and well-acted, and Fessenden, much to his credit, tries to avoid genre clichés and even sets the audience’s expectations towards other genres, making it resemble adventure or thriller classics like Deliverance or Stray Dogs. The film shows events from Miles’ perspective and keeps their true nature ambiguous, making the audience wonder whether the Wendigo is real or a product of the boy’s imagination. This approach, unfortunately, falls apart in the last thirty minutes, where Fessenden provides an answer that is predictable and unsatisfying. Wendigo nevertheless deserves recommendation, but only to fans of thinking-man’s horror films and those willing to accept certain disappointments while watching their favourite genre.

RATING: 5/10 (++)

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