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Wendigo (2002)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:49
Fresh:28
Rotten:21
Average Rating:6.2/10
Consensus: An artsy horror flick, Wendigo effectively creates an eerie atmosphere.
Runtime: 1 hr 33 mins
Genre: Horror/Suspense
Synopsis: The suggestive WENDIGO is the final installment in a trilogy of horror films from director Larry Fessenden (HABIT, NO TELLING). Beginning on a dark, snowy road in rural Connecticut, WENDIGO... The suggestive WENDIGO is the final installment in a trilogy of horror films from director Larry Fessenden (HABIT, NO TELLING). Beginning on a dark, snowy road in rural Connecticut, WENDIGO immediately slams into gear as a family of New York City visitors run over a deer and drive into a ditch. As George (Jake Weber), his wife Kim (Patricia Clarkson), and son Miles (Erik Per Sullivan) wait for a tow truck to rescue them, they cross paths with an unhinged hunter named Otis (John Speredakos) who finishes off the deer and begins terrorizing the family. Things take an unusual turn, though, after Miles meets a spectral Native American elder (Lloyd E. Oxendine) and learns the secrets of the hungering Wendigo spirit. Balancing jittery camera work with placid landscapes, Fessenden creates a foreboding mood for WENDIGO from the opening scene and never lets up. The movie shifts between the firm character grounding of the family, the edgy terror of Otis, and the elusive spirit-world of the beastly Wendigo in a way that seems to draw clear lines for the audience, only to redraw them with hairpin plot-turns and unsettling visuals. [More]
Starring: Jake Weber, Patricia Clarkson, Erik Per Sullivan, John Speredakos
Starring: Jake Weber, Patricia Clarkson, Erik Per Sullivan, John Speredakos, Christopher Wynkoop, Lloyd E. Oxendine
Director: Larry Fessenden
Director: Larry Fessenden
Screenwriter: Larry Fessenden
Producer: Jeff Levy-Hinte
Studio: Magnolia Pictures
Reviews for Wendigo
On the right track to something that's creepy and effective . . . It's just going to take more than a man in a Bullwinkle costume to get there.
[Fessenden] is much more into ambiguity and creating mood than he is for on screen thrills
When an ominous Indian who can be seen only by the child arrives and talks about an evil creature in the woods, things start to go down hill.
Wendigo wants to be a monster movie for the art-house crowd, but it falls into the trap of pretention almost every time.
It is nature against progress. In Fessenden's horror trilogy, this theme has proved important to him and is especially so in the finale.
The acting is just fine, but there's not enough substance here to sustain interest for the full 90 minutes, especially with the weak payoff.
Until it goes off the rails in its final 10 or 15 minutes, Wendigo, Larry Fessenden's spooky new thriller, is a refreshingly smart and newfangled variation on several themes derived from far less sophisticated and knowing horror films.
It's a horror movie that knows how to be scary, but not at the expense of fascinating characters.
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