Wendigo

As I was driving home after the Q&A session with Larry Fessenden, writer, producer and director of this movie, the phrase - modern day horror fable - came to mind. Such words have been used by professional reviewers concerning the movie. To see updated reviews, click here. I tend to agree the most with the Variety review although I don't always agree with the recounting of the facts in the reviews.

Usually I do an indepth 'review' that almost reads like a summary of the movie but here, since Fessenden may have the film released in the Fall, I won't give everything away. I will say that Jake is the best body that no one has ever seen on the screen, big or small. Hopefully this movie will change that.

While the movie views much of its goings on through the eyes of an imaginative boy , Miles, played by Erik Per Sullivan who apparently is on Malcolm in the Middle, this movie is definitely not for children. In fact, if it were to be rated now, I think it would be NC-17.

It follows a family from the City, George McClaren, played fabulously by Jake, his wife Kim, played by Patricia Clark, and their son Miles. As the film goes on, you learn that George is a professional photographer, Kim is a shrink and Miles is a young boy with a very active imagination. He's afraid of things that go bump in the night and thinks there are creepy things behind every closed door or hiding in the shadows.

Their idyllic weekend trip to upstate New York is shattered when their volvo station wagon hits a buck before George can get the car to stop. He's not driving fast but his attention is on the surrounding landscape, trying to figure out where he's supposed to turn. George's first concern is his son. Miles is traumatized but tells his dad he's okay. Turns out that the poor buck has been trying to elude 3 hunters for 18 hours and had been shot by one of them. One of the hunters, Otis, is furious that the antlers are cracked. He blames George. George, to protect his family, gets out of the car and asks Otis to calm down. [I don't remember the exact words he uses but he's actually calm, considering the circumstances, and stands his ground.] Kim, hurtles out of the car to spew expletives at Otis for pointing his rifle towards the car. She claims to be protecting Miles but, it's sort of a joke - it's hard to say who is the poorer example for Miles.

While there are some light moments between the family, things naturally go downhill due to Otis' inability to 'get over it'.

I loved Jake's portrayal of George the father. He's in a high stress business, he has to make one business call over the weekend and he's feeling some unnamed hostility. But he loves his wife and son and he takes the time to go over a spelling quiz with home made 'flash cards' and he's honest enough to tell his son that he was a little shaken up about hitting the deer. He chooses to take Monday off, even though the ad people want something different with the pictures. He also has a moment to quote some Robert Frost to his son and to take the time to tell Miles that it's okay to feel sorry for the deer.

As you can tell, this isn't your prototypical horror movie. The wendigo is a presence, or force, as an elder Indian man explains to Miles, but it isn't a 'monster' nor is this a monster movie. It does make you think , or it should. It's definitely about relationships and what people do with them. Fessenden mentioned the wendigo being 'fate' and that opens up more layers.

Larry Fessenden was there and was interviewed after the movie was over by a guy named Elvis. I think Elvis was somehow attached to the LAIFF. Apparently Wendigo was the third in a string of horror movies that were shown on Saturday evening. The showing was sponsored by the NY Times. [Let's hear it for the NY Times - yes!!] Fessenden is a funny, intelligent guy and his humour and intelligence definitely shine through in this movie. I, sadly, couldn't for the life of me, think of an intelligent question to ask. He thought Jake was fabulous and was aware of all of Jake's recent movies.

Elvis was impressed that the movie had good casting directors and one of them casts for HBO's The Sopranos. Makes me wonder if that's how Jake got considered for "The Mind of the Married Man". He also seemed stuck on the fact that he could see the 'grain' of the film. I have no idea what he was talking about. It's not like this movie was like the intro to the movie 'SEVEN'. In fact, I was really impressed at the quality of the editing - both in the visuals and the music. The scenes of bare trees against the snow covered landscape was gorgeous.

For my typical vapid observations - Jake's hair was on the longish side - if you've seen his cameo in 'Born on the 4th of July', you'll get the idea. It was brownish-blond. It was also basically free falling, no goop. This resulted in his hair sort of sticking out funny from a knit cap he wore while he and Miles went sledding. He either wore a heavy knit sweater with deer on them [you can see a pic of that at Fessenden's site] and a thermal, heather blue shirt, which was very pleasing to the eyes. He also wore jeans and the overall affect, even when he had his jacket on, was a long, lean and lanky look.

In fact, I liked the idea that this family could have been any middle class family. This wasn't your - everyone is model perfect with every hair in place - type movie. Jake still looked gorgeous. It's nice to see him without all the heavy makeup. The woman who played his wife, Elvis knew who she was, but I'm not familiar with her. I thought she looked older then Jake. The boy was very good. He was your typical kid but since both his parents work and are professionals, he's also a little more introspective then most kids his age.

Official Wendigo site

Link to an interview with Larry Fessenden.

Wendigo 2002