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.

Arlis I liked this one. It wasn't perfect by any means...far from it. It was however original and creepy.Most of the newer horror movies suck big time and the people making them suck even more. Larry Fessenden both wrote and directed this and I think he is awesome because he did a great job.The writing was unique and although I saw a likeness of many other films in the story, I have to say I've never seen a creature quite like that before. I often wondered if Wendigo was searching for the bad guy or was the little boy Miles somehow using the statue and sending the creature after the bad guy. Maybe thats obvious but I don't get it, either way its fun not knowing in this case.Fessenden is one hell of a director. The scenery and cinematography was amazing and when nothing was going on he was giving you something to see. Many times it's a waste of time and pisses me off when directors get all artsy and take away from the story (watch Oliver Stone movies) but Larry's shots add so much to it.The acting was great, all of the actors played their part well, and I have always loved little Erik Sullivan because MALCOLM IN THE MIDDLE is one of my favorite shows.My only problem with this movie was it was a bit slow. It didn't really start getting good until the last 30 minutes of it. There seems to be a great back story here with "Otis" and his childhood in that house and its one prequel I'd like to see. I still recommend this one to any horror fan.I have to end by saying I wish Todd McFarlane would make an action figure of the creature. He doesn't have to add it to M.Maniacs just pop it in any where. If he can do the tooth fairy and characters from the god-awful Texas Chainsaw remake then why not this.

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.

pgeyer13 for all the subtle charms this student film may contain, was anyone else bored to death waiting WENDINGO to show his paper macho face??the anti-climax pretty much ruined any sort of momentum we had speed actioned to develop.don't get me wrong, i'm all into exploring America's dark underbelly, but this is a turd-a-flambé that gets a nod to watchable only for the fact that p.clarkson looks hot taking it.sadly, from a guy from wings.the best 2 minutes the film has to offer.if you felt like ripping off DELIVERANCE, you could do better.