Wendigo (2001)
Review by HTQ4
Film:
DVD:

Written and Directed by Larry Fessenden
Starring Patricia Clarkson, Jake Weber, Erik Per Sullivan, John Speredakos, and Christopher Wynkoop

Features:

• Searching for the Wendigo: Behind the Scenes Featurette
  
• Running audio commentary by director Fessenden
  
• Art Gallery
  
• Interview with director Fessenden
  
• Director and Cast filmographies
  

Kim (Clarkson) and George (Weber) are making their way to the Catskills for a little rest and relaxation with their son Miles (Per Sullivan). As usual with these types of movies, they get lost and wind up making every mistake imaginable along the way. They accidentally hit a deer in the road and their car gets stuck on the shoulder of the road. I know, it seems innocent enough, but the guy who was hunting the deer gets really upset about the fact that his "prey" was damaged. To make matters worse, the house that they are visiting just happens to be near a town that is haunted by a some kind of half man/half animal.

This movie goes absolutely nowhere and it takes its sweet damn time doing it. All of the performances are two dimensional, but even if the actors were doing a better job, the script is just too loosely written to really be scary anyway. Honestly, I don't think the director couldn't make up his mind as to which film he wanted to copy; The Blair Witch Project, Poltergeist, or The Shining.

As far as the DVD goes, it's not that much better. The meat of the DVD lies in the behind the scenes featurette, but I knew I was going to be in trouble when it began with a quote by the director that says that he didn't want to give to much of the illusion of the movie away. In most cases, especially in a film of this quality, that just means that the director didn't have enough stuff to talk about, and didn't want to BS anything. And, just like the movie, it took way too long get going and once it did get going, it wasn't worth the wait. There is also an interview with Fessenden that is set in front of an abandoned building somewhere in a major metropolis. He really doesn't talk about anything worthwhile in this interview; all he does is give us a very vague idea of how movies get made...and he loves to talk in the jargon of the industry. In the special features menu, they only other items are fairly standard: the trailer and the cast and director bios.

The commentary track really doesn't give you much more than the other special features do. Fessenden obviously likes the sound of his own voice in the headphones, because he sounds too much like someone off of WKRP in Cincinnati. The other thing that becomes obvious is that he didn't prepare a lot for his recording, because he spends a lot of time narrating the film and talking about the costumes and other trivial stuff like that. To be fair, every now and then he throws in a little bit of something that might have been worthwhile information had the movie been better. I guess we should be thankful that it at least had a commentary track. Too often, many movies that deserve them, don't get them.

This one should be avoided at all costs. If you see it sitting on the shelf, do someone else a favor and put another movie on top of it.