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This is one of those movies that generated polarized reactions.
Part art movie, part supernatural/horror, it didn't please many fans
of either, but was very well reviewed by some critics (RT: 61%
positive) who
appreciated the director's ability to maintain a feeling of dread.
It starts out as a New York version of Deliverance. An upper
middle class Manhattan couple take their son to a remote cabin
in the Catskills for a weekend retreat. Things start out badly when
their car strikes a deer, and they run afoul of the hunters who were
chasing "their" deer. One of the hunters is testosterone-crazed and
gets into some heavy chest-thumping with the father. We basically
watch this activity through the eyes of the little kid, who sees a
bunch of violent gun-toting men shoot a deer at point blank range
(actually a mercy killing), then wave their guns around while
shouting at his parents.
Here's a tip for you youngsters, from a native of
Upstate New York - if you go up there, always be afraid of white
guys named "Otis", unless they are cookie manufacturers. I never met or heard of any
such people up there, but if I
did meet one, I'd know enough to give that mofo some elbow room,
especially if he was mad at me and was carrying both a rifle and a
handgun, because that sucker would be mighty ornery, being so far
from the Confederacy and all.
The next major development in the film occurs in the small town near their
rental house, where the little kid is handed a carved totem by a
mysterious Native American, only to have his mother find out that
the mysterious stranger was not really there at all, and that her
son was probably making up a story to get the "toy". Or was he?
Before vanishing, the non-existent stranger told the boy that the
totem represented the Wendigo, a mysterious, powerful,
shape-shifting spirit who could kill men and take their souls.
Yeah, whatever.
The premise is lame, to be sure, but I think the maintenance of tension is excellent because the
director stayed inside the little kid's POV, and underscored the
boy's fear with
an effective, mysterious score which blends elements of classical
music and Native American rhythms. Fair enough.
The film also had some problems:
One genuine problem.
I laughed when I saw the actual Wendigo, and I couldn't have been
the only one laughing. It may be a shape-shifter, but the only form it seemed
to take here was that of a giant reindeer that walks on his hind
legs. In fact, it looks exactly like the famous hoax animal,
the Jackalope, aka The Warrior Rabbit. Let's face it, how scary
can a reindeer be? They are herbiverous ruminants - basically
cows, albeit prettier and more agile - so they present more danger to your
flowers than they do to your family.
"Look out Marge, I think it's going to graze"
I grew up right next to a deer preserve, and
the animals are sometimes nuisances because they get into
gardens at night, and they can't distinguish between open space and
glass, so every once in a while a big 'un tries
to run into somebody's sliding glass door or greenhouse. Saddest of
all, they sometimes run into a road, as the deer did in this film,
thus endangering themselves and the motorists. But they aren't very
scary, and they won't attack with their teeth no matter how hungry
or frightened they are. They are herbivores. I guess Manhattanites
could find one scary, but I can't imagine why. There is nothing more
peaceful or pastoral than to see a family of deer wandering around
the back yard on a snowy morning.
Anyway, I guess the all-wise Indian spirit wasn't
quite as tight with nature as it was made out to be. If it had a freakin'
clue about nature in Upstate New York, it would have taken the form
of a big, riled, starving, female bear ransacking a trash can and protecting her cubs. Now those mofos
are scary.
Rudolph the freakin' red nosed reindeer, on the
other hand, is about as scary as Freddie and the Dreamers.
OK, maybe that was a bad example.
It actually looks more like Bullwinkle.
If SCTV was still on, Mrs Prickly would book this
movie for Monster Chiller Horror Theater, and Count Floyd would have to
bullshit the kids into thinking reindeer are scary. "Look, kids, did
you see those pointy antlers? Arooooooooooooooooooo!"
Yup, that Wendigo is one scary, Santa Claus-totin'
mofo.
Here's another tip for you youngsters. If you make a
movie like Jurassic Park, feel free to make a special feature on the
DVD in which you explain how the special effects were created. On
the other hand, if you make a film where the supernatural creature
looks like a guy with limp wrists wearing a reindeer head with a goofy smile, don't
create a 30 minute documentary explaining how you did it. (Gee, let
me guess, you had a guy wear a reindeer head? Yup, sure enough.)
Also, you might want to leave out the original artist's conceptions
of the monster if they are, in fact, even sillier and less scary
than the actual representation in the movie. "Yeah, we wanted it to
look a lot stupider, but shit happens, ya know?"
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