Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		3.5

Wendigo Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman October 13, 2015

Note: This title is currently available as part of The Larry Fessenden Collection.

You might think Larry Fessenden would be better known as a director, given the fact that entries in his filmography bear such iconic titles as Jaws, A Face in the Crowd and Chinatown . Of course Steven Spielberg, Elia Kazan and Roman Polanski might prefer to have someone pointing out the fact that Fessenden’s films with those titles are not the “famous” ones, so to speak, so there’s that. Fessenden has carved an interesting niche for himself as an indie horror meister, while also frequently appearing as an actor in not only his own films, but those by such iconic names as Martin Scorsese (Bringing Out the Dead) and Neil Jordan (The Brave One). Fessenden might seem like a somewhat odd subject for a “career retrospective” of sorts like the new four disc set from Scream Factory which assembles Fessenden’s films from a fifteen year span (give or take) bridging the 1990s to the 2000s. Fessenden may exploit an unabashedly (and unapologetically) lo-fi ambience in many of his films, but he’s also an (at times at least) unusually intelligent writer of horror. While each of these films has its own hurdles to overcome (as even Fessenden admits in his charmingly self deprecating commentaries), this set also provides an interesting example of an independent filmmaker growing and becoming more and more technically competent as his career progresses. There's at least some thematic consistency in play between these quite disparate films, including a recurrence of the traditional horror staple that Mother Nature doesn't take kindly to humans not respecting her enough.

The six or so years between The Larry Fessenden Collection’s Habit and this film were obviously a time of study and technique refinement for Larry Fessenden, for one of the first things those making their way through the four films in the Fessenden set will appreciate with regard to Wendigo is that coupled with the film’s sleeker production ambience, it actually features a few actors with whom audiences may be more familiar than in earlier Fessenden efforts. Jake Weber (Dawn of the Dead) portrays harried photographer George, who wants to get away from the urban rat race with his wife Kim (Patricia Clarkson, The Maze Runner) and little boy Miles (Erik Per Sullivan, Malcolm in the Middle). Supposedly retreating to the peace and quiet of a rural environment, instead an unfortunate run in with some locals, maybe not exactly at Deliverance levels, but upsetting enough to cast a disturbing pall on George and his family, sets Wendigo on its creepy course, one which traffics in an unsettling ambiguity which recalls Habit’s own gambit in a way.

One of Wendigo’s smartest conceits is that it tends to frame things from Miles’ childlike perspective, something that becomes quite important once folklore about the Native American phenomenon known as the Wendigo enters the story. (For those not acquainted with this Algonquian legend, there are interesting treatments of it in properties as disparate as Ravenous and Hannibal: Season One, though juxtaposing those two titles may not seem all that disparate.) There’s a really interesting dialectic set up where Miles obviously feels that a supernatural beast is involved in some of the messy goings on that confront the family, while Fessenden at least gives passing opportunities for the more rationally minded to simply assign the bad events to the nasty locals.

Once again Fessenden perhaps cheats himself out of an intentional failure to address the “truth” by offering some overly silly literalism, though it’s couched in a more traditional horror ambience of “is this really happening?” Performances are quite winning throughout the film, especially young Sullivan, who is both vulnerable and weirdly other worldly himself.

Wendigo Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Wendigo is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of IFC Midnight and Scream Factory, an imprint of Shout! Factory, with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. This is generally speaking one of the clearer presentations in The Larry Fessenden Collection, one that offers above average levels of detail and fine detail, while also supporting a varied and interesting palette. While grain is generally natural looking, there are a couple of early moments that are pretty noisy looking (low light shots of the family car proceeding into the countryside), and throughout the presentation, there's a tendency for slight splotches to crop up during dimmer sequences. But the many bright sequences pop quite well, with good to very good precision and in some exterior footage some commendable depth of field.

Wendigo Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Wendigo's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 tracks offers a nice bed for the often appealing and ethnically tinged score by Michelle DeBucci, along with some inventive sound effects that tend to create unease in an almost subliminal manner at times. Dialogue is presented cleanly and clearly and is well prioritized. There is also a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 track included on this release as an option.

Wendigo Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Behind the Scenes: Searching for the Wendigo (1080i; 31:56) is a pretty interesting piece that details several aspects of the filmmaking process like how they did the wendigo effects.


• Interview with Larry Fessenden (2001) (1080i; 8:16)


• Wendigo: Animated Series Trailer (1080p; 3:10) also features a contemporary introduction by Larry Fessenden.


• Short Film: Santa Claws (2008) (1080p; 4:52) also sports a Fessenden intro.


• Theatrical Trailer (1080i; 1:35)


• Glass Eye Pix Sizzle Reel (2010) (1080p; 3:27) features a Fessenden intro as well.


• Audio Commentary with Writer, Director and Editor Larry Fessenden. Fessenden offers another really thoughtful and thorough commentary, discussing some of the concepts he wanted to address in the film while also giving some fun anecdotal information about the shoot.


• Audio Commentary with Actors Patricia Clarkson, Jake Weber and John Speredakos. This is a much more sporadic commentary than the one by Larry Fessenden, with quite a few longish breaks and a tendency for the actors to indulge in "now we're seeing" types of comments.

Wendigo Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Wendigo has a number of fascinating elements, and it's one of the more consistently creepy efforts included in The Larry Fessenden Collection. Fessenden tends to undercut himself when push comes to shove, but the film benefits from some well done performances and a palpably disturbing mood. Technical merits are generally strong, the supplementary package is commendable, and Wendigo comes Recommended.