Reviews (60)

Fessenden does it (very well) again.
Wendigo (Larry Fessenden, 2001)

Larry Fessenden gave the world his first entry into the hip, not-scary horror genre a few years back with Habit, an utterly engrossing vampire flick that's not as much about vampires as it is about its main character's slow descent into alcoholic madness. Well, Fessenden is back with his second foray into the genre, Wendigo, and we get the same treatment here we got in Habit. In other words, if you hated that one, don't bother with this one.

Wendigo isn't a horror movie as such. It's more a family drama (not as in "appropriate for the whole family," mind you). George (American Gothic's Jake Weber) and his wife Kim (the highly underrated Patricia Clarkson, recently in The Station Agent) have borrowed a country house for the weekend from a business associate, and headed up with their son, Miles (Erik Per Sullivan, Malcolm in the Middle's Dewey). What at first seems to be a regular weekend family trip opens up into the beginnings of an attempt at a journey to heal an unspecified fracture in George and Kim's relationship; we learn this, but we're never sure what the specific event was. We find out why; George is self-obsessed and stubborn, Kim is distant and unable to understand why her nagging George about his self-obsession and stubbornness won't change him. But the two have been married a while, and they have that dynamic about them. (Which is good, because any chance to see Patricia Clarkson unclothed should be eagerly snatched by the oversexed male film viewer.)

The weekend is marred by an event on the way to the cabin, given to us in the opening scenes of the movie; George loses control of the car and hits a deer which is being pursued by a number of hunters, led by Otis (John Speredakos, recently in Rules of Engagement). Otis is not a nice guy, not at all. He seems perennially hopped up on something, is twitchy, nervous, and a little too fond of his rifle. Adding Otis into the equation makes things that much harder on the family. After all, once Otis is part of the equation, he's going all the way through to the solution.

(The Wendigo itself, though it does play a part in the film, is a minor character at best, and is, perhaps, only a mass hallucination.)

Again, as with Habit, what you see is not necessarily what you get. Those expecting a horror film are going to be disappointed; those expecting a heartfelt tear-jerker are unlikely to get that, either. It moves too slowly to be a thriller (which is probably the closest established genre to what Wendigo really is), but too quickly to be a slice-of-life film. In other words, it's uncategorizable.

And perhaps that is why Wendigo is one of those films that will stay with you long after you've finished watching it. Everyone in the film portrays their characters wonderfully, and all the tension between the family members is believable. Otis is very much the backwoods dangerous redneck, and unlike most rednecks of recent years, something about him seems uncompromisingly dirty; the kind of detail one only expects to find in Lucio Fulci films, but that Fessenden never fails to do well (even in front of the camera, a la Session 9). Otis may be one of the most disturbing characters in modern film, on a visceral level; there's nothing that makes you sit up and say "whoa!," just a vague feeling of unease whenever he's onscreen.

Wonderful stuff. Not for everyone, but the few will adore it. ****

MILES AND MILES TO GO
Eric Per Sullivan as the young Miles is a wonderful performance for a child actor. He portrays a young boy who finds himself enthralled by the legend of the Wendigo, an Indian folk legend that becomes horrifying real for him and his dysfunctional parents. Larry Fessenden's film is a slow moving one and even when it picks up it's almost in slow motion. There are, however, some truly eerie and ghostly scenes that merit it as a "horror" film, but as some reviewers noted, this is not a true representation of this film. There is much mysticism and there is a dense portrayal of a family in hurt trying to heal the wounds. Jake Weber and Patricia Clarkson are very effective as Miles' parents, but John Speradakos as the soon to be demented Otis is excellent in conveying evil in a soft, frightening manner. The locale is beautiful in its winter isolation; some of the cinematography is also brilliant. A disturbing film that leaves much to the viewer's interpretation, but definitely a different movie, well done on a shoestring budget.

Good but flawed indie horror film
Note to intelligent, adult horror fans: Ignore the many bad reviews here from unimaginative, dim bulb kids - Wendigo is easily one of the better horror films of the last 5 years or so. Even though I have some problems with the script and some of the acting, Larry Fesseden does a great job creating and sustaining a sense of menace, and in the tradition of the best horror literature and films, the supernatural arises as a projection of the psychological state of the characters. Also, the Wendigo itself is brilliantly presented. Rather than struggling to come up with a convincing monster on a low budget, Fessenden creates a bizarre, deliberately unreal-looking contraption shot and edited in a surreal manner that is startlingly effective.

Very scary... in a bad way.
First off, Wendigo has to be one of the most terrible movies I have ever seen. In a way, Wendigo is a scary movie, but only because it is frightening that such an awful movie could ever find its way to a producer. Oh God, there are just so many things wrong with this movie...

Now, I can tolerate a cheesy movie if the directing is good. And sometimes I can tolerate a bad storyline too, given the directing is good. However, Wendigo has a lame storyline and even worse direction. The director of Windego tries some interesting effects, but they just seem so out of place and confusing, that instead of thinking "Wow, that was nice", you are left with a gaping mouth wondering what just happened. The director doesn't seem to have any apparent "style" in this movie, that is, unless chaos and utter confusion is considered a style.

The "monster" in Wendigo, when first shown (not until the last 20 minutes) was deer-shaped monster made of sticks. The second time it appeared, it was a half-man half-deer monster which was nothing more than a bodybuilder with a deer outfit on and wearing alien-hand gloves. I have seen movies made in the 60's with more believable beasts. In fact, the monster looks so terrible, that it is only shown in brief clips, moving VERY quickly and jittery so you can't tell how bad it looks.... too bad even this effect doesn't work.

Where do I go from here? Bad storyline. Mediocre acting. A disgrace to the legend of Wendigo. Tie all this in with one of the worst endings I have ever seen and the question you are left asking is.... why watch this movie? It's not even good enough for a rental to laugh at. I would like to see the producer and the director sent back to film school (if they ever went). Bottom line: I hate this movie. If you are interested in the legend of Wendigo, then buy Ravenous.

Bosh Hubris
I must have come into this film with unjust pre-conceptions of it being a B-grade 1970s horror-film-laugh-a-lympics in the same vein as Wolfen or Zombie, because I came away rather disgusted and feeling cheated. What little plot this movie had was lost in its club-footed slowness and aloofness. You never really get to know anything and by the time you do you already have a great animosity for the characters and wish the greatest amount of harm to be inflicted upon them. The banal and "who-cares" combination of storyline and characters is the most unsympathetic feeling I've ever experienced watching a film. It wasn't even ennui or uneasiness, it was pure waking sleeplessness. A thudding into walls in the dark. Something you'd like to fall asleep to after a root canal because it lacks both the capacity to hold or be remembered by as anything but second-rate. ... Read more

Reviews (23)

Intriguing, tense, and unique.
Caught this one on an independent film channel, and I can't resist a vampire movie so I gave it a try. This movie is certainly an experience, after I saw it I wasn't sure what to make of it. It's not a horror film, but there were a few scenes that genuinely scared me (not an easy task). The end of the film left me utterly shell-shocked. It's a romantic film, but not in the sense most people consider romantic; it's very dark and twisted and REAL, and I think that's what makes this movie more romantic than many mainstream films that try so hard to idealize love. Real love is often gritty and difficult, just like this film. The pace is slow and there is very little violence, so this movie is definitly not for most horror fans, yet it is very dark and twisted so it not for fans of drama either. I think this film has a definite niche among independent film fans who just want a really well told story that keeps them thinking about it days after the movie is over. Certainly worth a look for serious movie affecionados, but not for your average action-film watching yahoo.

In a league of it's on!...Not Horror ..A Sick Love Story!
Honestly this isn't a true vampire film but it is an exotic and independent effort. The acting from the main characters was mediocure with the exception of Anna. Anna ws the vampire woman and she wasn't a very good actress. Being that this was her first role it is somewhat excusable. But I will tell you one thing about the directer's choice in casting her. She was very exotic looking and unisex, She was a woman in deed but there was something unusual about her appearance. Through the movie there were hints that she was Bi sexual,but there was never an illustration. Anna was indeed an alluring woman and to some extent made the movie believable and interesting. Basically she had sex with this guy but never told him her secret. In exchange she took a little blood from him each time while they were in ectasy with one another, Way to do it HUh? Well anyway he began to get real sick and drained. And that is when he realized who and what she was doing. When he threatens to leave her and go back to his X that is when the mystery and Mayhem unravels! Anna doesn't take No for an answer in this film. But the sad part about it all she was lonley and she really loved him but she didn't give him a choice. I think this is a good movie, but you have to except that this is a sick love story not a horror movie.

Arish

Haunting Vampiress in a Sad Story
I trully loved this picture. I'm a big fan of vampires, but also a big fan of movies that are well acted and this movie had both. When I saw Anna, my heart sunk in my chest I saw the power this woman had, especially over Sam. I really felt sorry for this fella, because he was trying to get over the death of his father and the breakup with his longtime girlfriend. When this vampire woman took over his life, it created even more problems for him...for his life was at stake(no pun intended...). What worse could happen to someone? Sure, he was really enjoying what he was having at the time...the attraction of Anna and the wild uninhibited sex, but he got more sick the more times he had encounters with her, until he finally put 2 and 2 together and found out that something was definitely wrong with this woman. The ending was very disturbing and had me feel really bad for Sam and very angry at Anna, for she didn't see his life to be of any importance. She thought of him as a man who wouldn't get out of his rut and she was there to put him out of his misery.

The sex was very entertaining to watch and Anna's power, her glances and her mysterious life was mesmeriing. She had the dark looks of a blood sucker and the more you saw her, the more you believed that bad things were going to happen (or good things...it's according to how you view it).

Out of the 70+ vampire movies I own, I rank this one in the Top 5. This movie was very believeable and it leaves me wondering what would've happened if the conclusion didn't end the way it did.

The Lady IS a Vamp...Isn't She?
Over the past fifteen years or so, talented indie writer and auteur Larry Fessenden has earned a reputation for creating high-quality, highly aesthetic films within the constraints of extremely meager budgets. Many of his films have been short works and have, unfortunately, gone unnoticed by the public at large, but in recent years, he has written and directed a handful of low-budget but high-quality feature-length horror films that have pushed him further and further into the limelight. HABIT is the second of these films, and it is his first work to have garnered both a high level of public attention and major critical acclaim (including a three-star "thumbs-up" from the venerable Roger Ebert).

The movie examines a small slice from the life of Sam (portrayed by the writer/director himself), a somewhat hapless part-time nightclub manager who has just split with his live-in girlfriend. At the Halloween party of some friends, a drunk and grungy Sam is inexplicably singled out by the attractive yet dark and ethereal Anna. In spite of the seeming mismatch, one thing leads to another, and Sam hastily plunges into a hot but reckless sexual relationship at the urging of this mysterious dark-haired beauty. During the next few weeks, they have sex in a park, sex on the rooftop of a New York apartment building, sex in a hospital examination room, and sex in numerous other bizarre situations and places. It isn't that Sam has a problem with copulating in risky environs; it's just that he's a bit put off by Anna's habit of biting and nipping him during the act. After every lovemaking session, Sam falls into a deep sleep, only to wake up the next morning, alone, with a new collection of bloody scrapes or bite-marks somewhere on his bod.

Sam has been feeling week and sickly as of late, though he at first attributes it to late-night work schedules and excessive drinking. But when his close friends start openly commenting on his increasingly gaunt appearance--or pointing out the freakish cuts and bites all over his arms and face--a light clicks on in his head. It suddenly dawns on him that he's never seen Anna in the daylight, he's never known her to perform common bodily functions like peeing or taking a crap, and he's never seen her eat or drink anything...that is, anything other than blood--HIS blood! As crazy as it seems, Sam can't help but ponder the possibility that Anna might be a vampire.

Once the vampirism seed in planted in Sam's own alcohol-saturated, sleep-deprived gray matter, he's unable to shake it off, even when his good friend Nick (Aaron Beall) points out the blatant absurdity of the idea. And the more obsessed Sam becomes with his belief, the more Anna reveals her true undead, bloodsucking nature. Or does she?

Fessenden is a master at subtly weaving the main themes of his stories into scenes that appear to be little more than visual records of common, everyday details. Perhaps it can be attributed to the human propensity for voyeurism, but these slice-of-life scenes are usually written and acted out with such objectivity and realism that the audience is compelled to keep watching, unaware that they are subliminally soaking up Fessenden's real message or theme. Then, when the audience is unwittingly hooked, Fessenden reels 'em in to an intensely emotional climax.

Now, even though the closing scene of HABIT is quite intense, it is still ambiguous enough to leave the movie open to interpretation. As mentioned above, the surface details of his films are starkly realistic and objective, but Fessenden nonetheless has a strong predilection for building these details around subtle and subjective themes. When a film reaches its conclusion, Fessenden wants the audience to discover for themselves--or, more accurately, to DECIDE for themselves--the underlying truth of that final scene, how that truth re-colors earlier events in the film, and what that truth ultimately means for the film's primary characters.

In one of the "making-of" featurettes on the HABIT DVD, Fessenden refers to this approach as his version of "interactive" cinema. This is a sort of cyberpunk way of saying that, like an expressionist painting or a cubist sculpture, a movie is more satisfying for the viewer if they have to do a little thinking and decide for themselves what the filmmakers are trying to say. Films that do so become more personal, more moving, and ultimately more important to the individual viewer. With HABIT, Fessenden excellently bears out this theory. The audience is allowed to decide on their own if Anna is a vampire or if Sam is just experiencing a mental breakdown. And interestingly enough, the details of the film are such that a cogent argument can be made for either interpretation, or even for a combination of the two.

The DVD from Fox Lorber/Glass Eye Pix offers a great transfer of HABIT in its original aspect ratio of 1.33:1. The disc also contains the original theatrical trailer, several mini "making-of" featurettes, and a really cool music video for the song SAVE YOU FROM YOURSELF by Just Desserts, one of the songs featured in the film. (Larry Fessenden plays sax for Just Desserts, and he also worked on the filmmaking side of the humorous video featured on the disc.)

Indie films don't get much better than HABIT, and it will make a fantastic addition to the collection of any horror fan or film lover. And at amazon.com's excellent asking price for the DVD, it's a real steal!

Whoa - hooked me in immediately.
This is probably one of the best relationship movies I've ever seen. A couple falls in love, it's intense, but she's hurting him. Is it on purpose? Is she a vampire? The vampire metaphor makes for an amazing comparison to modern realtionships. In the beginning of an intense relationship, real issues of trust and paranoia can arise. How vulnerable do you want to make yourself to this new person? This movie captures those feelings and so much more in an exciting, fresh way. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

A new indie horror great has arrived
Larry Fessenden's NO TELLING is for fans of classic horror films, lovers of independent cinema and opponents of cruelty to animals -- 3 groups that don't often find themselves jostling for position in front of the same DVD shelf. Fessenden is best known for HABIT, a modern vampire story he wrote, directed and starred in; in NO TELLING he reinvents another classic horror genre, but it would spoil the tale's unfolding to say which one. Like HABIT, NO TELLING is convincingly rooted in a real present-day setting and situation: a married couple who have moved into an old farmhouse so that the husband can work on getting a research grant that will make them rich and help the human race. Cracks in the marriage appear when the wife meets a good-looking ecologist who raises troubling questions about her husband's devotion to science. Then step-by-step, what starts as an exceptionally well-done study of a modern couple shifts imperceptibly onto mythical territory which the horror movie aficianado will find him/herself revisiting with fresh eyes: NO TELLING makes its familiar tale totally, scarily believable and leaves us with a questions to take back with us into the real world. Every generation is marked by the talents of an indie horror filmmaker who reinvents the form, and Larry Fessenden is that filmmaker for the new millenium. An unusual making-of documentary shows the wise-cracking writer-director-editor and his collaborators at work, while talking to the camera about the implications of the highly original film they are making. NO TELLING and "The Making of NO TELLING" are the best introduction I know to a new filmmaker we will be hearing about a lot in the years to come. Those with weak stomachs have nothing to fear -- 90 percent of the horror is inside the characters, which makes it that much more creepily effective.

The unfortunate ending
Habit, Fessenden's masterpiece, is the film he should be remembered for--not this one. The premise of this film is fine--a latter-day Dr. Frankenstein is obsessed with "tinkering with Mother Nature", as the previous review indicates. The characterizations are, in fact, quite solid. The development of the film is also strong, playing up the conflict between the "mad" scientist and his wife, and this conflict definitely provides momentum to the film.

But the ending is so cheesy and ridiculous that, at least for me, it ruined the film. I won't give it away; suffice to say that Fessenden could, I am sure, have easily created a much stronger ending that would have dovetailed with the obvious husband-wife conflict infinitely more effectively and simultaneously provided the strong jolt required in dark films like this one. Habit, by contrast, does have a powerful closer as well as very strong characterizations and story development. No Telling is a film you really don't want to tell your friends about.

Stick with Habit; you can't go wrong.

NEAR MASTERPIECE
The first film in Larry Fessenden's unofficial "monster movie" trilogy (followed by "Habit" and the soon to be released "Wendigo"), "No Telling" may be the best kept secret of the contemporary American cinema. Though sometimes its themes are a little too overtly spoken through dialogue (it is after all a diatribe against animal experimentation and a cheesy horror flick at the same time) this is a boldly stylized, thoughtful exception to the typical Hollywood excesses of the 1990's. Had a chance to preview the DVD, which comes with a not-to-be missed "Making of.." made by Fessenden, with his customary wit and mock self deprecation, in itself worth the price of the disc. ... Read more

Reviews (60)

Fessenden does it (very well) again.
Wendigo (Larry Fessenden, 2001)

Larry Fessenden gave the world his first entry into the hip, not-scary horror genre a few years back with Habit, an utterly engrossing vampire flick that's not as much about vampires as it is about its main character's slow descent into alcoholic madness. Well, Fessenden is back with his second foray into the genre, Wendigo, and we get the same treatment here we got in Habit. In other words, if you hated that one, don't bother with this one.

Wendigo isn't a horror movie as such. It's more a family drama (not as in "appropriate for the whole family," mind you). George (American Gothic's Jake Weber) and his wife Kim (the highly underrated Patricia Clarkson, recently in The Station Agent) have borrowed a country house for the weekend from a business associate, and headed up with their son, Miles (Erik Per Sullivan, Malcolm in the Middle's Dewey). What at first seems to be a regular weekend family trip opens up into the beginnings of an attempt at a journey to heal an unspecified fracture in George and Kim's relationship; we learn this, but we're never sure what the specific event was. We find out why; George is self-obsessed and stubborn, Kim is distant and unable to understand why her nagging George about his self-obsession and stubbornness won't change him. But the two have been married a while, and they have that dynamic about them. (Which is good, because any chance to see Patricia Clarkson unclothed should be eagerly snatched by the oversexed male film viewer.)

The weekend is marred by an event on the way to the cabin, given to us in the opening scenes of the movie; George loses control of the car and hits a deer which is being pursued by a number of hunters, led by Otis (John Speredakos, recently in Rules of Engagement). Otis is not a nice guy, not at all. He seems perennially hopped up on something, is twitchy, nervous, and a little too fond of his rifle. Adding Otis into the equation makes things that much harder on the family. After all, once Otis is part of the equation, he's going all the way through to the solution.

(The Wendigo itself, though it does play a part in the film, is a minor character at best, and is, perhaps, only a mass hallucination.)

Again, as with Habit, what you see is not necessarily what you get. Those expecting a horror film are going to be disappointed; those expecting a heartfelt tear-jerker are unlikely to get that, either. It moves too slowly to be a thriller (which is probably the closest established genre to what Wendigo really is), but too quickly to be a slice-of-life film. In other words, it's uncategorizable.

And perhaps that is why Wendigo is one of those films that will stay with you long after you've finished watching it. Everyone in the film portrays their characters wonderfully, and all the tension between the family members is believable. Otis is very much the backwoods dangerous redneck, and unlike most rednecks of recent years, something about him seems uncompromisingly dirty; the kind of detail one only expects to find in Lucio Fulci films, but that Fessenden never fails to do well (even in front of the camera, a la Session 9). Otis may be one of the most disturbing characters in modern film, on a visceral level; there's nothing that makes you sit up and say "whoa!," just a vague feeling of unease whenever he's onscreen.

Wonderful stuff. Not for everyone, but the few will adore it. ****

MILES AND MILES TO GO
Eric Per Sullivan as the young Miles is a wonderful performance for a child actor. He portrays a young boy who finds himself enthralled by the legend of the Wendigo, an Indian folk legend that becomes horrifying real for him and his dysfunctional parents. Larry Fessenden's film is a slow moving one and even when it picks up it's almost in slow motion. There are, however, some truly eerie and ghostly scenes that merit it as a "horror" film, but as some reviewers noted, this is not a true representation of this film. There is much mysticism and there is a dense portrayal of a family in hurt trying to heal the wounds. Jake Weber and Patricia Clarkson are very effective as Miles' parents, but John Speradakos as the soon to be demented Otis is excellent in conveying evil in a soft, frightening manner. The locale is beautiful in its winter isolation; some of the cinematography is also brilliant. A disturbing film that leaves much to the viewer's interpretation, but definitely a different movie, well done on a shoestring budget.

Good but flawed indie horror film
Note to intelligent, adult horror fans: Ignore the many bad reviews here from unimaginative, dim bulb kids - Wendigo is easily one of the better horror films of the last 5 years or so. Even though I have some problems with the script and some of the acting, Larry Fesseden does a great job creating and sustaining a sense of menace, and in the tradition of the best horror literature and films, the supernatural arises as a projection of the psychological state of the characters. Also, the Wendigo itself is brilliantly presented. Rather than struggling to come up with a convincing monster on a low budget, Fessenden creates a bizarre, deliberately unreal-looking contraption shot and edited in a surreal manner that is startlingly effective.

Very scary... in a bad way.
First off, Wendigo has to be one of the most terrible movies I have ever seen. In a way, Wendigo is a scary movie, but only because it is frightening that such an awful movie could ever find its way to a producer. Oh God, there are just so many things wrong with this movie...

Now, I can tolerate a cheesy movie if the directing is good. And sometimes I can tolerate a bad storyline too, given the directing is good. However, Wendigo has a lame storyline and even worse direction. The director of Windego tries some interesting effects, but they just seem so out of place and confusing, that instead of thinking "Wow, that was nice", you are left with a gaping mouth wondering what just happened. The director doesn't seem to have any apparent "style" in this movie, that is, unless chaos and utter confusion is considered a style.

The "monster" in Wendigo, when first shown (not until the last 20 minutes) was deer-shaped monster made of sticks. The second time it appeared, it was a half-man half-deer monster which was nothing more than a bodybuilder with a deer outfit on and wearing alien-hand gloves. I have seen movies made in the 60's with more believable beasts. In fact, the monster looks so terrible, that it is only shown in brief clips, moving VERY quickly and jittery so you can't tell how bad it looks.... too bad even this effect doesn't work.

Where do I go from here? Bad storyline. Mediocre acting. A disgrace to the legend of Wendigo. Tie all this in with one of the worst endings I have ever seen and the question you are left asking is.... why watch this movie? It's not even good enough for a rental to laugh at. I would like to see the producer and the director sent back to film school (if they ever went). Bottom line: I hate this movie. If you are interested in the legend of Wendigo, then buy Ravenous.

Bosh Hubris
I must have come into this film with unjust pre-conceptions of it being a B-grade 1970s horror-film-laugh-a-lympics in the same vein as Wolfen or Zombie, because I came away rather disgusted and feeling cheated. What little plot this movie had was lost in its club-footed slowness and aloofness. You never really get to know anything and by the time you do you already have a great animosity for the characters and wish the greatest amount of harm to be inflicted upon them. The banal and "who-cares" combination of storyline and characters is the most unsympathetic feeling I've ever experienced watching a film. It wasn't even ennui or uneasiness, it was pure waking sleeplessness. A thudding into walls in the dark. Something you'd like to fall asleep to after a root canal because it lacks both the capacity to hold or be remembered by as anything but second-rate. ... Read more