#23 - Wendigo (2001)
This movie seems to be not very well liked, and I probably wouldn't have even bothered to check it out if it weren't for some positive comments I read on a movie forum. I'm glad that I did, because it's a pretty intense and creepy thriller. I suspect that most viewers are disappointed because the title and plot description make it sound like a monster movie, when in reality it has very little to do with wendigos and is more about how we use myths to explain things that we don't understand.
A man, his wife, and their son are headed to a country home to spend a quiet and cold winter weekend with nature. On the way there, their car hits a deer, and they get into an argument with the redneck hunters who were tracking it. One of the hunters takes things too far, and the incident gets out of control. The plot moves fairly slowly, but because most of it is told from the perspective of a child who is witnessing things that he doesn't understand, his imagination seems to take over. There is a supernatural element here, but it is subtle and mostly in the background.
I can see why someone expecting a scary monster movie would be hugely disappointed here, but instead we get a thoughtful, subtle, and creepy thriller that explores our fear of the unknown. The ending is admittedly pretty weak, but I can forgive the last 10 minutes being bad when the first 80 are so good.
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