The road to Halloween is paved with good films. Wherein we countdown to the spirited season with a hundred doses of horror. 88 days to go.
There’s something incredibly eerie about being awake at night and hearing nothing but the howling wind outside. Is it simply the weather or something far more sinister that is emitting those howls? The Wind plays on this very primal human fear as well as the fear of isolation and hysteria. Coupled with a star-turning performance from Caitlin Gerard and some genuine scares, this makes for a well crafted psychological horror that has a strong feminist streak running throughout it.
The Wind may be set in the past but its comments on the treatment of women and the effects of dismissing their fears/concerns taps into the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements. Gerard’s character is often treated as a hysterical woman with an overactive imagination. And sadly this is a stigma that still affects many women who voice their concerns only to be dismissed and ignored. The Wind may suffer from pacing issues, and a weak conclusion that feels disjointed, but there is certainly much to enjoy here in terms of performance and aesthetic.
The film begins in a deeply unsettling sequence. With the camera slowly pulling back to reveal a young woman in a white dress exiting her cabin on the American frontier. Holding a dead baby against a giant bloodstain on her stomach. This woman is Lizzie Macklin, who along with her husband Isaac (Ashley Zukerman), is living in total isolation on a dusty prairie farm.
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Their lives are tough and very hard work, as they do their best to make this middle-of-nowhere their new slice of Eden. Isaac seems determined to make it work, but Lizzie has her concerns. One of those concerns happens to be something in the wind which has a life of its own. Animals seem to die near the house, only to reanimate as if nothing happened. Lizzie is convinced she’s being harassed by a demon, but Isaac won’t hear any of it.
A somewhat nearby couple comes to visit, and Lizzie soon shows signs of envy over the woman, Emma Harper (Julia Goldani Telles), being nine months pregnant. Emma and her beau Gideon Harper (Dylan McTee) are new to the area and haven’t much recourse, so Isaac and Lizzie agree to help plow their field and plant their crops.
But when they come to assist the following day, Emma is bewitched is some sort of fever-trance, manically repeating that something is out to get her. But are Lizzie and Emma really experiencing the same demonic threat that lives in the wind? Or is it all simply in their mind, as their husbands claim?
The Wind is at its most effective when it deconstructs the western genre. And this is not only an updating of the western film but also very much feminist fable, warning us of what can happen if we turn a deaf ear to the concerns of women. The film presents us with two well developed female characters who are the only real sane individuals trying to survive in an insane world.
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The horror that director Emma Tammi presents us is less about the spooky going-on’s involving monsters outside the cabin, and more to do with the monsters inside the cabin. The Wind is very reminiscent of classic horror films such as Repulsion, Rosemary’s Baby or The Haunting with the central female character’s concerns being dismissed. Which only seems to send her off into a tailspin.
For the majority of the film’s runtime, Caitlin Gerard’s Lizzie is the only character we see on-screen. We instantly connect and identify with her struggle to survive, there’s something vulnerable about the character of Lizzie but Gerard manages to use her character’s vulnerability as a strength.
The film is brilliantly captured by cinematographer Lyn Moncrief, who manages to capture the vast loneliness of the location. Moncrief uses long, wide shots to shows us Lizzie’s vulnerability and isolation. But also uses tightly framed shots in the cabin to create a sense of unease and claustrophobia. And the ambient score by Ben Lovett beautifully accompanies the visuals.
Overall, The Wind is a truly fascinating character study of two women slowly descending into madness. Towards the end, the film loses momentum and its conclusion feels a tad unsatisfactory which left me personally feeling a little cheated. And the male characters feel underdeveloped to the point that they’re mostly forgettable.
Still, there’s much to enjoy here in terms of ambitious storytelling, and Gerard’s truly memorable performance. It’ll be interesting to see the writer Teres Sutherland and Emma Tammi do next. They certainly have proven themselves to be an effective and unstoppable filmatic duo.
