There was a lot of thought and effort that went into the making and writing of this film; so much so that it acquired it’s funding from two very well know names in Hollywood. Yes, believe it or not both George Clooney and director Steven Soderbergh (Traffic, Solorsis) served as Executive Producers of this film. However I’m not sure this is a film that many horror fans are really going to enjoy.
Wind Chill is about a guy and a girl, both of whom are college students. The girl (Emily Blunt) is on her way home from college. When she takes a plane ride to get home. While at the airport she catches a ride with a fellow classmate. He offers to drive her home, so she excepts. However the guy decides to take a shortcut though a desolate area when the car breaks down. It is snowing and the temperature has dropped severely. Both of them are very cold and hungry, their cell phones not working, they soon realize that they are going to have to wait for help to drive by. However there are things in the woods that are waiting for them. Things that have become part of a legend on this lost road.
There is a lot to talk about with the way in which this film was shot and how the screenplay was put together. I actually had to go back a few times to watch some scenes in this film, to try and pick up on the shocking and surprising ending that this film was supposed to have. I even did some research on the web and found out that I’m not in the minority of people who didn’t really catch the drift of this film. My reaction from the script was that I honestly thought that the writers of the screenplay tried to hard to give the story to much complexity. The problem with this film is not just that however, but the pacing is way off and the film for the the first act and halfway though the second is very slow. The suspense and real horror does not take place until almost forty-five minutes in. The lack of which really effects the overall mood and feel of the film. I felt that all the script did for me was make me realize how much I hat driving in the snow and how much I hate the cold of winter.
The acting and directing kind of go hand in hand in this film. While I found both to be decent, I will say that with such a complex script that it felt as if the director was confused as I was when he decided to take the task at hand and direct this picture. I do however give director Gregory Jacobs some credit for his direction of the actors. Jacobs is no stranger to directing and has served as assistant director on a slew of films, mainly a lot of Soderbergh’s movies. So his direction of the actors in this film really showed how much of a seasoned professional he is at directing actors.
Speaking of acting, this film mainly had two actors for the most part, with very a very minimal supporting cast. Actors Emily Blunt and Ashton Holmes really held their own as the girl and guy whom are thrust into this nasty situation. Their performances were really good being that they both together held the majority of the screen time. The minimal supporting cast in this film was not bad, but they were not given a lot of screen time in order for their performances to merit any kind of real criticism.
The film’s production value is actually pretty good. I’m not really sure if this film was shot on a set or on location. The film mainly had one location for most of the time which either on the inside of the car or the outside on the snow covered road and the dark forest around it. The overall look of the set was pretty cool, I liked the way they used the snow to let the audience feel as if they themselves were in the car with the characters freezing their asses off. The look of the snowy set also gave off a feel of the surrounding as if in fact they were haunted by the lost souls of the road. The make-up and visual effects are not half bad. They both worked well, however some of the freezing effects look a bit fake. Kind of reminded of the frost used by Mr. Freeze in the Batman movie. But overall they were not that bad.
In a whole, Wind Chill is not a bad movie, but it’s not a good one either. While the directing is not half bad and the acting is very good, however the slow pacing in the beginning of the film, and the confusing script are really what turned me off. The film does have a surprise ending, however it’s that ending that left me scratching my head at the end.
-Horror Bob
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- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
