by Paul Mount
Just when you thought it was safe to go back to watching straight-to-streaming (or DVD if you’re so inclined) genre movies, the grim spectre of the found footage film, hugely popular a few years ago, starts to raise its grisly head again. In truth, it’s a subgenre that’s never really gone away, and it can be a useful tool to allow nascent filmmakers without a lot of cash to flash the chance to get something on screen. At their best – Andrew Legge’s recent Lola being a fine example – found footage movies can be thrilling and clever, and innovative. At their worst…well, here comes The Wendigo…
This is dispiritingly familiar stuff, the sorry tale of a bunch of irritating YouTube ‘influencers’ who venture into the woods of North Carolina in search of their friend who disappeared some time earlier, having opted to spend the night in the woods in an attempt to find out the truth about the Wendigo, the legendary spirit-creature whose delightful habits including possessing its victims and, via acts of cannibalism, turning them into gruesome monstrosities. Poor acting aside, the first few minutes of The Wendigo are fairly encouraging, with YouTuber Logan live-streaming his experiences in the woods, and there’s some fun to be had watching the comments from his viewers scrolling up the screen and reflecting the grim reality of unfiltered anonymous social media interaction and subsequent scenes of other YouTubers ‘reacting’ to the edited found footage of his apparent demise are a nod towards the peculiar YouTube phenomenon of people gawping at films and TV episodes and occasionally commenting on them.
Sadly, it’s downhill after this. Logan’s hugely unlikeable friends voyage into the woods, and we quickly tumble into all the usual found footage clichés with shaky cameras, shots of running feet, and people screaming, “Oh my God, oh my God”, with only the final quick reveal of the Wendigo creature offering any relief from the dread familiarity of it all. Director Jake Robinson (who also appears in the film) clearly has an eye for the conventions and peculiarities of social media and understands the tropes of the genre he’s working in; it’s just a shame that he couldn’t have crafted a slightly less cliched horror romp than this wearying effort that, to its credit, won’t tax your patience for much more than an hour.
The Wendigo is released digitally in the US on August 4th.
