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| The Wind (2018). Caitlin Gerard as Lizzie. Please click to enlarge the photo. |
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| The Wind (2018). Caitlin Gerard as Lizzie, Ashley Zukerman as Isaac. Please click to enlarge the photo. |
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| At the premiere, left to right: Emma Tammi, Caitlin Gerard, Julia Goldani Telles, Ashley Zukerman, Teresa Sutherland, and Dylan McTee at a Q&A for The Wind at the Ryerson Theatre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 11 September 2018. Photo: hinnk / Wikipedia. |
The Wind – Demons of the Prairie
The Wind / The Wind.
US © 2018 Performance Pictures, LLC. – Two Cabins, LLC. – PC: Soapbox Films / Divide/Conquer / Mind Hive Films. P: Christopher Alender, David Grove Churchill Viste.
D: Emma Tammi. SC: Teresa Sutherland. Cin: Lyn Moncrief – colour – 2,39:1. PD: Courtney Andujar, Hillary Andujar. Set dec: Elsbeth Mumm. Cost: Kate De Blasio. Makeup: Jennifer M. Quinteros. M: Ben Lovett. S: Juan Campos. ED: Alexandra Amick. Casting: Sunday Boling, Meg Morman.
C: Caitlin Gerard (Lizzy Macklin), Julia Goldani Telles (Emma Harper), Ashley Zukerman (Isaac Macklin), Dylan McTee (Gideon Harper ), Miles Anderson (The Reverend).
Loc: New Mexico.
Festival premiere: 10 Sep 2018 Toronto International Film Festival.
US premiere: 5 April 2019.
Finnish premiere: 6 Dec 2019 – released by Night Visions Distribution – Finnish subtitles by Miia Mattila.
DCP viewed at Tennispalatsi 14, Helsinki, 6 Dec 2019.
IMDb summary: "A plains-woman faces the harshness and isolation of the untamed land in the Western frontier of the late 1800s."
AA: A Western nightmare movie with a young female protagonist facing overwhelming conditions at the prairie.
There is a distinguished tradition in this "woman in the wilderness" type of film. The title of Emma Tammi's film is probably a tribute to Victor Sjöström's masterpiece The Wind (1928) starring Lillian Gish. William K. Everson comments: "The theme of a woman battling inner turmoil and the physical hardships of the wilds or the frontier was one that appealed to a number of directors at the end of the silent era, perhaps because of the simplicity and austerity of theme and the opportunities afforded for both virtuoso performances and direction." Further distinguished examples include F. W. Murnau's City Girl (1930) which was influenced by Sjöström. Both had been inspired by a William K. Howard masterpiece, White Gold (1927) and perhaps also by William Beaudine's The Canadian (1926), based on a play by W. Somerset Maugham. Let's also remember the stark prologue of John M. Stahl's The Song of Life (1922) which precedes them all.
The director Emma Tammi and the screenwriter Teresa Sutherland marry the Western with New Wave horror. The Wind is a ghost story with a haunting sense of the supernatural. The roots are in the school of Polanski: the disintegration of personality in Repulsion and The Tenant, and the horror of childbirth in Rosemary's Baby. Lizzy's trauma of having delivered a stillborn child is perhaps at the root of all what happens.
"Demons of the Prairie" is a brochure detailing various ghosts (Messimer, Mara, Babel... ) on rampage in the desert. It seems to give demonic names to ordeals of frontier life, even including adultery and jealousy.
Just like in the 1920s, the theme provides opportunities for virtuoso direction and performances. The film is thrillingly directed by Emma Tammi, the cinematography is based on a sublime scope composition by Lyn Moncrief, and the roles are played with high intensity, especially the female leading role by Caitlin Gerard.
The screenplay and the montage are based on a complex pattern of flashbacks, interspersed with hallucinations. The story unravels in a multiple spiral movement going both forward and in reverse gear, both movements offering twists and turns and surprises, repeatedly changing our perceptions of the protagonists and everything that happens. It's impressive but perhaps also slightly frustrating when our assumptions are proven false so many times.
The score by Ben Lovett and the sound design by Juan Campos are powerful, using the haunting sound of the wind as the starting point. Even here I was thinking: "less would be more". "The wind as the spirit of the devil", the sound of the supernatural wind might have more impact if left more intact.
To sum up: The Wind is a distinguished contribution to new wave horror film. I look forward to more from Emma Tammi and her talented cast and crew.
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