SpunkySelfTwitter It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

Curapedi I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

Livestonth I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

Brendon Jones It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

wagimus I had to double check the date on this one, as i swore it said 2001. Why then, does Wendigo look like it was recorded off of a late 70s VHS Horror Anthology? The acting is fine, but everything else is from bad to worse. Visual effects scream shoestring budget, to the point of why even bother. Writing is awful, as someone seems to have attempted over an hour of pure character development, without anything actually ever happening. By the time the climax rolls around, my brain has all but checked out. I honestly don't know who this is made for. Most definitely not for me.

MBunge Wendigo is a smart and enjoyably creepy movie, right up until an ending that's so atrocious it not only makes you retroactively hate the film but also makes you wish writer/director Larry Fessenden had never been born.A tense mixture of family drama, rural menace and supernatural threat, this is the story of the McLaren family spending the weekend at some friends' country home. George (Jake Weber) is the father, a good man full of anger at the world and at himself. Kim (Patricia Clarkson) is the mother, a psychiatrist who feels there's something wrong with her family but isn't sure what to do about it. Miles (Erik Per Sullivan) is the son, a quiet boy with a tender heart and delicate spirit. Driving into the country, the McLarens run over a deer and get stuck in the snow. Three hunters emerge from the woods chasing after the deer. They include Otis Stookey (John Speredakos), an unsettling redneck who is not only angry at the McLarens for hitting the deer and damaging its valuable antlers but appears angered by the McLarens' very existence.Getting back on the road, George, Kim and Miles make it to their friends' home where they not only discover a bullet hole, they find Otis turning up in his pickup truck. When they head into town for supplies, they find Otis there. Even when George and Kim get a little frisky at night on the living room couch, Otis is there watching through the window. Compounding all that, Miles begins having awful visions. At first they're of Otis, but then they become about a horrible forest spirit called the Wendigo. As this normal family just tries to have a weekend for themselves, you can fell real and magical terrors hiding out of sight, waiting to leap out and tear at them. An innocent bit of sledding by George and Miles goes tragically wrong…and that's when the thrice-damned ending kicks in and leaves viewers wanting to kick in their TV screens.Though he uses a few too many camera tricks for my taste, writer/director Fessender starts out doing a marvelous job with Wendigo. He creates this easily believable, deeply likable family unit and eases them slowly into an increasingly disturbing setting until you're on the edge of your seat, waiting for what's going to happen to them. Jake Weber does a great job playing a man whose unacknowledged unhappiness seeps into his relationship with his son and his wife. Erik Per Sullivan makes Miles into an actual child and not some overly precious Hollywood midget. Patricia Clarkson is domestically seductive as a woman trying to deal with an unhappy husband and a sensitive son, while also being worthy of induction into the Milf Hall of Fame.There's so much to like about Wendigo…and then there's that ending. It's like a gourmet meal that finishes with a bowl full of maggot-infested vomit. This conclusion isn't just bad on its own, though it is. Everyone who watches this film could tell you exactly what the ending should have been, an ending that would have pleased and satisfied everyone who enjoyed all that came before it. Not only does writer/directer Fessenden not give the audience that ending, he gives us the complete opposite of it. And he doesn't do it to make any thematic point or for any reason other than pretentious creative orneriness. It's like Fessenden is one of the independent filmmakers who can't stand the thought of making a crowd-pleasing movie, so he welded on an ending that urinates all over the viewers.After the first 75 minutes of this film, I was really to heartily recommend people watch it. After the last 15 minutes, I would not only urge you to avoid Wendigo but I would encourage you to never watch any other film directed by Larry Fessenden.

Golgo-13 It was a cold winter night and I was driving home slowly because of the snow-covered roads. Suddenly, as I peered through the falling flakes, there it was, right in front of me. I ended up with nearly a thousand dollars damage to the front of my truck…dang wendigos! I liked Wendigo but it's not really for everyone. It's a bit slow moving in parts and I'm sure some would just find it dull. Also, it's easy to tell the budget was limited during some of the creature's scenes. Still, I enjoyed it. I had read several short stories about this legend in my younger years and it was pretty cool to see it brought to film in a serious, even sometimes creepy, manner (as opposed to Troma's very silly Frostbiter). This film was able to give me a feeling that this forest spirit could possibly exist for real, at least more so than similar films. The story was not always focused on the Wendigo and when it was, it was mostly by way of the young boy. The way this was handled is what gave this movie its air of believability, as if we are KNOWING it through the child's eyes, the eyes we all used to have. Anyway, the acting was, for the most part, good and the direction low-key yet stylish. For me, Wendigo captured the imagination that I had as a child…that there was "something" out there but really only I knew or at least, thought, about it. Life still went on as normal, of course, but from time to time, in the background, those feelings came to me, just like in the movie.Larry Fessenden's Habit is also worth a watch.

nafc318 If you want to know the real story of the Wendigo, I suggest you pick up a copy of Algernon Blackwell's original story. This movie was not only bad but had nothing to do with the book.I loved the book when I read it as a kid (In "Campfire Chillers" by E.M. Freeman)and was so excited to see a movie based on it come out. I was so disappointed when I finally saw it. Another thing is that there were too many PC (Politically Correct) undertones throughout the movie that had no place in the film. When the book was written PC didn't even exist.My suggestion is don't waste your time or money!! If you see it on the video store shelf LEAVE IT THERE.