Use of Tropes: The Retreat

The Retreat is a 2020 film that was directed by Bruce Wemple and is a film that concerns itself with the wendigo. However, there can be some overlap between wendigo and vampire and this uses a trope from the vampire genre very knowingly. It is also a film that plays with psychosis and insanity and whilst I felt that it did so very well, I could understand why some would dislike that aspect as it disjointedly bounces through perceived realities.

That sense of altered perceptions starts from the get go when we see Gus (Grant Schumacher) in the woods, seeming quite desperate, and then the voice of a psychiatrist (Peter Stray) cuts in, asking where he thinks he is and then moving to him and best friend Adam (Dylan Grunn) driving into the Adirondack High Peaks.

Rick Montgomery Jr. as Marty

Adam is getting married in two weeks and his bachelor party is him and Gus doing four days of winter hiking. Their base, before the hike, is an air bnb run by Marty (Rick Montgomery Jr.), who knows about the wedding and has got beers in. Also staying that night is another hiker, Ryan (Chris Cimperman), a heavy drug user who is looking to take an oft-untravelled route. Marty has several pictures in the house of the wendigo, in the antlered guise and when I said the use of tropes was very knowing it is within this scene that it is spelt out.

picture

Gus asks about the pictures and Marty explains that they are the wendigo and it is worth reproducing his dialogue. “The Native Americans, they have a legend that it protects the forest, but for the most part, it’s a monster…” “Well, it can take the form of say, a… a vampire-beast thingy. You know, hunt by the sound or the scent of blood, or it can come in the form of a… a spirit. It possesses a human and makes them a monster.” So, this is the primary trope, hunting for blood through the scent of blood. The spirit aspect leads us towards a form of vampiric possession therefore.

hiking

Marty goes on to say that it “Preys on the most selfish… the most corruptible.” So the guys start off whilst still dark (which makes Adam’s concern about reaching the lean-to where they will spend the next night whilst there is still light a tad alarmist, given he wasn’t concerned about losing direction in the dark when they set out). Gus is uncomfortable and there are shinning eyes in the dark but it is that first night when he suggests they drink hallucinogenic tea (that Ryan gave him) where things go wrong.

wendigo hunting

Adam had a sip, but Gus chugged the rest and, in the night, thinks he hears something. He leaves the lean-to in order that he might investigate and finds himself facing a wendigo. Now there are two types we see – one, the antlered kind, is always in the distance, watching and manipulating (we hear later that they like to psychologically play with their victims) and others like this, humanoid – perhaps previous victims turned? Gus gets a knife and manages to stab the beast as it pins him down but, in the light of day, Adam is missing and he eventually finds him stabbed and dead.

cannibalism

Gus loses it and the film is his story. We discover, through flashback, that he is selfish and petty – resenting Adam’s relationship for the way it impinges on their friendship. He buries the body in the snow but it then seems to follow him. There are moments when he is found and rescued, moments where Adam is alive, moments where his reflection speaks to him and moments back in civilisation. All this might be a result of the hallucinogen, it might be his guilt or it might be the wendigo torturing him. The idea that they hunt by the scent of blood is specifically returned to as a plot device and there is a moment of cannibalism.

horned wendigo in the trees

Is it a vampire film? No, whilst there can be crossover these are monsters (in reality or of the mind we are not sure) and the humanoid (or ex-human) ones seem animalistic in their actions (almost like hunting dogs), whilst the antlered one seems more like a malevolent forest spirit. However, the invoking of vampires in the dialogue, laying out the trope of the hunt for blood, makes this of genre interest certainly.

The imdb page is here.

On Demand @ Amazon US

On Demand @ Amazon UK