Use of Tropes: Ghostkeeper

Now the wendigo (or windigo, in this) is an odd one in that it originates from Native American myth and thus is not the standard, undead, vampire. It is, however, cannibalistic and whilst sometimes drawn as an antlered spirit is also sometimes drawn as a person. It is safe to say it has crossover into the vampire myth/archetypes, especially when drawn by filmmakers, and is worth looking at on a case-by-case basis.

When it comes to this 1981 Canadian film, directed by Jim Makichuk it is more difficult as the film is more a slasher than anything else and we see little of the windigo (John MacMillan) and even less of any cannibalistic activity – indeed that is almost implied rather than shown. As such I have decided to look at this as a film that uses a vampiric trope, the supernatural creature who consumes flesh.

arriving on snowmobiles

It starts with a snowmobile pulling up outside a store high in the Rockies. Marty (Murray Ord) and Jenny (Riva Spier, Rabid) dismount and go in the store, the storekeeper (Les Kimber) proves not particularly engaging with them, especially as Marty comes off as an obnoxious entitled prat. He does direct Jenny towards some coffee to warm up. A second snowmobile pulls up and Chrissy (Sheri McFadden) comes in the store.

the lodge

They talk about where they are all staying (its New Years Eve and there is to be a party) and Chrissy speaks about exploring. The storekeeper warns them that a storm is coming in and suggests not exploring but they ignore him. After a ride they come up to what might be a logging road through the trees, with a keep out sign. Despite Jenny’s protests, they ignore the sign and head up it – at the end of the trail is Deer Lodge. Chrissy crashes her snowmobile and they decide to go in, despite it looking abandoned.

Riva Spier as Jenny

Now, just to note that the lodge was, situated in mountain snow as it is, reminiscent of the Overlook Hotel in the Shining. This hotel is smaller and is more a location than a character (and is not a vampiric building) but the similarity is there. They force a door open and the hotel does appear abandoned, they discover there hasn’t been a guest for five years but they later realise the heating is on. Exploring Jenny feels like someone is there and we see a face spying on her.

Georgie Collins as the Ghostkeeper

After night has fallen they hunker down next to a fire, with obvious flirting between Chrissy and Marty, He goes to find another bottle of wine and something attacks him in the kitchen. Chrissy and Jenny run in, after hearing his cry of surprise, and he has bested “it”, which turns out to be an old lady (Georgie Collins). She is assumed to be a caretaker (later she mentions that her son, Danny (Bill Grove), is around somewhere) and she reluctantly gives them rooms for the night. She never actually gives her name and is credited as Ghostkeeper.

Bill Grove as Danny

Whilst Chrissy goes for a bath, the couple argue. Jenny knows Marty wants to sleep with Chrissy and just wants him to be honest. For his part, being a prat as noted earlier, he just points out to her that she has no problem spending his money. As the film goes on it is suggested by the old lady that Jenny has the strength of character to take over (I’ll come to what) and Danny holds Chrissy underwater in the bath – not killing her but making her unconscious – and then carries her into an icy area of the hotel (basement area) and slitting her throat leaving her to the creature locked in there.

the book

So, the old lady is the caretaker of a windigo and beyond seeing it be given Chrissy we don’t see much action from it. An intertitle at the opening of the film suggests they are ghosts who live on human flesh to survive, Jenny finds a book on native legends that says that these giants can be kept by certain people, normally woman, who possess an ancient power handed down from one to the next along with a newspaper report on mutilated corpses. This supernatural flesh eating then is the trope, along with a concentration on the "familiar" servant. The film itself has a touch of the slasher (with Danny pursuing Jenny with a chainsaw), Marty quickly loses it and the film piles on lots of uncanny atmosphere.

John MacMillan as the Windigo

It is in producing this atmosphere, where the film is at its best, helped in no uncertain terms by Georgie Collins whose performance offers both strange and sinister in turns. The film itself is quite small, adding to the atmosphere, with a limited cast and feels very much of its time. Indeed, if made today then the intimation of flesh eating would undoubtedly have been more explicit but the focus on atmosphere offers the film more of a charm than it perhaps should have had.

The imdb page is here.

On DVD @ Amazon US

On DVD @ Amazon UK

Vamp or Not? Wind Walkers

When I did my ‘Vamp or Not?’ of the film Ravenous I received a message that stated “It's not a vampire. It's the Wendigo. There's a HUGE difference.” This missed both the point of the feature and the reality that filmmakers will mix and match tropes and names. In ‘Vamp or Not?’ I examine the tropes used in a movie to see if the film conforms to those surrounding the vampire genre. Sometimes the tropes are subtle, or sparingly used, and it led me to introduce another feature entitled ‘Use of Tropes’… the dividing line between the features is thin and may only make sense to me.

Getting back to ‘Vamp or Not?’ however, the tropes used within Ravenous were those of a vampire film in many respects (noting the crossover of various sub-genre tropes), also the wendigo (or windigo) as a legend has a vampiric quality anyway. One of the reasons Ravenous would fall into the V camp is that those who turn do not become 15-foot, antlered spirit cannibals with hearts of ice… the name wendigo may have been used but the tropes used had more in common with a vampire film.

a wind walker

In the case of Wind Walkers we are dealing with a film that doesn’t use the word wendigo but does use some concepts from the myth. It also uses aspects that feel a tad vampire and a tad zombie. It also doesn’t quite know what to do with the tropes and so starts throwing in the kitchen sink. Nevertheless the 2015 film, directed by Russell Friedenberg, does deserve an examination. It starts with a tribal elder (Saginaw Grant) talking about the disease that Europeans brought to the Americas and then about Native Americans emulating them (as part of the armed forces) and a disease being brought back from military action abroad. This is where the film becomes confused, never sure whether it is a natural phenomena or supernatural curse we are witnessing.

Zane Holtz a Sean

Anyway, a group of good buddies are going hunting. They are Neelis Kingston (J. LaRose), his son Jake (Kiowa Gordon, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, The Twilight Saga: New Moon, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 & The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2), Sonny (Glen Powell), David (Russell Friedenberg), Kelly (Phil Burke, Van Helsing) and Sean (Zane Holtz, From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series & Vampires Suck). They have canoed to a spot along the river where there is a hunting shack but on getting there, they discover it has been trashed.

flashback

Sean has issues. He was on active duty overseas but has been listed as 4F (unfit for duty) after a period held as a POW and is restricted to a desk in a recruiting office. It seems as though he hears voices, is on schizophrenia medication and, through flashbacks, we discover that he has distanced himself from his girl, Lexi (Castille Landon). We also, in flashback, see him coming across an Afghan indulging in cannibalism and, when held as a POW, was with Matty (Rudy Youngblood), Neelis’ other son, who has now gone AWOL. When the hunters go out the next day they come across a butchered pig in the trees and, whilst they are out, a pig’s head is put in the shack’s bath. The radio starts to talk both about a hurricane heading for Florida and a strange outbreak… the outbreak broadcasts sound atypically zombie apocalypse in tone. Eventually they find their canoes have been destroyed.

Sean and Neelis

They are being hunted and there is a lot of paranoia aimed at Sean. One of the first to vanish is Jake and when, eventually, his father finds him, he attacks and bites Kelly. Neelis says that Jake is always hungry. Endless hunger is part of the Wendigo myth but also common in vampire and zombie tales. There is also a missing hunter (Christopher Kriesa, Bloodsuckers) – later found to be infected and self-cannibalising – and lost hunters being transformed is part of the wendigo myth. They actually discover it is Matty hunting them and he seems to be able to vanish and reappear at will – until Sean discovers the rope and pully system he has rigged to achieve the effect. It is suggested that he is building an army of infected.

bitten

So, through him we see that eventually the infected eyes change colour, they develop a forked tongue and fangs. It seems that Matty was infected in Afghanistan and perhaps this is a form of virus. A bite will infect and turn but, back in town, Matty’s mother, Sue (Tsulan Cooper), talks of her son coming to her on the wind and seems to detect the presence of Wind Walkers, suggesting something more supernatural. The infected complain about hunger as a symptom of their turning but appear to be mortal, being killed by gunshot. Yet later we see a killed and buried infected returning from the grave.

always hungry

So the film fails to communicate just what it is doing with its lore and it runs a storyline that seems both like infected by a disease and also supernaturally cursed. The overtly supernatural movement of Matty is achieved through equipment but a ‘killed’ infected crawls from the grave. The name wendigo is not used but some of the lore is wendigo (missing hunters, endless hunger and cannibalism). The reference to the storm seems to speak of a manifestation of an angry spirit but the curse/disease is not native and has been brought from Afghanistan. There are definite touches of zombie apocalypse but the infected can plan, reason and communicate (Matty writes “I C U” in blood inside the shack to freak his prey). The hunger could be just as much vampire and zombie but the fangs are vampire.

infected

The film itself is very slow in places and any tension moments really are based around the paranoia of not knowing who is infected and threatening each other with guns. However, I am going ‘Vamp’ with this one. The imdb page is here.

On DVD @ Amazon US

On DVD @ Amazon UK

Vamp or Not? Ravenous

Recently I received a message from Leila, who suggested I watch Ravenous with a view to a ‘Vamp or Not?’ The film was from 1999 and directed by Antonia Bird and I was aware of it, however I always assumed it fell simply into the cannibalism camp.

As it stands that is sort of correct, in fact it features a windigo (or wendigo) – a cannibalistic creature from Native American traditions. Given the tendency to link vampires with many other mythological creatures it is surprising that the wendigo is not tied to the vampire myth more often. Certainly the usual suspects – be it Summers or Bane – do not feature the creature in their volumes. That said they were tied together in the film Dracula, Lord of the Damned.

getting a new posting

After a Nietzsche quote, “He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster” and a further anonymous quote that says “eat me” the film begins. It is set in 1847 and Capt. John Boyd (Guy Pearce) is being awarded a medal for his efforts in a battle. Following the ceremony the men are all given steaks but Boyd can barely look at his. As he cuts into the rare meat his mind flashes to bloody images of war and he runs from the table to vomit. The general, Slauson (John Spencer), tells Boyd that he is no hero and he is sending him as far away as possible – that being Fort Spencer in California. As we stay with Boyd he appears to be suffering from PTSD.

buried under the dead

Boyd arrives at the fort in winter and meets the forts oddball personnel – ably commanded by Col. Hart (Jeffrey Jones). We discover Boyd’s history. He was in a battle against Mexican soldiers but froze. His company were massacred and he played dead. He was dragged off and placed in a pile of bodies, the blood from the dead running down his throat. He pulled himself out of the pile but something had changed. We see him, in flashback, break a guard’s neck with his bare hands and he then took the fort.

Robert Carlyle as F W Colqhoun

Things change when Boyd spots a man in the dark, starving and exhausted. His name is F.W. Colqhoun (Robert Carlyle) and he tells the tale of settlers, lost as they were misguided by a Col Ives, and stuck in a cave through winter. He says that they ran out of food and, whilst he was out of the cave, one of the settlers died and he returned to find the others cooking the dead man’s legs. They ate their erstwhile companion but Ives changed and quickly their numbers dwindled. Colghoun left the last remaining woman with Ives and escaped.

the wendigo

Hart decides to investigate and takes a contingent out to the cave but they soon discover it was a trick and Colqhoun has led them to a place of slaughter. Before they go George (Joseph Runningfox), a Native American, tells Boyd that he believes this to be a tale of a wendigo and shows him a picture of the creature. When pushed he suggests that white men eat the flesh of Jesus and the skin with the picture on has Christ on the reverse, indicating a connection of sorts. Also, en route to the cave, Boyd actually asks Colquon if he felt different when he had eaten flesh and he affirms this, suggesting an increase in strength.

Guy Pearce as Boyd

Boyd ends up the survivor of the party, having shot Colqhoun and watched him sit up immediately afterwards. He leaps from a cliff to escape (or perhaps kill himself) and survives as trees break his fall – though he breaks his leg badly, with the bone stuck out of the flesh. We see him physically push the bone back in and then he eats of the flesh of another soldier. We then see him walk back to the fort – injured, yes, but able to walk on what is a severe break.

Cross on head

Later Colqhoun – under his alias of Col. Ives – suggests that he had been dying of tuberculosis and suffering from depression when he heard of the legend of the wendigo, how a man eating the flesh of another man would absorb that man’s spirit and become stronger but also filled with a terrible unending hunger that only gets worse with each cannibalistic meal. When Ives and Boyd have their showdown Ives paints a cross on his brow in blood and is always wearing a crucifix around his wrist, tying in the Christ (or perhaps antichrist) aspect.

blood on lip

So… is it Vamp? Well vampires are known to be flesh eaters as well as blood drinkers, on occasion, and Boyd was changed by drinking blood rather than full on flesh eating and, symbolically at least, came back from the dead. The film suggests a supernatural aspect with the quick healing (later we see Colqhoun’s bullet wound has not just healed but vanished without a scar) and increased strength. There is the theme of the endless, increasing hunger that is a common vampire trope. On the trail to the camp a man is injured and Colqhoun cannot resist and licks the wound whilst the man sleeps – waking him and forcing them to bind him. I can’t help but think that the reference to tuberculosis was purposeful given the US connection between the disease and vampirism.

a mad glint in the eye

I said that the usual suspects of the widened vampire myth do not seem to cover wendigos but some writers do. Grace L Dillon in the Ashgate Encyclopedia of Literary and Cinematic Monsters suggests “The windigo’s cannibalistic behaviour recalls the vampire, the zombie and the werewolf. ‘Like the vampire, it feasts on flesh and blood,’ writes Columbo.” (pp 591-592) In this case we have a change in men just by eating flesh, but that change is supernatural and confers some of the traits often seen in vampirism – hunger, increased strength and rapid healing.

Boyd at Fort Spencer

What seemed strange, within the plot, was the small intake that was necessary to turn. Whilst Colqhuon clearly had eaten of many, and we could (from a cannibalism perspective) almost assume a contraction of Kuru, Boyd seemed to have become wendigo from a small amount of blood entering his system – this gave him the strength to overcome his fear and take the enemy fort. One thing that seemed strange was the fact that cooked flesh was just as effective when it came to healing and also (implied) for turning - especially as the flesh seemed to be a conduit for energy vampirism given the comments about absorption of spirit. Whilst that indefinable something that would have screamed Vamp was not there, on the evidence in film I think suggesting that this is, in the broadest sense, Vamp is fair.

raising a glass

As for the film itself, it was a revelation. Carlyle and Pearce are as good as one would expect. There is a quirkiness to this and black comedy that belies some serious themes – such as PTSD and other mental health impairments (when we consider that Colqhoun was clinically depressed). The oddball unit reminded me just a touch of MASH. I’d seriously recommend this one.

The imdb page is here.