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