TIFF 2018: The Wind Review

Guest WriterSeptember 13, 20186403 min

This will be one of many reviews during this year’s Toronto International Film Festival. If you would like to keep up with our content, click here.

Synopsis: A supernatural thriller set in the Western frontier of the late 1800’s, The Wind stars a plainswoman driven mad by the harshness and isolation of the untamed land. (Soapbox Films)

Starring: Caitlin Gerard, Julia Goldani Telles, and Ashley Zukerman

Writer: Teresa Sutherland

Director: Emma Tammi

Rating: n/a

Running Time: 86mins

Trailer: 

Any sense of comfort takes a backseat during The Wind, a film that is a loving homage to contemporary and classic horror cinema. Emma Tammi creates an atmosphere that is destined to disturb and surprise all audiences with the skill and ease of an established auteur. Lyn Moncrief’s cinematography does nothing but complement the extremely intricate direction, as he greets us with icy-cold framing that creates a sense of claustrophobia (despite the area being extremely open) and paranoia. Tammi definitely reaches for those crowd-pleasing moments. Most notably, melodramatic reveals of certain plot points and obsession with the unknown. Although, judging by the tone that’s been set thus far in the narrative, it doesn’t feel distasteful but rather something in the form of a love letter to stomach-churning filmmaking. Add a non-chronological plot line and a handful of genuinely terrifying moments of peril in there and you have yourself one solid film. Can’t wait to check this one out again and discover even more about it’s hidden metaphors, manipulative camerawork and stunning execution. Just so beautiful!

Score: 8/10

Follow me on twitter @ScangaBen and on letterboxd @theccritic.

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