Chilling In The Snow

The movie I watched tonight was recommended by Jed. He has actually been after me for about a month now to watch it. Actually, I watched two movies today. The first movie was Mr. Brooks. I can't decide if that is a movie that I should review here or not. Maybe I will sometime soon. I was going to catch a movie at the theater today but a friend talked me into watching it later this week so I won't have to go alone to it. Look for that review as it is a horror film for sure. Instead of going out, I stayed with my friend and called up Wind Chill (2007) on PPV, which happens to be free for her since she pays for Starz's anyway. I didn't know anything about it going in except that I knew it was in the vein of Penny Dreadful. I also knew that BC over at Horror Movie A Day hated it. So I knew there was a chance I would like it since we don't agree on movies too much.

Wind Chill is about a woman (Emily Blunt) who needs a ride back to Delaware from college. She checks a bulletin board where people are looking for or offering ride shares and finds one that happens to be going to Delaware. She meets up with a guy (Ashton Holmes) and off they go. As a quick side note, the credits list the main actors as girl and guy. I could have sworn they said each other's names at some point but maybe I am wrong. As they drive along, they begin to talk. The more he talks, the more he starts to hang himself. By this I mean that he seems to know a lot more about her than he should if he had just met her that day. Eventually they turn down a road that is still snow covered that he claims is a short cut. Just before they reach a bridge, another car nearly hits them. He manages to avoid a wreck but does skid off the road and gets stuck in the snow. So now they are stuck in the middle of no where and it is getting late. Eventually they discover that they are not as alone as they thought. Was this part of his plan or is something else going on here?

I seem to be on a run of films with very little or no effects lately. Wind Chill has very little except for some frozen bodies and maybe an eel or whatever that was supposed to be. Maybe some people would have liked to have seen more as far as the effects go, but I was happy with what was shown. Wind Chill is a movie that I felt didn't need a lot of effects to get the point across. It reminded me a bit of Penny Dreadful but I liked this movie more. I think the reason why is because there are two people dealing with what is going on instead of one. When things slow down some, at least we have the interaction between the two leads to keep us interested. I have heard complaints about the characters the two leads play, but I rarely see complaints about the acting. I rather enjoyed the acting from the two leads. You can also find Martin Donovan, Ned Bellamy, Ian A. Wallace and Chelan Simmons.

I hate to say this but the plot online on IMDb and Netflix both give it away so I guess it won't be too much of a surprise if you go out and rent it. Wind Chill is sort of two plots that are mixed together. The main plot is really what is happening between the two characters. He is being very creepy at times with how much he seems to know about her, even though he has never talked to her until this trip. For whatever reason she doesn't catch on to just how much he does know about her. She also comes across as a bit of a snob at times as well. Some people feel the writer dropped the ball on this and should have stuck with this plot and this plot only. I think that is why this movie didn't do well because it chooses to be different. Instead of going with the fatal attraction or slasher type film, it went with the second plot which is a bit of a ghost story.

At first, the second plot is minor and I had no idea what was going on which, I think is what made it better for me. I'm sorry to have to spoil that plot point but as I said, everyone else seems to do that as well so there wasn't a way around it. By spoiling it, to some degree anyway, it makes it easier to talk about Wind Chill. By knowing it is a ghost story, it may take some of the fun away. But who is a ghost and who isn't? Ah, now there is the tricky question and one I promise not to spoil for you all. In truth, I wish they had made it into more of a ghost story than it was. I also thought that the film goes too far in explaining things. Most times I like open endings where I get to make up my mind what happened. That isn't to say that everything was explained, just a little too much for my tastes.

Wind Chill was a movie I will gladly watch again. I think another reason it didn't hit more movie screens and ended up not making a lot of money is because it is such a slow paced movie. We don't get to know the two character extremely well, but there is more character development than can be found in a lot of other films. Wind Chill isn't for everyone. A slow pace and pretty much no gore leaves a lot of people out in the cold, so to speak. If this doesn't bother you though and you like ghost stories, maybe you should give this one a shot. I know I sure loved it once I did!
4 out of 5 Nothing like this would happen in Texas, that is for sure!