The Windigo (2024) by Gabe Torres

Director: Gabe Torres

Year: 2024

Country: USA

Alternate Titles: N/A

Genre: Creature Feature

Plot:

Heading out into the countryside, a Native American teen and his family inadvertently stumble upon a secret meth lab operating in the area and soon become targeted by the gang forcing them to summon a wendigo to deal with them only for a special connection to potentially tear them apart.

Review:

Overall, this was a rather effective genre effort. One of the best aspects of this one comes from the engaging and far more worthwhile setup with quite a lot to like here. Involving the family arriving at the house and going through the means of trying to deal with their grandmother while also getting used to the remote surroundings produces a solid culture clash alongside the rest of the work here between the family. Since they have their confrontations going on while also trying to deal with the purpose of their visit in keeping their grandmother in check, the casual manner in which they get involved with the meth dealers out in the middle of the woods provides a great starting point to unleash the demonic creature incorporating it as a way to bring his heritage out for the revenge of the gang that’s tormenting him.

This allows the film to feature some solid and overall enjoyable creature action with the creature’s appearance generating a lot to like. As the idea of its connection to him is made clear early on, this one brings about a nice dramatic build-up with the need to try to prove his manliness conflicting with the idea of the creature going for the psychological torture while trying to inflict the coda of its rampage in the community as the being starts to take out the ones responsible. In contrast, their connection adds a strange set of stages for the finale. Knowing that the two are forced together and lined together, this adds a solid enough aspect to the storyline which is a decent dual-pronged storyline involving the vicious confrontations involving the creature out on its bloodthirsty killing spree while the rest of the family is trying to find a way to break the connection before it kills him. Coupled with some fantastic creature effects when it shows up and some solid enough gore, there’s a lot to like with this one.

There isn’t much to dislike here but it does have some minor drawbacks. One of the main issues here is the film’s rather obvious and nearly unmistakable plot points that leave this one feeling immensely familiar and predictable. The whole concept of what’s going on with him and the connection with the creature during its rampage becomes immensely obvious the second it’s mentioned that the creature is tied to him and their actions and powers are in sync so that the final half is a bit of a letdown when it gets introduced so that no matter how much suspense it tries to wring from the situation this one has a singular direction it must go in even with the inclusion of Native American folklore to spice it up slightly. The other rather goofy and unnecessary over-the-top means it’s using to try to capture the idea of it controlling him which is somewhat silly when it shouldn’t be the case and is what manages to hold this one down.

Overview: ***.5/5

A fun if generally familiar genre effort, this one has a lot going for which is enough to make the few flaws on display here just enough to hold it down but aren’t detrimental enough to lower this one. Give it a shot if you’re a fan of this type of genre feature or are a creature feature fan while most others out there should heed caution.