Fall Frights: Fangoria Reviews "Wendigo (2001)" (Feb 2002)

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Sunday, October 04, 2009 05:30 AM Michael Gingold Film

In the spirit of Halloween '09, we're breaking out reviews (some new, some old) of some Fall Frights you may want to work into your monthly viewing.

WENDIGO - FANGORIA Archives: Originally Published 2/2002

Despite rumors of its demise, the quality independent horror film has proven itself alive and well in the past year, if sometimes difficult to find. 2001 saw a strong crop of low-budget horror features, both foreign and domestic, come to light, and a high-water mark has been set early in 2002 with Larry Fessenden’s WENDIGO. If many genre films that approach its quality follow in the next 10 months, it’s going to be a hell of a year.

The New York-based Fessenden made an underground name for himself with his previous feature, the downtown vampire film HABIT, but the skill for character-based horror he demonstrated there truly finds full flower in WENDIGO. Literally leaving HABIT’s urban milieu behind, the new movie follows a city family--commercial photographer George (Jake Weber), his psychiatrist wife Kim (Patricia Clarkson) and their young son Miles (Erik Per Sullivan)--as they drive to a vacation at a farmhouse in wintry upstate New York. Before they even reach the place, their peaceful plans go awry, as George hits a deer that runs in front of their car.

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Patricia Arquette On Her New 'Medium' Hair

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Fans of Medium were worried about Alison Dubois's coma, and her move from NBC to CBS. Now that she's awoken, they are treated to her new hair. Patricia Arquette had to cut her hair to play the aftermath of brain surgery, and now she's rockin' the styling 'do.

"It was written in the script that I had this brain tumor so when I came back, they said, 'Well, we can get you like 10 wigs and you can get a wig on every day or we can cut your hair,'" Arquette explained. "I was like, 'Uh, let's cut my hair.' I love it. It feels really good. There's something about cutting your hair and starting all over."

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DVD Review: Medium - The Fifth Season

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Out of all the “paranormal” series out there on mainstream television, I have to confess that I find Medium to be the one of the better entries. Inspired by a real-life psychic named Allison DuBois, Medium gives us an entirely fictional crime drama so that viewers don’t fall asleep repeatedly. Our heroine of the series, Allison (Patricia Arquette), is a very happily married woman with three girls in Phoenix, Arizona. Employed with the local District Attorney (Miguel Sandoval), Allison is frequently haunted by dreams and visions — usually regarding murder cases and kidnappings. And, while many people have their doubts over the real Allison’s abilities, the on-screen Allison always manages to come through for us.

In season five, Allison’s daughters (Sofia Vassilieva, Maria Lark, and Miranda & Madison Carabello) begin to show either advanced or beginning signs of having inherited their mother’s psychic abilities. Meanwhile, her faithful hubby Joe (Jake Weber, who is excellent as always, but still needs to work on his American accent) is busy trying to get his start-up company off the ground.

Episodes range from the deadly serious to the extremely lighthearted (a hilarious episode in which Arquette switches bodies with guest star Jeffrey Tambor is practically on par with a big-screen comedy). Anjelica Huston returns from season four for an episode. The ever creepy David Morse shows up for a three-parter as an industrial tycoon who entices Allison to come work for him and share her dreams (“How To Make A Killing In Business”). And co-star David Cubitt still manages to do his best impersonation of Jason Statham, Vince Vaughn, and Jason Evers all at the same time (hey, it isn’t an easy thing to pull off).

( Special Features )