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Show Saturday, January 27, 2001 The Park Record C-3 Native spirit keeps audience on edge by Courtney Herzrnger Uh I He RECORD STAFF "There are spirits that should be feared because there are spirits that are angry. He who hears the cry of , the Wendigo is never the same again." - "Elder" (Lloyd E. jjOxendine) ! The potent and almost visceral i imagination of a child comes to life in Larry Fessenden's "Wendigo." Based on a Native American legend, leg-end, the title of the film is an ancient Indian spirit that is part wind, part tree, part man and part beast. It is a fearsome combination that can shift shapes and does so in the mind of Miles (Erik Per Sullivan). Sullivan, who has also starred in "Armageddon" and the hit TV series "Malcolm in the Middle," convincingly portrays the overactive over-active imagination of a child trying to make sense of the tragic world around him. Stealing a weekend in Upstate New York, George (Jack Weber), Kim (Patricia Clarkson) and Miles head to a friend's country farmhouse farm-house to spend a quiet family weekend. week-end. However, through a bizarre and arbitrary twist of events, tragedy befalls the happy family. It is Miles, whose realization of the anger and aggression surrounding him inadvertently conjures up the wicked Wendigo. A sense of impending doom lingers in the peripheral countryside: country-side: ghostly visage of trees, vast fields of snow and a cold, cutting wind. Miles keeps the audience on the edge of their seats as the Wendigo seems to grow from without with-out his mind. Writerdirectoreditor and first-time Slamdance participant Fessenden sought to create a protean of stark images and sounds to make a film centered on the mythical, spiritual juxtaposition of evil in the face of innocence. "We all need to create myths to deal with and define reality. We need some sort of spiritual structure, struc-ture, however, it's important that we do not believe in myths and become disappointed by them," explained Fessenden. And as he so intricately conveys, the framework of "Wendigo" focuses on the human mind's ability to rationalize nonsensical horror and tragedy. Largely, though, Fessenden markets mar-kets his movie as a "family drama" and encourages the audience to make their own interpretations of the film. "I wanted a spare story, a stylized styl-ized shooting technique and a monster mon-ster that was gestural, so that there 'd be no hiding the artifice of the story - inviting audiences to step outside the experience and ponder its meaning." How it all started Fessenden's first-grade teacher introduced him to the Wendigo in a story about a creature that was half deer, half man. Scared silly, the image stayed with him and through a combination of events with his own family, a seed was planted in his mind. "Wendigo" echoes his own spooky experiences and the vivid imagination of the child he once was. "Putting everything together, the script took on a life of its own. It has a very linear quality," said Fessenden. Movie magic is not unknown to Fessenden. Established as the third sequence in a trilogy of horror films, "Wendigo" is preceded by "Habit" (19) and "No Telling" (1991). Fessenden's objective with his "revisionist" trilogy is to "step back and objectify the cliches in stories, sto-ries, in particular horror stories, so that we can see them freshly and think about the assumptions as well as the truisms of these stories we retell." The film, according to Fessenden, was made for "tuppence." "tup-pence." Shot on super 16mm, the film footage reels and twirls through the backwoods of New York so fair warning: for those moviegoers prone to motion sickness, sick-ness, "Wendigo" may not be for you. Production of the movie was fairly smooth and professional, taking tak-ing just 23 days to shoot, according to Fessenden. The most professional profession-al part, he adds, was child actor Sullivan who was coined "the most intelligent and centered person on the set." Overall, Fessenden says of his movie that, "for all its layers of meaning, Wendigo ultimately strives to be a mood piece. A visceral, vis-ceral, linear ride. A cinematic gesture." ges-ture." "Ultimately," it up to the audience audi-ence to decide whether riding with With his father lying shot and helpless on the ground, Miles' imagination conjures up the Wendigo to deal with the shock. the Wendigo is imagination or enigmatic enig-matic reality. The final screening of "Wendigo " was Wednesday, Jan. 24. The movie may be shown one last time today, Jan. 27 if it's awarded one of the Best of Screenings. 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