The Wind

I frequently find the wind to be a bit unnerving, especially when I am trying to fall asleep, so when I saw the trailer for an atmospheric thriller called The Wind I immediately wanted to see it (because I like to torture myself) and I did so last night.  Lizzy Macklin (Caitlin Gerard) and her husband Isaac (Ashley Zuckerman) have settled on a remote and desolate piece of land in the American frontier during the late 1800s.  She is initially very hard working, resourceful, and capable but soon the isolation starts to take a toll on her and she begins to sense a malevolent presence.  Her husband dismisses her fears (he thinks that she is simply being hysterical) but they become overwhelming when another couple, Emma (Julia Goldani Telles) and Gideon Harper (Dylan McTee), move nearby resulting in tragedy.  The story is very nonlinear, beginning with the mysterious death of Emma with flashbacks to when Lizzy and Isaac first move to their homestead and when Emma and Gideon arrive, and this serves to keep you guessing as to the cause of Lizzy's madness.  The tension builds and builds, although it does start to lose steam in the third act, with brilliant sound design where every creak in the floor, every rattle of the shutters, and every howl of the relentless wind is amplified to the point where you want to jump out of your seat!  Gerard is great in the role of a woman slowly being driven mad and her physical transformation is the best part of this film.  While not as frightening as The Witch or Hereditary, this is a disturbing psychological thriller that explores some interesting feminist themes and I recommend it.

Note:  In order to occupy her mind, Isaac reads Lizzy a passage from Frankenstein (which my seniors are currently reading).  I found the passage about the isolation felt by the creature to be particularly apt and I wonder how many members of the audience got the allusion!