The Wendigo



Logan is a social media influencer who is currently out in the middle of the woods one night for his show, Logan Does It All, at the suggestion of one of his followers. But he’s not just out there to do some camping. He’s out there searching for the mythical Wendigo, a supernatural beast that supposedly lurks out there in those woods. But in the middle of his live broadcast that night something appears to attack him, and Logan mysteriously disappears. Most viewers think it’s just some sort of elaborate hoax. But after his live broadcast goes viral and Logan still hasn’t shown up to bask in the glory of his accomplishment, his friends and fellow influencers begin to have doubts. Now worried, a group of them head out to the same woods in the hopes of finding Logan and figuring out what’s really going on.


I honestly never had high hopes for them to begin with.

The Wendigo (not to be confused with Wendigo from 2001, that’s a completely different film) is a low-budget American horror film from 2022, centered around the North American legend of the Wendigo (I know, what a shock, right?) I tend to enjoy stories about all those new evil, mythical creatures, but sadly for me most movie adaptations of them come up very short. Chupacabras, Mothmen…. Most have left me disappointed in one way or another. Usually due to crap-tastic or inaccurate monster designs. But, as I am ever hopeful, I gave this one a try and… Well, sadly this one was no different. The last two films I watched that featured the Wendigo were Ghostkeepters and Antlers, and while I did kinda like Antlers, neither of those portrayed the beast as it’s actually described in folklore. Which to those unfamiliar, is supposed to be sort of an angry, cannibalistic cross between a zombie and Slenderman. So my search for a more accurately designed monster continues. As does my search for a better Wendigo movie, cause this one ain’t it.


Is… Is it scratching its head? WTF?

If you want an idea of what the movie is like, think The Blair Witch Project only on a much, MUCH smaller budget. I know that might be hard, considering that that movie often looks like it was made with little more than ten dollars, a camera and a marginally functional flashlight. But trust me when I say that these guys somehow managed to pull this movie off with less. Because at least Blair Witch looks like it had some planning behind it. I mean, I know they’re both found footage films, but you can tell that Blair Witch probably still used, like, storyboards and shit. This movie feels like it was “planned” in the same way you plan a trip to the grocery store. You’ve got a general idea of what you want and where everything’s at, but for the most part you’re just gonna wing it, and likely end up with that bag of chips you told yourself you weren’t going to buy because they’re not good for you, or you’re on a diet and…uh…Where was I? Right, planning. So instead of things like distinct scenes out in the woods highlighting the growing horrors, most of our found footage seen here involves a lot of shaky-cam aimed at people’s shoes, shins, butts or leaves, because the camera is damn near constantly pointed at the ground. I mean, cripes guys! If you’re gonna be in the woods at least let me look at some of the trees while you scurry about for your lives! It feels like 90% of the second half of the film is spent making me look at dead leaves.


You could at least have tried to find a mushroom for me to look at.

I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised though, since the first 9 minutes of the movie are centered solely around watching a lone idiot constantly screaming various things at the top of his lungs somewhere out in the middle of the woods. Seriously, the first words we hear in the film, before the production logos have even finished flashing on screen, are this fool yelling, “Fuck! I forgot my pillow!” And then he spends some more time yelling at the tent, then at his life, then at some geese that are making too much noise at the lake…. It’s just a lot of yelling. So really, this dude likely should never go outside by himself (ever!), and this all happens within the first minute of the film and should probably have clued me into how the rest of the movie was going to go. Though I will admit, I was pretty amused by his constant exasperation and bitching while he tried to set up camp. Because, yeah dude, that looks like hell, and that would totally be me. There’s a reason I don’t camp.


And if you find yourself praying before you’ve even put up the tent, you shouldn’t either.

So, admittedly I kinda liked those first 9 minutes, because they were kinda set up to emulate an actual live broadcast, complete with a scrolling chat log on the left side. And I was actually kinda impressed with how authentic they were trying to make it look, complete with troll posts and all (“I told you to go to Point Pleasant to look for Mothman, but nooooo…”). And if the rest of the movie had been like that I might have been okay with that, even though I was more amused reading the fake chat than I was watching the movie. But then they moved to the boring Blair Witch knockoff stuff and things just went downhill from there. Though I’d like to point out that it’s not the actor’s faults. They were all actually pretty good in all their roles, believe it or not. It’s just that there wasn’t much of a story for them to work with.


Hell, all the bitching in the comment section felt more story driven.

Alas, this all just means that I’m still on the hunt for a more accurate Wendigo movie. Because The Wendigo just feels like it’s a cheaper (but thankfully very short!) attempt to make The Blair Witch. The story is sparse and poorly planned out after the first segment, the cinematography is annoying, and when you finally get to see the monster at the end it looks like some dude walking around wearing a furry hunting camouflage bodysuit and a deer mask. *Yawn* Goody. Other than that it’s technically and mechanically competent I suppose, but mostly it just elicits tiredness and a feeling that you’ve just wasted a little over an hour of your time. So, don’t do that and skip this movie. I’m sure there are other, better cryptid, Wendigo-centric films out there.

The Wendigo is available on a variety of streaming services.

It does not appear to have been given any physical treatment.

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