The Wind (2001)

In a word, this "movie" was dreck! Beginning with a silly premise about some girl (looks older) who got "annoyed" by a boyfriend's unwanted attention and puts out a "hit" on him via his 3 supposed buddies, this movie descends into a disjointed mishmash. It has absolutely nothing to do with the apocalypse or with wind (except when a wind blowing machine sends some leaves in the direction of the actors). The boy (who looks like a man) is bludgeoned by the three friends who do the girl's bidding. She looks as though she was supposed to be casting a spell over them. The brother of the victim appears on occasion out of the blue as a psycho with brotherly issues; one of the deadly trio has the hots for the killer's mother; it turns out that the girl sent a certain mash letter to herself which started the whole business; the original murderer is repentant but must be dispatched for his misgivings by the remaining duo; except for Philipp Karner (a bit of eye candy who later appeared in KISS THE BRIDE)who is around 20, the other actors are closer to forty and are being passed off as much younger (they act that way in any event). The movie throws in a three-way homo-erotic kiss near the end during a "super bonding" incident for a little titillation and concludes with a near rape of the killer's mother by one of his buddies before that individual and the killer get theirs in a finale that is so off the wall it will leave you with your mouth hanging open - but NOT in a good way. The extra interviews with some of the cast says it all.

The Wind. Easily one of the worst films ever made. The only good that comes from this kind of pointless drivel, is the fact that seeing films like this get distribution makes indy horror filmmakers like me confident that my upcoming feature will make the cut too. I mean, if this represents the market for indy horror, I could make a fortune videotaping myself taking out the garbage for 83 minutes. A complete list of what this film lacks would take way too long to write out. But, the highlites are: no story, terrible acting, awful cinematography, and virtually no editing. That last one bothered me the most. As an editor myself, this film drove me absolutely crazy because it had almost no editing at all. Every scene was shot in a master. They had absolutely no coverage at all. For anyone who doesn't know..."coverage" is shooting a scene from multiple angles to have cutting options when editing to make for a desirable viewing experience. Yeah, this movie had none of that. I'm talking about even the simplest of scenes. Example: an ordinary conversation scene between two people sitting at a table would typically start out with a master establishing who's in the scene and where they are. Then, as the conversation goes on, you would cut back and forth to over-the-shoulder shots as the conversation continues. You may even throw in a cutaway shot or two of something on the table, or in someone's hand. Anything. This is "Film 101" stuff guys. It seems as though these people had no idea this is how films work. Every shot was a camera lock-down. No movement, no cutting, no nothing. If I was teaching a course in filmmaking, this would be the visual aid for my "What not to do" lesson. In closing, don't waste your time folks. The only amazing this about this film is that it ever scored distribution at all.

The beginning voice over sounds like 'The Wind' could be quite an intriguing movie, but as the story unfolded I knew it was downhill from there. The major things about this movie that blew were the terribly bad acting jobs all the main characters did, (except for a few scenes involving the inner turmoil of Mic), there was a total lack of character development and absolutely no point to the plot - What were the writers thinking?Michael Mongillo won 2 'horror/sci fi' awards for 'The Wind'. HUH? What was so scary about this movie? NOTHING! Except for the resident evil 2 video shots, the rest was more of a 'made for t.v thriller' - it wouldn't even have to be edited. If you want a far better movie about 'murder among friends' rent "Shallow Grave" instead.'The Wind' */*****

The best independent film of 2001 - I went to see The Wind at the recommendation of friends who caught it at Dances with Films Festival in LA last summer - it's a great, scary, well made film. The score was amazing. Can't wait to see his next movie!