Wind Chill

Supernatural horror movies are rare these days, and I cherish every one of them that I see. This movie could have easily gone the way of a great many slasher flicks but it chose the high road. As I watch more and more horror, I find solace in movies that use mood and a smart story to scare the pants off of me.

Wind Chill starts off in a school in the North East, at least 6 hours by highway from Delaware. The semester is coming to a close and winter holiday is just beginning. After previous travel plans fall through, a friend on the other end of her text messaging suggests the ride board and thus begins our cautionary tale.

The two start off on their trip on rocky footing, as our bitchy female lead is basically such a pain in the ass that I would have left her sorry ass to freeze in the undisclosed North Eastern town. After insulting her fellow student about the amount of crap in his car and inevitably removing and leaving the only food they have in the parking lot to make room for her suitcase.

They begin the journey as our girl bitches about how boring the highway is, and our boy trying to get to know her better. When they pull off at a rest stop our driver gets directions for the “scenic” road in order to appease our passenger. When they return to the car they begin telling stories about growing up in Delaware and our passenger discovers that she has been duped. It is revealed that the driver has been harboring a crush on our passenger. Seeing an opportunity to share time together he lied about living in Delaware in hopes that during the trip they would connect. Turning off of the highway, our passenger begins to get angry, demanding that they turn around when a pair of headlights begin to approach them at a high speed. They swerve and crash into a snow bank where they will spend the rest of the movie. As the night progresses and the temperature dips to 30 below, our travelers begin to experience strange encounters with a sinister presence, which is when the movie gets really freaky.

The filmmakers did a great job at setting the mood for fear. What I found to be the most clever thing done, was to make it all about isolation and anonymity. We never discover what the names of our lead characters are, but we connect with them. And we begin to feel just as trapped in this snow bank as they are. A great little sleeper film that I expect will have a small following. I only wish more horror movies were made like this.