WIND CHILL

US, 2007, 91 minutes, Colour.
Emily Blunt, Ashton Holmes, Martin Donovan.
Directed by Gregory Jacobs.

What looks like yet another conventional horror movie, with young people out on the highways and lost in remote places, set upon by savage attackers, is definitely not just another horror movie. This is an intelligent variation on a theme with strong characters and performances, reticence in visuals and language and a thriller in which suspense and atmosphere are more important than shocks.

The first part of the film sets up the characters and situations and may irritate audiences too anxious to see what happens. However, this is a strength of the film, enabling Emily Blunt (My Summer of Happiness, Irresistible, Devil Wears Prada) and Ashton Holmes (History of Violence) to establish their characters. They are never named. The girl is finishing a pre-Christmas exam and gets a lift from an unknown student. He, in fact, has been attracted to her and virtually stalking her and has set up the situation. Their journey takes them through the Pennsylvania mountains (with the Rockies standing in and photographed often quite breathtakingly, even at night when most of the action occurs).

Taking a short cut (what else!), they collide with a mysterious car and are stranded all night. They have to deal with each other and suspicions, with the cold and having nothing to eat. Soon there are mysterious presences on the road, people who don't stop to help. Whether in reality or in dreams, a violent policeman keeps appearing making them even more terrified. The ordeal has dire effects on each, the girl finally admitting how difficult she is and trying to mellow in her concern for the injured young man.

There are some flashbacks, some explanations of what had happened on this road in the 1950s, some mysterious retired priests of the time and the evil policeman. Early in the film, there had been some philosophical discussion about reincarnation and cyclic recurrence of events. Is that what this is? The film presents the story, the characters, the eeriness and leaves the conclusions to us.

1.A satisfying thriller? Different from the teenage thrillers, people lost on the roads, monsters attacking them? Sex and violence? This as a more restrained thriller?

2.The beautiful Christmas settings, the Rocky Mountains? The town, the highways?

3.The film taking place overnight? The lighting of the nights scenes? Audiences able to see satisfactorily what was going on while atmosphere was kept? Musical score?

4.The plausibility of the plot? The interaction between the young man and the young woman? The fact that they were not named? The studies, the ride home for Christmas? The stalking? The drive, the interactions on the drive? The service station? The crash, the ghosts? The priests? The corrupt policeman? The man as a ghost? The experience of the woman? The interaction between reality and fantasy?

5.The focus on the girl, the exam, texting, getting the lift, her leaving the food in the carpark, her complaints? The car, the driver, the cold? Small talk, her irritability? The music? The long drive? Going to the service station, the toilet, getting locked in, getting out, the young man earnestly talking to the man behind the counter? The other men eating their meals? The oncoming car, the side highway, the crash?

6.The young man, the flashbacks explaining how he knew about the girl, his knowing all about her, following her? The notice on the board? Preparing the food? Driving? His awkwardness? The side road?

7.The crash, the policeman disappearing? The young man going to the garage, his return and the later revelation that he had internal injuries, bleeding, his death?

8.The various ghosts, the policeman, the priests? The background of the young man being a Catholic? The priests and the retirement home? Their appearance, the violent experiences?

9.The young woman, the night passing, the giving of the different hours of the night? Her dreams? The torment, the policeman, the young man? The long night passing, her becoming dependent of the young man?

10.Her attempt to connect the phone? The young man dying? Her encounter with the truck driver, the rescue? The next crash? The policeman, the car burning, his death? And reappearance?

11.The young man, the girl following him, leading her to safety? Through the woods, the ruins of the priests' house?

12.The finale was the girl alive, dead? The philosophical background of reincarnation or the theories of events recurring? The explanation of this theory and the plot as an illustration of it?

13.The explanation of all the events that happened in the 50s – the reappearance of the young woman as a ghost? The priests, the retirement home, the corrupt cop and the missing people on the highway?