For those who enjoy seeing Jesse Plemons as a cop, I’ve got a horror movie for you! Directed by Scott Cooper, written by Henry Chaisson and Scott Cooper, and based on the story “The Quiet Boy” by Nick Antosca, this creature feature stars Keri Russel and Jesse Plemons as brother and sister in different areas of public service (education and law enforcement respectively) who deal with the strange case of a seemingly abused child and his truant little brother in a small town in the Pacific Northwest.

We are given a Native American monologue in the Ojibwe language and then themovie jumps right into the story as we witness a father leave his son in a truck and go to working in the secret meth lab in the old abandoned mine with another man. Our Walter White and Jesse are soon attacked by an unseen creature so the child investigates and is also attacked. The father and child survive and return home where the father locks himself and his child in a room and telling the older son to, no matter what, keep them locked inside.

It then shifts to the point of view of Keri Russel with, thankfully, a luscious mop of hair. Felicity fans will get that joke. And we see that she is the teacher of the older son who from the get go acts very strange. We see glimpses of drawings and for an assignment tells a story of three bears which gives some foreshadowing into what is going on.

Without going into too much detail, this is a creature feature at heart, however it does feel like a slow burn to get where we as an audience wanting this to go. There is a lot of building up to the final creature reveal. A few glimpses here and there. Noises from behind closed doors. The discussion of folklore with a Native American, played by Graham Greene, obviously. He’s the go to Native of Hollywood, and it’s not because of his ethnicity. It’s because of screen presence, and his acting ability. He was the antithesis of the classic western “Indian” and became the voice of an authentic Indigenous experience depicted in major films, even when he is doing a satirical performance.

So why do our characters need Graham Greene? Because the creature at the heart of this is the popular cryptid, the Wendigo. But this is not the traditional ghoulish wendigo, hence why we need Graham Greene to authenticate it for the film.

What we receive is a modern adaptation that blends Native American traditional depictions with those of popular culture, mainly the inclusion of the titular antlers. I don’t hate this type of Wendigo as it reminds me of the Welsh Mari Lwyd tradition at Christmas time and Great Spirit in Princess Mononoke.

It reminds me that story telling and the history of oral traditions have certain stories repeated throughout different cultures thousands of years apart with no archaeologically known contact, but remnants of slabs and papyrus. Carvings on walls and ashen lines drawn crudely. Stories that taught us morals or hypothesized why certain things happen. That recounted seemingly unbelievable events.

It also has shown that folklore and mythology has always had one other thing at its center: entertainment. And this is an entertaining depiction of the mythology. It invites you to look into the native stories and to learn more about the creature at the heart of the movie.

And boy do we get a pay off on our reveal. It is definitely one of the best monster introductions I’ve seen in some time, and is one of my favorite sequences in the whole thing. The creature design mixed with the practical work from Legacy Effects and led by Shane Mahan. Modern horror is always hit or miss with their effects as it is often cheaper and definitely easier to just use computer generated imagery, but the uncanny valley is always there with digital gore. This film does a good job of blending the CGI into the practical so that we still see the creature and effects as part of the scene and not layered into the shot.

Was this the best movie? No. Was it the worst? Far from it. Its a solid entry into anyone’s library even if it is predictable and derivative of similar movies involving a feral child or family member.

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Check it out from the Cabell County Public Library.

https://cabellcounty.ent.sirsi.net/client/en_US/test

*THIS POST AND THE A to Z Horror REVIEWS ARE NOT PROVIDED, ENDORSED, or SPONSORED by Cabell County Public Library*

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