Larry Fessenden (Wendigo/The Last Winter)

[Psychocandy]

This guy is impressing me big time. I saw Wendigo a couple of years back and it was a very unsettling and atmospheric horror movie with a trio of quite remarkable performances. So today I went to the video shop to rent a couple of fright flicks. I settled for The Zombie Diaries (great) and The Last Winter. The latter is the new Larry Fessenden movie and again I was very impressed. A lot of people have been comparing this movie to The Thing (possibly in a lot of cases without actually having seen the movie). The Thing is an amazing movie but this is a different beast altogether. Although the setting is similar and the mood of claustrophobia and paranoia lends itself to some comparison this is a far more opaque movie than Carpenter's classic. It doesn't spell things out for the viewer. A lot of what happens is open to interpretation. Personally I love movies that challenge the audience to think. Too many movies spell things out. Sometimes over and over in case the viewer misses the point. Larry Fessenden's movies aren't about that. And they're all the fresher for not pandering to typical Hollywood tropes. If you haven't seen Wendigo or The Last Winter. Please give them a shot. Although not without their flaws they are still quite remarkable for what they do achieve. Now I need to track down his earlier movie, Habit. Anyone seen it?

[Cronos]

I've seen The Last Winter mentioned a couple of times elsewhere, didn't even realise it was available on DVD. I rather dug Wendigo, an interesting little film which was nicely directed. I'll have to give this a look, plus it's got Ron Perlman in it and he's always great. I have yet to see Habit and No Telling, both have interested me for a while though.

[Psychocandy]

Originally posted by Cronos
I've seen The Last Winter mentioned a couple of times elsewhere, didn't even realise it was available on DVD. I rather dug Wendigo, an interesting little film which was nicely directed. I'll have to give this a look, plus it's got Ron Perlman in it and he's always great. I have yet to see Habit and No Telling, both have interested me for a while though.

It's now my mission in life to track down both those movies. Hopefully within the next couple of days. He's also in a movie I saw earlier this year at the Dead By Dawn horror fest in Edinburgh. The movie in question is Mulberry Street and it was fucking great. I'm looking forward to whatever he does next.

[Romero&Juliet]

Man, wendigo was awesome and I had just assumed that the director dropped off the face of the earth.

Immo have to check The Last Winter out!

[Derrida]

I agree, The Last Winter is a gem. Fessenden can do wonders with a small budget. He also gets really good performances out of his actors.
In all honesty he should be working with bigger budgets, just like Brad Anderson. These guys know how to direct horror...

[dellamorte dellamore]

I was blown away by Habit , for me personally , one of the best low budget " Vampire " movies ever made , but i was disappointed with Wedigo , it seemed like a cheesy sci fi original movie , there was nothing there to distinguish itself from all the other " monster " movies . This one though , i'm excited about , i have only heard great things about it , a sort of The Thing , but a more subtle version , ( see : no terrific animatronic and visual fx ) , but that's not bad , cause i agree , this Fess dude can do some remarkable things with a low budget . You seriously have to track down his best effort , so far that is , the aforementioned Habit , everything about that film is perfect , and there is not one false characterization note , that's what really drives that film , although the horror elements are appropriately unsettling , the inner demons on display are what will cause you to tremble .

[countchocula]

I can't get into this guy. Wendigo meandered too much, and Habit came off as a pretentious version of Singles (and Singles was already fairly pretentious).

[BugMuffins]

Just wanted to say thanks and let out a few feelings on Wendigo. I watched it last night after finding out about the movie via this post. GREAT movie. Not "Horror" in my book by personal definition, but certainly an intelligent and very well conveyed film. Psychological & suspenseful as hell with a tasty touch of the supernatural. Great acting, cinematography & story line development from start to finish. I am really looking forward to seeing more films by this director.

8/10
Thanks Again!

[Cronos]

Watched The Last Winter earlier and absolutely loved its sheer awesomeness from beginning to end. The direction and camera work throughout is beautiful, Fessenden really uses the camera and aspect ratio to great effect. The acting is also brilliant, Perlman rocks as usual. The effects were also mostly very well done and it had more gore than I was expecting (although not a lot). The dialogue is also very well written, really helped suck me into the film (especially the reading of the notebook).

Going to have to watch it again soon and easily gets
10/10 from me.

[Romero&Juliet]

Habit came off as a pretentious version of Singles (and Singles was already fairly pretentious).



hahahaah - not to mention the lack of Alice In Chains..!