The Wind is an American supernatural horror film in the western style. The premiere was released on September 10, 2018. Filming was conducted by Emma Tammy, who has a good directing reputation in feature films. The film was written by Teresa Sutherland. The first time the film “The Wind” was shown at the Toronto International Film Festival.
What is “The Wind” about?
Events unfold at the end of the XIX century. Lizzie and Isaac McLean move into a new home in the Wild West. The couple traveled from St. Louis to a deserted area of New Mexico in the hope of starting a new life in this abandoned region. The couple lives alone until neighbors move in next to them. Young couple Emma and Gideon Harper move to the same town from Illinois. The couple moves into a house next door.
Lizzie befriends neighbor Emma, whose relationship with Gideon is dysfunctional. Lizzie and Isaac help the second couple renovate the house, plant a garden, and grow crops on the property. One day, Lizzie shared with Emma that she had lost her baby due to a miscarriage. She wanted to name her son Samuel. Lizzy said that during her pregnancy she was greatly tormented by paranoia. She saw a demon come to her at night. All these horrors were aggravated at the moment when Isaac was absent from home.
One night, Gideon woke up Isaac and Lizzie, coming to them for help. The man said that his wife Emma was not feeling well. Everyone went to the Harper house and found Emma hiding under the bed in the bedroom. Her speech was incomprehensible and incoherent. She told Lizzie that someone was following her and wanted to take her baby. Lizzie puts Emma to sleep with chloroform. During this action, she was hit in the face.
Subsequently, Emma began to remind Lizzie that she felt someone’s presence in her house. The girl can not explain who it could be. Meanwhile, the neighbor Lizzie does not pay attention to this fact. One day, a pregnant Emma shared with Lizzie that she wanted to name the baby Isaac.
Already in the last month of pregnancy, Emma suddenly commits suicide with a shotgun. Lizzie’s roommate, meanwhile, tries to save Emma’s baby by performing a C-section on her. The attempt was unsuccessful, the child died. Isaac and Gideon bury Emma and her unborn son, then leave to inform Emma’s loved ones of the death.
Lizzie gets paranoid again. She begins to have visions of a pack of wolves attacking their livestock, killing a goat. In the morning, Lizzie kills the goat with a shot, fearing that someone has moved into the animal. Late at night, she sees lights coming from the Harpers’ house and goes to check on what that means. She sees that there is no one in the house, but at that moment she sees a poltergeist who tortures her until she loses consciousness.
The girl woke up the next morning and saw Emma’s personal diary on the floor. In the notes, Emma reveals that she is disgusted by Gideon and is pregnant by Isaac. Lizzie burns the book in the fireplace. To relieve her anxiety and pain from what she has learned, Lizzie passes out with chloroform.
Some time later, Lizzie is woken up by sounds from the yard as the Reverend passed by. The woman gave him food and offered to spend the night at the Harper’s house. She also persuades the reverend to lock all the doors and not go outside after sunset. In the middle of the night, Lizzie is awakened again by a knock on the door. Opening it, she sees the Reverend, who in a panic says that something attacked him. The woman lets the frightened man in, but immediately begins to understand that he is the manifestation of this evil entity. Lizzie runs away after locking herself in the Harpers’ house. In the morning she discovers the corpse of the monk in the yard. After this event, a woman goes to Samuel’s grave, planning to kill herself with a shotgun, but is distracted by the sound of Isaac returning on horseback.
Gideon returns to his house, packs up the rest of his things, and leaves, but leaves a chest of books for Lizzie and Isaac. This time, Lizzy was determined, and prepared a gun for her defense, not realizing that the demons were only the fruit of her sick imagination, and her willingness to fight otherworldly evil would lead to tragic consequences.
The meaning of the film “The Wind”
The tragedy of loneliness is seen throughout the plot. A woman who is at home alone most of the time begins to notice supernatural things. Lizzie and her husband live far from the cities, on the Texas prairies. Not a soul is near them for many miles. The husband leaves to work in the city, so he has to be absent from home for days, because the road is not close. Lizzie, meanwhile, takes care of the household. Housework is hard, a woman is constantly tired and earns calluses on her hands. On her shoulders lay the duty of caring for the garden and cleaning the entire house.
Lizzy is already an experienced hostess, and she does not remember a carefree life. The woman sometimes recalls songs in her native German or recites prayers. This is how Lizzy can return to her former personality – cheerful and carefree. Her main joy is her husband. There are no children in the family, and the woman’s attention is riveted to her husband. Everything changes in her life after a couple from St. Louis settles nearby. It would seem that Lizzie’s life should sparkle with new colors, but no.
Young neighbor Emma reminds Lizzie of a cheerful and fluttering bird who does not have heavy worries. The girl has such features as coquetry, tenderness, cute manners. She is the opposite of the serious and sullen Lizzie. Therefore, a neighbor who is more “accustomed” to the new place takes patronage over the new settlers. Elizabeth quickly gets bored with her new neighbors, and she tells her husband that there were enough worries before their arrival, and now even more so.
At some point, mysterious events began to occur on the territory of these people. According to the director’s idea, these are the demons of the prairies in the guise of that melancholy and isolation. Gradually, from loneliness in marital relations, hard work and jealousy, demons begin to eat Lizzie from the inside. A piercing wind blows through the soul, leaving nothing of the former self-control and sobriety of the mind.
Many film critics argue that the film has an atmosphere of the late 19th century, when many women were left alone. As with the heroine of the film Lizzy, many women experienced the same circumstances – they were single while their husbands were on the payroll in the more developing industrial parts of America. Lizzie wanted to make friends, but she got involved with some secret that dragged her into the abyss of mystical events.
The plot of the film was not initially executed within the framework of the chronology. In the beginning, it is shown that Emma and her stillborn baby are buried in the grave by her husband and Lizzie with Isaac. This moment is of interest to viewers who would like to know how the fate of the heroine will turn out.
A girl who received an amazing inheritance in Texas arrives and finds herself in a house that has been deserted for 20 years. The new housing caused a series of problems in Emma’s family. The same bad feeling begins to disturb even the quick-witted and resourceful Lizzy, accustomed to all sorts of hardships. But Isaac considers the fears of women to be stupid superstitions and is in no hurry to listen to the opinion of his wife. Everything goes on as usual, until tragedy strikes Emma and her child.
Explanation of the ending of the film “The Wind”
The story itself is based on questions of Lizzie’s sanity and the reality of supernatural evil. At the end of the film, after being shot in the stomach, Lizzie wakes up tied to her bed. Isaac, who finds Emma’s diary, learns from Lizzie that she killed her neighbor out of jealousy. Lizzie manages to free herself and stabs Isaac in the throat with a shard of broken glass, killing him. At dawn, Lizzie, with a wound in her lower abdomen, walks out onto the prairie, reminiscing about the past with her husband.
