Horror Movie Review: Wind Chill
Chilling Tale of Ghosts, but with Depth
Wind Chill offers a new spin on an old favorite. The depth of the story is enough to battle the boring car ride.
Trying to make a successful ghost film is usually a tricky process. The result can turn out to be corny, misguided, silly, or just plain boring. Fortunately for Gregory Jacobs, (who has worked on Freddy’s Dead, Traffic, and the Oceans Trilogy), capturing the essence of ghosts for his 2007 thriller Wind Chill came easy. While the plot follows suit for a movie involving a stranded car during winter (see 2006’s Penny Dreadful for another good example), it brings a lot of originality to the plate.
The Set Up
The storyline follows two college students on their way home for Christmas break. The lead female protagonist (aptly named girl) is in search of a way home, so she hitches a ride with the cool, yet secretive Ashton Holmes (who also has an original name…guy). The pair hops into Holmes’ beat up car and head towards Delaware. In the beginning, the conversation is minimal, yet establishes Blunt's character as a stuck up socialite. Something doesn’t seem right with Holmes, and he is slowly exposed as not being what he says he is. Losing trust in her ride partner, Blunt urges Holmes to pull over at a rest stop. Blunt leaves to use the bathroom and Holmes talks with the cashier. Tensions grow higher after an overwrought scene involving a bathroom door. But the two press on and head towards the highways. Suddenly, without warning or reason, Holmes turns the car down a scenic road. The car is driven off the road by an oncoming vehicle, and the two are knocked out. Now that’s the set up, and here is where things get interesting.
As the sun goes down, they wake up to find themselves trapped in a snow bank. Their predicament worsens as the two begin to argue. A distrusting Blunt attempts to distance herself from Holmes when she finds out that he isn’t who he says he is. She decides to lock herself in the car, forcing Holmes to go searching for the gas station. It is at this point that Blunt sees her first ghost. From here, it is an onslaught of ghost attacks and visions. The story progresses as the two grow closer together as they must battle the cold and their trust issues. The ghosts become hostile, and Blunt discovers the truth behind a ghastly string of murders involving a local cop running people off the road for his own personal satisfaction.
Method to the Madness
The whole ghost story part is unoriginal, as most people have probably heard local urban legends similar to the story in this one. What Wind Chill does offer is a clever look into logic beyond similar urban legends. Fredrick Nietzsche’s theory of reoccurring life (that all people and all things live to repeat the same actions) seems to be the thriving pulse of the movie. Using the theory, the viewer can understand how the ghosts come back every December 23.
On the surface, the movie is a simple ghost flick. However, it lends itself to many interpretations. There are clues pointing to Holmes being a ghost since the beginning, Blunt being a ghost since the beginning (or of course both of them being ghosts for the entire movie), or even that everyone, including all the patrons at the gas station, are ghosts. Wind Chill may not be the best ghost movie out there, but its depth of interpretation makes it a movie to watch.
