Following such delights as Curse of The Demon Mountain and Bone Tomahawk, 2019's The Wind combines two of my favourite genres - horror and Western - to create a compelling, character-driven, psychological drama.
In the late 19th Century, Lizzy Macklin (Caitlin Gerard) and her husband Isaac (Ashley Zukerman) have carved themselves out a homestead on the desolate American frontier.
When a new couple of settlers - Emma (Julia Goldani Telles) and Gideon Harper (Dylan McTee) - set up home about a mile away, the Macklins are initially delighted to have company, but become increasingly concerned that the new arrivals aren't cut out for the hardships required for living off the land.
The film, written by Teresa Sutherland (one of the staff writer's on Netflix's new Midnight Mass) and directed by Emma Tammi, opens with the aftermath of pregnant Emma's suicide.
Gideon and Isaac then ride off to the nearest settlement to make arrangements for the Harper's property to be shipped back East, leaving Lizzy to clean up and attend to the Macklin's smallholding.
The narrative then unfolds in a series of flashbacks, and flashbacks within flashbacks, intercut with Lizzy trying to cope on her own.
As well as learning that Lizzy and Isaac's son, Samuel, was still born, we also see that Emma was instantly attracted to the more "manly" Isaac, with the suggestion that the attraction may have been mutual.
However, when she falls pregnant, Emma - possibly influenced by a pamphlet on Demons of The Plains - rapidly descends into madness, making wild assertions about "something" being after her child.
She tells Lizzy that Gideon refused to believe her, dismissing her claims of hearing strange voices as simply "the wind".
In due course, though, we discover that when she was pregnant with Samuel, Lizzy also became convinced that there was some demonic force living in the area as well.
Are the women really being hunted by a "demon of the plains" or is it all in their imagination?
In the late 19th Century, Lizzy Macklin (Caitlin Gerard) and her husband Isaac (Ashley Zukerman) have carved themselves out a homestead on the desolate American frontier.
When a new couple of settlers - Emma (Julia Goldani Telles) and Gideon Harper (Dylan McTee) - set up home about a mile away, the Macklins are initially delighted to have company, but become increasingly concerned that the new arrivals aren't cut out for the hardships required for living off the land.
The film, written by Teresa Sutherland (one of the staff writer's on Netflix's new Midnight Mass) and directed by Emma Tammi, opens with the aftermath of pregnant Emma's suicide.
Gideon and Isaac then ride off to the nearest settlement to make arrangements for the Harper's property to be shipped back East, leaving Lizzy to clean up and attend to the Macklin's smallholding.
The narrative then unfolds in a series of flashbacks, and flashbacks within flashbacks, intercut with Lizzy trying to cope on her own.
As well as learning that Lizzy and Isaac's son, Samuel, was still born, we also see that Emma was instantly attracted to the more "manly" Isaac, with the suggestion that the attraction may have been mutual.
However, when she falls pregnant, Emma - possibly influenced by a pamphlet on Demons of The Plains - rapidly descends into madness, making wild assertions about "something" being after her child.
She tells Lizzy that Gideon refused to believe her, dismissing her claims of hearing strange voices as simply "the wind".
In due course, though, we discover that when she was pregnant with Samuel, Lizzy also became convinced that there was some demonic force living in the area as well.
Are the women really being hunted by a "demon of the plains" or is it all in their imagination?
It's nearly impossible for most of us to comprehend the sense of terrifying, utter isolation and loneliness a person would feel in this situation, trying to carve out a living under such unforgiving conditions, without any semblance of modern communication nor any other living soul within miles.
Beautifully shot in New Mexico, The Wind does a magnificent job of charting the mental toll of this lifestyle, particularly as exemplified by the barnstorming central performance of Caitlin Gerard, who you might recognise from Insidious: The Last Key, American Crime, or The Last Ship.
With its emphasis on the atmospheric Western setting, there is an ambiguous, folkloric rural horror aspect to The Wind, which has led people to compare it to The Witch and - with its strong female cast - The Babadook.
The film has a Gothic quality to its narrative, heightened by Emma's own passion for Gothic literature, such as Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.
Beautifully shot in New Mexico, The Wind does a magnificent job of charting the mental toll of this lifestyle, particularly as exemplified by the barnstorming central performance of Caitlin Gerard, who you might recognise from Insidious: The Last Key, American Crime, or The Last Ship.
With its emphasis on the atmospheric Western setting, there is an ambiguous, folkloric rural horror aspect to The Wind, which has led people to compare it to The Witch and - with its strong female cast - The Babadook.
The film has a Gothic quality to its narrative, heightened by Emma's own passion for Gothic literature, such as Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.
I would also add there's an element of John Carpenter's The Thing here as well, given how central feelings of isolation and paranoia are in Lizzy's story.
While the bulk of the horror is psychological, there's a single jump scare that works surprisingly effectively because this doesn't feel like a film where such a gimmick would be appropriate.
Initially a slow burn, The Wind gradually develops its creepy and unsettling tone as the layers of the onion skin are peeled back and we finally get a picture of what's truly happening.
While the bulk of the horror is psychological, there's a single jump scare that works surprisingly effectively because this doesn't feel like a film where such a gimmick would be appropriate.
Initially a slow burn, The Wind gradually develops its creepy and unsettling tone as the layers of the onion skin are peeled back and we finally get a picture of what's truly happening.
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