Habit, Wendigo, Films of Larry Fessenden

[armagecko]

Hey, I just wondered if anybody else has seen the low-budget films directed and written by Larry Fessenden? Wendigo, Habit, etc... What did you think?

[armagecko]

Ooooh-Kay! I guess many of us aren't familiar with Fessenden's work. That's okay, but I think you should really check them out.

Wendigo is about a native American spirit who may or may not be seeking revenge in a small upstate NY town.

Habit is about a hot young thing who may or may not be a vampire. Her boyfriend (Fessenden) is quite sure she is because she has a REAL thing for blood and he's been losing a lot of it lately!

Both of these movies are low-budgets, as opposed to no-budgets. Habit was made for under $200,000 and was shot in NYC (pretty impressive for that price!) from a script that Fessenden wrote in college. Wendigo contains some of the best acting and dialogue that I have seen lately. Of course, if you like movies with cardboard characters, or if you don't like to think too much about your movie, these films might not be your cup of tea. If you like Shyamalan's stuff, you might enjoy. Check 'em out and post your views!

Oh yeah, also important to note (for all of you filmmakers out there): Fessenden didn't get theatrical distribution for HABIT, so he booked the movie into indy theatres himself. This approach is almost never tried, but it obviously paid off for him. He is quite a one-man show, along with Robert Rodriguez of El Mariachi fame. It's interesting to see what one guy (or one team) can do sometimes!

[TheStarvingDirector]

I saw Wendigo. I must say even though it wasn't vey scary (which is fine with me) I thought it was very well done. I like the cinematography and the wendigo itself. It was a rather bazarre film, but nicely done i ust say.

[Mistress Of Source]

Larry is working on a project right now to do an animated series on Windigo.

[armagecko]

An animated Wendigo? Interesting. Like a Saturday morning/Nickelodeon thing? That's a surprise.

I agree, Starving Director, it was a bit bizarre, not anything like what I expected, but yet I was almost happily surprised. I watched Wendigo first, on DVD, and for some strange reason I watched the little "making of" featurette before I watched the movie (Don't really know why). But in the little documentary I saw them perfecting the Wendigo creature's legs (which was a very unique contraption) so I thought, "Aha, sorta like Alien with a lot of creature effects." But it really wasn't like that at all. It was sort of an artsy kind of psychological thriller. Which, as you say, is fine with me.

If you liked Wendigo, I think you would really dig his earlier flick, Habit. It, too, has strong metaphorical visual imagery, and, although the acting is a bit stronger in his later movie, Fessenden puts his own unique twist on the Vampire myth, and like Wendigo, it leaves you wondering.

[Streetprowler]

Yeah, Wendigo left me wondering alright -- wondering how it found distribution...

I've got to say I disagree totally. I didn't see Habit, but Wendigo is one of the worst indies I've seen (of it's class). The acting was horrid, though when dealing with these types of pictures, that's forgivable. The effects were literally laughable -- I nearly fell off the couch when I saw the little "Wendalope" loping across the screen like a kid's puppet-on-a-popsicle-stick. Strangely enough, I don't judge a film too harshly on its effects either; this is also forgivable considering budget constraints of indie productions. The real gaff is the writing. I found the "story" ponderous and muddled. The dialogue was atrocious:

Knock, knock...
"Hey there, I'm the sheriff. What do you want? I'm just the sheriff, why are you knocking on my door this late? I'm the sheriff, you know. Did I mention I'm the sheriff?"

Yeah, we get the picture. Move along. Just introduce yourself by name. We can see by the uniform that you're the sheriff. It's called "show, don't tell." This IS a movie, right?

I don't know. Maybe I'm hyper-critical, but all these movies really just go to show that anything can get distributed if it's feature-length.

End of speech.

[armagecko]

WARNING: SPOILERS may appear in the message below.

Good points, prowler. As I said, it's certainly not everyone's cup of tea. And the effects were not what one would normally expect from a "horror' movie, but I think you may have missed the point: The Wendigo is only seen from the kid's point-of-view. So, it's reasonable to believe that his vision would be somewhat more "subdued" than most of us come to expect.

Fessenden's dialogue for the Sheriff appeared to me to be a character choice. I've lived in upstate and many of the rural people act and speak exactly like this (Some do in Pittsburgh as well). But knocking this dialogue is like criticizing Tarantino's or Gallo's characters because they keep repeating their lines. These lines are spoken to reveal character, not to advance the plot. So, actually, this was an example of "show, don't tell." But, I can totally understand why some might really dislike this film.

That last comment, "anything can get distributed if it's feature-length": Boy, I hope your right! "Biophage" is a feature, right?

[Streetprowler]

You betcha! *wink, wink* *nudge, nudge*

And believe me, I wasn't knocking your preferences. Heck, I like THE KEEP. There's no accounting for taste, right?

[armagecko]

No, please, knock my preferences! I like a good, spirited discussion. And good luck with Biophage! I look forward to seeing it.

[Streetprowler]

Thanks! And you'll see it -- don't worry. You'll see it... the Whole WORLD WILL SEE IT!

MMBWAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!

Well maybe just all of Pittsburgh and a few people in Ohio...

But I'll keep everyone here updated on the progress. And keep checking the link below!

www.biophagethemovie.com

I'll be putting up a trailer soon!