When karma comes to collect, do not pretend to not know what you owe, or that you had the chance to change the course to do the right thing. This is a lesson taught in the new film directed by Eric Williford, which gets released on VOD on July 2nd.
A part of growing up is understanding that anybody can have a bad or even a horrible day for no apparent reason. Also that your birthday does not have any magic spell that can prevent any tragedies from happening, because at the end of the day, your birthday is just special to you (and sometimes not even that). This is something that our main character Tasha comes to conclude in a night that hands down gets the prize for “Worst birthday ever”
You see, when Tasha and her husband were driving back from celebrating that she was still around in this mortal plane for another year, they came across one of those weird people who like to jog at night to improve their health, and accidentally Tasha hits him with the car, turning him into a corpse.
The couple, obviously being afraid of the consequences of this involuntary manslaughter, decided to take the body to their property outside of the city and bury it in the woods nearby to erase all evidence of their crime.
With hesitations and taking a lot of precautions so they cannot be seen, the couple builds up the courage to go through with the plan. However, they receive the biggest scare of their life (actually, the first of many on that night) when they discover that the person in their trunk is still alive. The jogger, understandably confused and in very bad shape, starts asking for help when they realize the situation they’re in.
Tasha here has a change of heart and wants to take the Jogger to a hospital so he can receive medical attention, but Dean convinces her to see if the jogger knows that they are the ones that hurt him. If that were to happen, they would have to “finish the job” to completely ensure that nobody will rat them out to the police –which unfortunately for everybody involved– it happens.
Once that little inconvenience is dealt with by Dean, the married couple, understandably tired and unsure of what to do next, receives the visit of a desperate woman knocking at their door, screaming to be let in. She claims that a man is chasing her and that his intentions are obviously not good.
Although she is let inside the house, Dean tries (not too subtly) to kick the woman out of their home. The woman, who claims to be named Bryar, shocks the couple when she (also not to subtly) lets them know that she is aware of what they did in the woods and that it might be in the best interest of the three that they let them stay in the house and hide her from the man she was escaping. As an act of good faith, Bryar suggests to Dean to go and check on the body they just buried, since in those woods, the dead do not stay dead for too long.
And this is barely the beginning of Tasha and Dean’s troubles tonight.
Ok, apparently this film did not have a big budget and you can see some limitations. There are no big special effects or big names attached in the cast. However, I found the story very interesting, well managed, and moved at a pace that kept my attention. Having said that, there were a couple of things that felt off and a goof that I think makes an important scene not have its intended impact. This and some other details that I will address shortly might put off some people who only like more trendy cinema from big studios, but to me, this film was more than decent and worth a watch.
It’s hard to sympathize with a character that commits murder (or manslaughter in this case) and tries to erase the evidence of the crime. But it’s way harder when you see that the chance to change the course and to make things right appears to them, and they still decide to “Finish the job” instead. This detail is an interesting one because it makes me feel that “Cold Blows The Wind” instead of just being another movie about supernatural possessions. It also works as a tale about crime and punishment, and unlike the possession films, these characters are not innocent at all and maybe deserve what they get.
One of the strong points of this film is how the director Eric Williford presents very quickly the context of the conflict with a very well assembled credit sequence at the beginning of the film. In very brief minutes, you get the idea of the accident that put Tasha and Dean in this hell. There are also some hints about Bryar’s back story and some clues about where the story is heading.
This sequence goes fast and it is possible that you won’t pay attention to several details on the first watch, but once you know the ending and decide to have a second viewing, you can appreciate how well thought out and assembled it was. This could be due to budget limits or for pacing purposes, but in any case, the credit sequence was very effective and made me respect and appreciate the final work a lot more.
On the other hand, the special effects may be a little limited for the same reasons, but I honestly thought they worked well for what was intended. There is some gore, but this is not a lot of it. What we do have though, is several nude scenes that might make you wonder if they were needed at all. I am not complaining at all! I think they were not random and worked for the story, but I think I should give you a warning in case there are people not comfortable with that.
The acting is for the most part good, but I cannot ignore that some are a little bit over the top. This made me think that some actors were more experienced in the theater side, since there are scenes where the dialogues were delivered a little bit over exaggerated, and over gesticulated. Funny enough, as the film progressed, this came down a notch. There is another character we meet later in the film, the kind of character that does not appear too much, but stands out and makes you wonder what their background was, or in this case, what their past relationship with Bryar was.
There are some things that I found confusing and were not fully connected or developed. The idea that in these woods not everything that is dead (when buried, I gather) stays dead for long is clearly something that reminds of Pet Sematary or Evil Dead. But as much as this provides a couple of good moments, is an idea that a little after Bryar appears is dropped and never mentioned again. This seems to be done to focus more on Bryar’s intention towards Tasha and Dean, which was actually the main plot of “Cold Blows The Wind”.
I am trying not to go into spoiler territory, but I thought that was needed to be mentioned since I got the impression that Williford (who also wrote the script besides directing) had two very good ideas in mind, but in the end did not find the best way to mix them in the story.
I have seen the movie twice (and three more times the opening sequences) and still think that there is something in the two plots that does not fully connect. It is possible that I am missing something, so please feel free to post a comment below if you understood the whole mythology of the woods and how it is related to the spirit that comes after Tasha and Dean. (Not what the spirit wanted).
With all this said (Without spoilers) I think you get the idea of what “Cold Blows The Wind” can offer you. A supernatural horror where karma exists and will come immediately to collect, whether it is a special day or not. It also gives an example of how making a film is not an easy feat, but if you have the passion, you can overcome your limits and exploit what resources you might have at hand. This I say without any kind of sarcasm, and again, more power to Eric Williford and Victoria Vertuga for producing and bringing the story to life.
The film was directed by Eric Williford, who also wrote the script.
In the cast, we have Victoria Vertuga (who also produces the film with Williford), Danell Leyva, Jamie Bernadette, Torrey B. Lawrence, Summer Moore, Brandon Tyler Jones, and Daniel Florenzano.
“Cold Blows The Wind” will be released on VOD on July 2nd.