WIND CHILL (2007) *** Emily Blunt, Ashton Holmes, Martin Donovan, Ned Bellamy, Chelan Simmons. (Dir: Gregory Jacobs)
"The Sure Thing" meets "The Twilight Zone"
Everyone loves a good ghost story and the latest installment on screen is a well-crafted suspenser that feels like "The Sure Thing" meets "The Twilight Zone" if written by Stephen King.
Set in the frost-bitten winter of a small Pennsylvania college campus days before the Christmas break, a young coed (THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA's gloriously bitchy Blunt) is attempting to get back home to Delaware when her plans fall flat forcing her to chose a ride from the bulletin board to share expenses on her trek for the holidays.
Her driver is a fellow student (A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE's Holmes) whose compact sedan is overflowing with all his worldly possessions (he claims he is in between living spaces), and harboring a secret crush on the pretty yet cranky passenger.
En route the two do not hit it off at all and bicker back and forth making the tedious drive insufferable. While getting gas Holmes decides to take a detour on a snow-covered back road, claiming it'll be picture post-card perfect viewing to break up the monotony. Blunt becomes increasingly angry and demands they get back on the main highway and as they argue an oncoming car force them off the narrow path into a snow bank. With a crack in the gas tank, no food and no cell phone signal (natch) the pair suddenly discovers the bleak, quiet snow drifting countryside has a sinister presence that they will soon encounter.
A surprisingly well-written screenplay by Steven Katz (SHADOW OF A VAMPIRE) and newbie Joe Gangemi, the dialogue rings true of the formulaic supernatural yet offers an intriguing premise interpolating Nietzchian thought (eternal recurrence) the two were students in a philosophy class and some fine moments of paranoia fueled anxiety for Blunt's heroine (is she in danger with this person or not), and although the 'ghost story' section feels a little rushed it works with the backdrop of the winter storm encroaching. Director Jacobs (who helmed the "NINE QUEENS" remake "CRIMINAL" for his long-time associates Steven Soderbergh and George Clooney's Section Eight production company (the high powered filmmakers serve as exec producers here) does a very good job of creating enough tension, sprinkled with dry humor mixed with dread employing tight editing by Lee Percy and a cool-to-the-touch cinematography by Dan Laustsen.
The better-than-average film is buoyed by excellent acting by its stars, with Brit Blunt employing an impeccable American accent and making her bitchy 'girl' (as she is only referred to at the credits' close) redeemably likable and Holmes' 'guy' switched back and forth from mensch to menace.
What is truly surprising is why the film has been neglected in marketing by Sony Pictures its distributor and why it wasn't released more appropriately in the dead of winter instead of the beginning of spring is beyond me. But if you want a decent ghost story on a secluded evening check this out.
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