This is a film I really wanted to like, but ultimately only thought was okay.

Part of the problem was that I love the Wendigo mythos, and in particular the Algernon Blackwood story, which was one of the most haunting reading experiences of my childhood. I wanted to see it because of the Wendigo angle, and of course the horror in the old West angle. And I got the soundtrack as one of the last things I got when I was a college DJ, and it blew me away with it's majestic creepiness.

I tried to see it at theatres, but was unable to see it on opening week, so I planned to see it the next week - but it was no longer playing. So, when it comes out on VHS, I buy it sight unseen, thinking that I would really love it. Unfortunately, it just wasn't the movie I wanted to see. I think it set the plot up okay, but they took the (to my mind) beautifully complex Wendigo myth and turned it into little more than cannibalism plus a little extra strength, and the film ran out of gas to me, particularly the whole "I've got a little cannibalism in me too, so my Wendigo powers can now defeat your Wendigo powers" in the manner of a poor superhero confrontation straight out of the Rob Liefield playbook. The political message was ham-fisted, and in general the whole affair left a bad taste in my mouth (maybe tho that's a good thing for a cannibalism film?)