Movie Review: Wind Chill (2007)

The movie stars Emily Blunt, Ashton Holmes, Martin Donovan, Ned Bellamy and Ian A. Wallace.

I spent a good chunk of my Saturday doing yard work and was pretty tired out by the time I finally had a chance to settle down Saturday night. However, my brain was still awake and, when I saw this film was on one of our movie channels, I convinced my wife to watch it with me.

We had only planned on watching about half of the film. But, ultimately, we ended up watching it from start to finish and, overall, I have to say it was one of the better thrillers I've watched recently.

At first, I wasn't really sure what kind of direction this film was going to take. The guy (Holmes) driving the car was obviously hiding something and, as the movie progressed, his passenger (Blunt) seemed to be right to be concerned. And, even though his intentions, while still creepy, turned out not to be anything overly harmful, his decision to turn off of a highway onto a "shortcut" that was in desperate need of a snow plow, was ill-advised even without the ghosts.

Once they do get wrecked, the movie becomes much more suspenseful than I expected it to be. My first reaction was "why don't they just walk back to the gas station a short distance up the road." But, once I realized he was too injured to make that walk (and the ghosts made it too dangerous for her to make the trip alone), trying to survive the night seemed like it made the most sense. And that, left them sitting ducks for the violent spirit of a corrupt patrolman (Donovan).

Another thing I found I liked about this movie was the mystery. The film gives a variety of clues, ranging from a newspaper clipping to visions, about what happened on that snow-covered highway, resulting in the ghosts. But, it also does a good job of keeping the full story a secret until the very end. As a result of this, it's hard to tell which ghosts are dangerous and which ones are just walking around in the background.

Probably my only real complaint about this movie is there are times when it is hard to tell if something actually happened to the two students or they just imagined it. For example, there's a scene involving a snow plow driver (Bellamy) that I'm still not sure really happened because, one moment, she's in his truck. The next, she's back inside the wrecked car.

Also, I'm still a little confused why, if people consistently die on that stretch of road every December 23rd, they didn't just block it off for the night? You would think, even if they didn't believe in ghosts, the county officials would take that precaution. Or, at very least, have some extra patrols on it, just in case. But, I guess that's just something I'll have to overlook.

This is a surprisingly good thriller and, even though it managed to make both of us feel a bit cold, was one I would recommend watching.

My Grade: A