The Wind

Emma Tammi’s supernatural Great Plains horror THE WIND expertly captures the austere isolation of life on the prairie in 19th Century America through the eyes of frontierswoman Lizzy Macklin (Caitlin Gerard). The haunting and often dissonant score from Ben Lovett (THE RITUAL) is itself a key character in the story. Using a bass flute, a traditional Swedish keyed violin called a Nyckelharpa, a handmade door bell, sound design, and non-traditional manipulation of orchestral music, Lovett brilliantly portrays the ominous sense of evil that permeates the sparse frontier.

The mysteries of the wind are ever pervasive on Lovett’s score, which breathes a ferocious sense of foreboding into Tammi’s film. Each blast of the monstrous bass flute conjures the unforgiving demons said to haunt the plains. The bend of the bow on the often histrionic strings strikes an existentially eerie air. The percussion slaps us awake from our nightmares while creating new ones.

The film and Lovett’s score show how isolation can be the greatest horror of all. The holes in human connection on the plains leave room for malevolent entities to fill in the gaps. Or maybe it’s just the wind. — Aaron Vehling, Vehlinggo.com