Wind Walkers is the new horror film by Russell Friedenberg and has its World Premiere at the prestigious Frightfest 2015 film festival. It comes as no surprise as to why it has been selected as it offers something completely different toeverything else on offer and in a year that has more films than ever, may well be a much needed distraction from the familiar titles on offer.

 

Wind Walkers opens with an aged Native American man who speaks of how the colonisers broke the spirit of the people and how the young men of today are forgetting those stories by fighting and killing in places where they don’t belong. As a consequence of their actions, when they return home the Wind Walkers will take them first.

 

Matty (Rudy Youngblood) is one of those men and he disappears shortly after returning home from a Special Ops tour in the Middle East. Sean (Zane Holtz) who is his long-term friend has also returned from the same mission and suffering from the affects of war. The story then takes us into the Florida Everglades where Sean goes on an annual hunting trip with mutual family and friends. All is not what it seems; now the hunter becomes the hunted.

 

The film focuses on strong character development. This can be seen throughout, as at the start there is a clear sense of a solid family unit. Then as time moves on the vulnerability and cracks of their relationships begin to show. This is greatly emphasised by a superb choice of film location, which is isolating and totally suffocating.

 

This descends our group into a maddening world of the supernatural, paranoia, confusion and death. There are some very neat special effects, which are well thought out and executed. For me, the only extra ingredient required for ultimately a well made independent film would be to have more action - rather than leaving it all to the end.