Cult Montreal critics named a film that premiered at the Fantasia International Film Festival in 2014 as the Best Horror Film of the year. Yes, we are talking about Black Mountain Side, Nick Szostakiwskyj’s Canadian indie horror film, which received a lot of excellent press. The picture reminded one of H. P. Lovecraft’s sci-fi horror tale “At the Mountains of Madness”, which was described as “a beautifully shot, creepy love letter to John Carpenter’s The Thing that finds its own identity amid the paranoia and bloodletting.”
There is no doubt that Black Mountain Side will be remembered for its stunning cinematography, strong performances by the all-male cast, and compelling tale. The sensation of solitude and stress conveyed in the film is just unparalleled. So, if you are looking for something distinctive and different, then do not hesitate to give this a try.
In today’s video, we will look at the Wendigo and Lovecraftian Mythology that Black Mountain Side has to offer. Please keep in mind that this will be an in-depth explanation, so feel free to share your ideas in the comments area. Are you prepared? Let us get this party started!
There Is Something Under The Ice – Black Mountain Side (2014)
The brilliant screenplay also by Nick Szostakiwskyj, Black Mountain Side is the first movie to have been released by the Canadian production company, A Farewell To Kings Entertainment Company. The flick begins with a group of researchers stationed at the north-most outpost in Canada, who have made some kind of archaeological discovery.
The group comprises Jensen, project director, Francis Månro, equipment technician Drew McNaughton, field supervisor Robert Michael Giles, site assigned medical supervisor Dr. Richard Andervs and intern assistant Steven Wells. They are soon joined by Professor Piers Olsen, a more experienced archaeologist to study the ancient artifacts. Francis fills in the professor about a structure that the crew had unearthed a week before and the way things are looking, there is a possibility that it might be one of the greatest archaeological finds in the past century.
With Professor Olsen trying to identify the culture that built the structure as well as learn about the topography of the place along with the local native population, strange events start taking place. To begin with, the bloodied remnants of the chef’s cat are found all of a sudden and to top things further, one of the native workers blames McNaughton for it. Of course, McNaughton denies killing the cat.
Within the next few days, the native workers disappear; it just seemed like they simply walked off the dig site into the Canadian wilderness, and if one is to look at the freezing temperature – a minus 50 to be specific, add to that limited sunlight in the region, it pretty much seemed like the natives signed their own death sentence.
Next, the communication equipment starts to fail, the supplies stop coming and one by one, the crew starts feeling really sick. Now, when we say sick, we are stressing on Wells throwing up some kind of a black liquid. It is a given thing that his condition deteriorates further and the group is literally forced to chop off his arm when they see something moving inside. In due course, members of the crew start hearing this evil voice, one that sows seeds of paranoia, treachery, suicide, and violence on an already on-the-edge group.
The crew starts having visions of the same creature, who tells them to follow his voice. A delirious McNaughton is discovered by Jensen with his hand chopped off. Disturbed, Jensen gets a check-up done by the doctor to whom he confides, how he has been waking up past a couple of weeks for no reason and not being able to sleep afterward.
He tells the doctor about a strange dream that he has been having, one where he sees people who are apparently like them but also not like them in ways. The doctor administers him a couple of pills to help him sleep well at night. As for Olsen and Francis, they are able to make out some kind of a Deer-God from the carvings, who they believe to be a creator god and Olsen deduces that whatever happened to Wells is somehow related to the carvings on the mysterious artifact.
Francis happens to be the first amongst the crew to get a physical glimpse of the evil voice that has taken the shape of a Deer-God. The next morning, McNaughton is found dead, having blown his head off with a rifle. The tension is at its peak and the remaining crew is literally on the verge of losing their sanity.
The Evil Voice makes Francis kill Wells and the latter’s action is soon discovered by Olsen, who rings the alarm to warn the rest. Francis is locked in a room by the others. Later, with the dead corpse of Drew trying to speak to Olsen, the professor ends up thudding his head with the rifle. In the meantime, things don’t really look bright with Robert; he starts losing his mind like the others and ends up shooting most of the crew but not before Jensen shoots him dead.
Having been shot in the process, Olsen tries to attend to their wounds of Jensen but the latter tells him to leave without him and go to the reserve. With Olsen leaving, Jensen ends up blowing up the entire place. The ending scene shows Olsen getting his feet caught up in a bear trap and writhing in an unbearable amount of pain. It isn’t really known whether he is able to make it to the reservation alive or not.
Now, this movie here isn’t a regular creature feature. It is more like a psychological horror with elements of physical threat in a secluded, snowy, exceedingly cold location. Black Mountain Side is a lot more about the audio experience along with the visual experience but from a mental perspective. In a manner, it would be fair to say that the flick is more about the effect on the characters rather than seeing a monster pop up from nowhere.
You will be surprised to know that the cast and crew of the film actually lived in those cabins, the ones that the movie has on display. This means they neither had any access to the internet nor to any kind of cell service. Also, there is no music or soundtrack in this movie. Well, not even in the subtitles or the credits at the end!!.
The ambiguous nature of the beast, creature, or antagonist- in fact, that surprisingly works pretty well for the part of the movie. The whole film has this overwhelming feeling of dread, something that makes Black Mountain Side quite an intimidating movie, to begin with. But mind you, when we say intimidating, it is not because of the monster on display. No, it is also not because of the characters.
It is completely because of the manner that which this flick has been shot. The spectacular work of the camera has such a sublime quality to it. We will give you an example, there are these really nice long scenes shot with one take. In fact, one of the opening shots of the movie is just a camera rotating around the main cast who are busy playing cards. It is so crisp; you’ve got to see it to get what we are talking about.
Well, the movie goes above and beyond in every way – be it with the characters, the story, the effects, the gore on display, and even the execution. Black Mountain Side as a movie makes some pretty bold choices about the things not to tell you, things that aren’t explained, or let’s say things that are indirect rather than told to you or even shown to you for that matter.
Coming to the dialogues, a few of them might seem a little wooden to you and that is only if you want explanation and exposition. You want to know more, pay a real great amount of attention to the movie. But hey, that’s not a deal-breaker by any means. Please be rest assured that you will still be very much into the movie. That’s the charm of this Canadian Indie horror thriller!
Is There A Wendigo In The Movie?
Before we dig deeper into the movie and make our own theory about the creature on display, let’s get our basics right! The question is if there happens to be a Wendigo in the film. Was there? We will get to that later but first, it is important for us to delve a little deeper into what a Wendigo is. Regarded mostly as evil, supernatural, cannibalistic beings that are forever hungry, Wendigoes are mythological creatures mostly affiliated with the North, cold, famine as well as starvation.
The Legends of America portrays these creatures as ‘gaunt to the point of emaciation; its desiccated skin pulled tautly over its bones. With its bones pushing out against its skin, its complexion -the ash gray of death, and its eyes pushed back deep into their sockets; the Wendigo looked like a gaunt skeleton recently disinterred from the grave. What lips it had were tattered and bloody. Its body was Unclean and suffering from suppurations of the flesh, giving off a strange and eerie odor of decay and decomposition, of death and corruption.’
Now that the basics are clear, let’s talk about the appearance of this man-beast. Boasting a height of say about 15 feet, an emaciated body, teeth like a dog, huge glowing eyes, a rather stretched out tongue, and no lips. It is mostly gray in color, has antlers and talons that look a lot like daggers.
It enjoys human flesh and has this never-ending desire to eat. It is stated that a Wendigo grows in size every time it eats human flesh so don’t be surprised by its size. Spoiler alerts, it is huge, and to take things to the next level, it is an excellent hunter. Starting from being able to self-heal its body, regenerate whenever it is wounded to having this uncanny skill of mimicking human voices and calling for help, calling a Wendigo creepy would be a total understatement!
Now, coming back to the question of if there is a Wendigo in the movie, we have our theories for it. Black Mountain Side has some kind of a Deer-God creature on display, one that does bear a resemblance to a Wendigo. Well, if not completely physically, the whole idea of this creature being a malevolent spirit, heavily influencing and driving people on the edge and eventually making them lose their sanity and making them do unimaginable things – well, that does sound a lot like a Wendigo.
Add to these, the association of this creature with the winter, a minus 50 degrees to be exact, limited sunlight in the region and the Canadian wilderness, it’d be odd if things don’t ring a bell.
The Deer God – Lovecraftian Cthulhu Mythos
Well, there are no second thoughts about the presence of the Deer-God evil spirit becoming more and more threatening as the movie unfolds. The whole idea of the crew unearthing the mysterious structure that is followed by the communication equipment failing, the supplies coming to an end, the crew finding themselves stranded in the middle of nowhere and on the verge of losing their sanity, everything about this suddenly feels very Lovecraftian-esque.
The slow pacing does not mean that the buildup is boring; there is this perpetual sense of isolation and dread throughout the run time of 99 minutes. Enters the Deer God, one that was apparently worshipped by the native culture that came up with the structure in the first place. Conclusively, the highpoint of the movie, thanks to the ambiguity around it that one never really got a sense of what the Deer God actually wanted.
What was its motive? Did it make an appearance to sow seeds of distrust, deceit, self-destruction, and chaos on an already on-the-edge group? While it is clear that the creature was somehow trapped in the structure unearthed, there is also a possibility that the Deer God is a god, more like some part waiting in stasis. A lot is left for interpretation, so please feel free to share your thoughts about it in the comments.
Why Should You Watch Black Mountain Side?
Do you know how there are these mystery thrillers that really work because of their slow pacing? That’s how they build up the tension, the sense of dread, and the right atmosphere. Well, Black Mountain Side inevitably tops the list of such movies. The storyline is set over a period of say six weeks and the best part is how it has managed to blend Lovecraftian terrors in its own way.
While most of the horror on display is psychological, there is enough gore to keep all the gorehounds hooked on to the screen. Mind you, it might serve as brownie points for fans of Lovecraft but this incredible movie here is for all and it is definitely something that you just would not want to miss out on!