Wind Chill is a 2007 supernatural horror film directed by Gregory Jacobs and starring Emily Blunt and Ashton Holmes. I kind of debated what I wanted to talk about on the blog this week because the slate was rather clean for me, but considering I (and a good portion of the United States) are currently experiencing a snowstorm and frigid temperatures for the next handful of days I thought a cold, snowy horror film would fit the vibes perfectly. And I wasn’t necessarily wrong either. The story follows a girl hitching a ride back to Delaware with a guy from college for winter break, doing some kind of late 2000s sketchy ride-share thing that died quickly after Uber and Lyft came around, I’m assuming. The 2 get to know each other a little bit better through the awkward ride until they’re driven off the road by a motorist and crash into a snowbank on the side of a forgotten stretch of road, that’s when things start to go down and the story starts to pick up.
I will say though right off the bat, I’m glad that this story started to pick up and weave in some interesting mystery partway through because I was simply not vibing with these 2 characters through the first 30 or so minutes of the film. Emily Blunt’s character was just rude, standoffish, and off-putting just for the sake of being so and Ashton Holmes’s character was this creepy little weirdo that felt off-putting as well but in a much different way. I didn’t buy into really rooting for either of them at all or honestly really even enjoying spending a lot of time with these characters, but once the crash happened and more tense and head scratching things started to occur the story was saved in some ways. Our main characters became a lot more likeable and understandable as the story went on as well, I don’t want to make it seem like I wasn’t bought into them whatsoever for the entirety of the runtime. They just weren’t very likeable in the first half of the film, but then again, I don’t necessarily think they were supposed to be either. This movie attempted to be an onion, peel back the layers of our main characters and their dynamics and relationship with one another, while also peeling back the layers of this mystery and their current situation one layer at a time. They somewhat succeeded even though there were arguably some big swings took when there maybe didn’t need to be.
I really enjoyed the vibes and scenery of the movie though. It was basically just what I was looking for in that manner, lots of snow and coats and talks of freezing to death. I didn’t realize before starting this one though that it’s somewhat a holiday movie I guess you could say. I mean it isn’t really because there’s no decorations or Santa or anything like that, but the story takes place because they’re going home for winter break, and they talk about what they do over the holidays, and a few Christmas songs can be heard on the radio in the background from time to time. Also strangely enough, this is one of the few movies I can think of where like none of the characters are given a name throughout the entire movie. I didn’t even think about it at the time when I was watching it, but when I went to look up the cast and synopsis and everything and saw Blunt and Holmes listed as ‘Girl’ and ‘Guy’, it dawned on me and made me realize that our main characters are never called by a name throughout the entire movie. That’s just kind of wild to me, this whole car ride is about getting to know one another and they don’t drop a name in there even once?! I guess it really wasn’t necessary to the story in any way, but then again names aren’t necessary to the story a lot of the time. It’s just a way to define characters when you’re talking about them.
This movie overall felt like it took some big swings and while some of it was pretty cool and interesting stuff, it also felt a little confusing and convoluted at times to me as well. None of it was enough to make me mad or anything like that. Just some of the time jumps and rug pulls and “didn’t see that coming!” moments they were pulling in the last 20 minutes or so eventually felt like alright, y’all are just doing too much here. Especially when you get to the end and figure out how the story unfolds and the situation gets overcame. This was still a fun little ghost story though, don’t get me wrong, but I’m trying to analyze it as well and clearly, I’d say it doesn’t come without its shortcomings and problems as well. I’m a sucker for a winter setting horror film though and a sucker for a simple ghost story as well and this movie pretty much delivered on that much. If you’re in the mood for a decently quick little cold weather ghost story to get you through this winter storm then check it out till the end of the month on Netflix, or check it out for free with ads on Tubi, and make your own opinions.
That’ll be all for this one though folks! Make sure to check out my back catalog as I just got through my annual end of the year rankings series for the blog and like and follow the page on social media to keep up with all my latest posts over horror films, WWE, NFL, and more! Thank you and till next time, be good to one another!
