Written, directed, and produced by Tom Chaney who even did the cinematography and editing for the film, Frostbiter: Wrath of the Wendigo (AKA Frostbiter and Wendigo ) is an independent horror comedy about a monster that is revived by a pair of hunters and wreaks havoc on some people staying at a nearby cabin in the freezing cold. It was shot in the late eighties but wasn’t released until 1995!
Taking place in Michigan, two snooty and partially drunk hunters, Gary and Dave, stumble upon the resting place of the long buried ancient demon known as the Wendigo and kill the elderly protector of the land. With the protector did, the creature is free to go about killing people.
Meanwhile another group of hunters in a nearby cabin are now being attacked by other weird creatures that seem to have also been released from their imprisonment. While all this mayhem is going on, a woman named Sandy (Lori Baker) begins to experience visions of the elderly man who was killed by the two hunters telling her that she must now kill the Wendigo, so she flies out to where the creatures and would be victims are to stop the madness!
I hate to say this but as much as I enjoy cinema and watching all sorts of films, independent or otherwise for the first time ever, I thought this movie was lousy. It will certainly appeal to those who love independent eighties horror films but this one wasn’t for me. While I can appreciate independent films and filmmakers, Frostbiter: Wrath of the Wendigo, at least to me, was one of the worst films I have seen in a long time. And this is coming from a reviewer who owns Ghostkeeper, Neon Maniacs, Nightbeast and Zombie Nightmare! The musical scores were just bottom of the barrel awful. The acting for the film wasn’t anything special, even with the guitarist for The Stooges, Ron Asheton, the biggest name actor in the movie. The characters weren’t interesting in the least. The tongue-in-cheek approach didn’t work for me and probably would have enjoyed the film more if it was a serious no-nonsense horror movie. There were some parts of the movie that I did warm up on to some extent, which were the special effects with some cool looking stop-motion monsters the wintery atmosphere. The film had plenty of gore, but blood spurting gory scenes and monsters alone do not make for a good movie. Frostbiter: The Wrath of the Wendigo also looks to have been inspired by Evil Dead II with the movie taking place in a cabin and some of the dead victims coming back to life.
Vinegar Syndrome presents Frostbiter: The Wrath of the Wendigo on Blu-ray in a great package. Early buyers will get the limited edition slipcover for this offering. The Blu-ray also has reversible sleeve art. As for the image quality, the movie has been given a stunning Region Free release that has been advertised as “Newly scanned and restored in 2K from its 16mm original camera negative.” Frostbiter: The Wrath of the Wendigo does look wonderful in HD. The full frame image has very little to no print damages with lively colors and excellent details to both interiors and exterior shots, which are basically inside and outside of the cabin. Reds look especially strong as they should with all the gore in the picture. Flesh tones look accurate with plenty of details shown on the characters faces. I didn’t detect any DNR used. It will most likely not look any better than this release!
The English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 soundtrack for this release was outstanding with easy-to-understand dialogue, with more robust sounding action noises, screams, roars, and music. No audio distortions such as hissing or popping were detected during the audio presentation. Optional English SDH subtitles are offered for this release.
Frostbiter: The Wrath of the Wendigo has a load of extras. The movie features a new commentary track with co-writer and director Tom Chaney, moderated by Michael Felsher of Red Shirt pictures.
From there we get several interviews with the cast and crew who reflect about Frostbiter: The Wrath of the Wendigo. Lucky fans will be busy for days watching all these interviews which consist of the following:
Wendigo Make a Movie is an interview with co-writer and director Tom Chaney.
The Many Hats of a Wendigo is an interview with producer David Thiry
What Were We Thinking? is an interview with actor Alan Madlane
Frankenstein’s Wendigo is an interview with stop motion animator Dave Hettmer
A Friend in Need is an interview with actor John Bussard
Sound of the Wendigo is an interview with sound editor and actor Paul Harris
But wait! There are still more extras on this release to sit back and enjoy which includes an archival featurette with actor Ron Asheton, an original ‘Wendigo’ promo video, an original ‘Frostbiter’ video trailer some behind-the-scenes footage, footage from the Michigan Premiere, an archival Troma introduction and promo video, plus a behind-the-scenes still gallery!
There are enough extras to keep you busy with this disc for quite a while!
This to me will be the holy grail for Blu-ray releases for Frostbiter: The Wrath of the Wendigo with fantastic video and audio quality to go with tons of bonus materials. This release is nothing short of awesome and is highly recommended to anyone who understands their taste in film and will enjoy an independent low-budget horror comedy such as this one.
Frostbiter: Wrath of the Wendigo
Director – Tom Chaney
Cast- Ron Asheton, Lori Baker, Patrick Butler, Devlin Burton
Country of Origin-USA
Distributor – Vinegar Syndrome
Number of Discs – 1
Reviewed by – David Steigman
Date –2/29/2023