Resting at the dark heart of Windcroft, writer / director Evan A. Meszaros sharp, confident debut feature, is the spectral notion of history fated to repeat in the face of time, reason, and love. The film impressively resists base genre impulses and allows its scenario and characters ample room to breathe, lending an energetic third act infused with all manner of sadistic mayhem enhanced dramatic heft. Windcroft’s atypical structure and pacing will challenge some viewers but offers a unique, rewarding experience to those more interested in demons rattling around their protagonists’ heads as opposed to their basements and crawlspaces.
Following his long-alienated father’s death, young ad exec John (Joe Ryan) and new(ish) bride Diane (Vanessa Daniels) hit the road for a long weekend at the titular locale, a sprawling farm located in northern Pennsylvania where John spent most of his unhappy childhood. Once there Mindy (Monica Knight), a figure from John’s past, reappears and forges a friendly bond with the couple. Over the next few days, facts surrounding John’s parents and his family’s fractured past bubble upward, and Diane learns she’s pregnant. A shocking confrontation between Mindy and John spins things in darker directions, and a surprising visit from John’s surrogate father Murray (Ray Wasik) finally pitches events over the edge as John plots to enact a twisted family rite.
Meszaros chooses to keep his script from delving too deeply into its characters’ psyches, which lends an unsettling realist edge to the horrors Windcroft portrays. The audience is presented with average people thrust into situations spawned from decades of secrecy and self-delusion, situations they react to in flawed, human fashions. Because the film’s pace picks up so quickly in its final third after such a slow build, it may only be upon further reflection viewers are able to fully appreciate how carefully Meszaros and his actors have crafted Windcroft’s characters. Regardless, it’s refreshing to see a restrained take on a genre typically fueled by histrionics.
Gorgeously photographed in HD, the film presents a compelling tech package end to end. Production design is another strong point. The farm teems with sharp-ended objects waiting to be put to ill use, and an icy reveal involving eerily similar photographs from John’s past and present nicely re-enforces the afore-mentioned themes of fate and the roundabout nature of time.
Windcroft, currently out to festivals, plays against type the way smaller films should. Suspense and horror are notoriously cyclical genres, and it invariably takes different approaches to bust them loose from their self-imposed confines (as of late, torture porn and long-haired, vengeful spirits creeping out of physically impossible spaces). Windcroft offers just that sort of antidote – it’s a moody, ultimately pitched affair that plays by its own rules and is all the better for it.