Movie Review
Wintertide
By Fabricio Estevam Mira

"Beth, a volunteer watchperson of an isolated northern city, battles a plague of depression that transforms the few remaining residents into empty, zombie-like automatons. She discovers that by entering an alternative dimension through her own dreams, she's able to stave off the illness during the long, possibly endless winter. But will her power be enough to sustain her?"

This is the overview received about the film Wintertide, by filmmaker John Barnard. I don't usually repeat given summaries, but as much as I see good things in a film that, overall, was very well executed, I feel my enthusiasm being dragged into the ditch when the movie is covered in clichés and lack of originality. And that's the big problem with Wintertide, along with over ninety percent of horror films coming from English-speaking countries. A neophobic agoraphobia stuck to the skin, like a hematophagous barbed wire that digs its tips deeper and deeper. From the themes, to the formats, execution, and soundtrack. In the case of Wintertide, the director's experience and ability are evident. He's good and should take creatively bigger steps, but he shrinks and adopts a John Carpenter-esque atmosphere that goes beyond homage and verges on copy. Yes, I understand that issues like depression, isolation, and the quest for a more vivid life are underneath it all, but when what you see on the screen is a kind of plague that turns the sick into almost zombies, the end result is irreparably compromised. Regardless of the good performances and the dedication of the cast and crew, because the taste that remains is that of having watched yet another zombie movie, one of hundreds made massively and spread across all platforms and festivals. And one of the main discomforts that this causes me comes from the chance wasted by the filmmaker to explore the possibilities that independent authors have, which is to work outside the box. To dare. To take risks that are worth it. To show freshness in the work. What English-speaking filmmakers must understand is that fear should remain with the audience watching the film, not with the writers and directors when it comes to daring.