Arrow Video: The Wind (1986) - Reviewed

Images courtesy of Omega Entertainment

Say what you will about cult low-budget Greek exploitation filmmaker Nico Mastorakis (I’m admittedly not the biggest fan), the maverick director love or loathe him has built up a sizable filmography of B-movies over the course of twenty-six years before retiring from fictional filmmaking altogether to do the renowned documentary Mykonos, the Soul of an Island.  While the Omega Entertainment founder’s filmography is checkered at best with a number of strange and unfunny comedies and/or direct remakes of renowned American films, Mastorakis did however show he was adept at the action and horror subgenres.  With his first official return to horror in 1986 with the action-survival thriller The Zero Boys, that same year the Grecian auteur returned to his native homeland for the sickle wielding slasher horror flick The Wind released on blu-ray through Arrow Video in a director-approved restoration.

 
Well renowned Los Angeles based American mystery novelist Sian Anderson (Meg Foster from They Live) is seeking solitude from her boyfriend John (David McCallum) to begin work on her next book and ends up on the Greek island of Monemvasia in a remote ghost town managed by landlord Elias Appleby (character actor Robert Morley from The African Queen).  Upon arrival and entry to the rustic home she’s renting, Sian is forewarned by Elias of dangerously heavy nighttime winds and the presence of his sleazebag American handyman Phil (Wings Hauser) so she’s better off remaining indoors.  One night however during a particularly intense windstorm, Sian sees from her window the sight of Phil burying the body of her landlord in the front garden, setting in motion a nerve-wracking cat-and-mouse game of survival as Phil armed with a sharp sickle relentlessly pursues her throughout the desolated area including cutting off her power and phonelines.

 
A basic stalk-and-slash chiller set in Greece, Mastorakis’ third foray into horror released the same year as The Zero Boys winds up being a largely solid nail-biting programmer showcasing early soundtrack work by Stanley Myers and Hans Zimmer, striking location cinematography by Thriller: A Cruel Picture cameraman Andreas Bellis and strong performances from the two main leads Meg Foster and Wings Hauser.  Though Mastorakis’ endeavor isn’t always the most suspenseful or frightening work, it does create an atmosphere of isolation and claustrophobia despite frequently going out into the windy open.  Meg Foster, typically a supporting player in horror including John Carpenter’s They Live, is a resourceful scream queen who keeps her wits about her by talking to herself throughout the varying obstacles Wings Hauser throws her way.  Hauser as the handyman turned murderous culprit does a mostly good job as a psycho though a policeman who shows up on the scene later played by Steve Railsback makes one wonder what kind of insanity might’ve been with him in the role instead of Hauser.

 
A straight-to-video quickie released by Lightning Video on videotape in 1987 followed by a United Kingdom release under the name The Edge of Terror, Nico Mastorakis’ The Wind is another rare example of the Grecian director finding his niche and all the right notes and story beats.  Whereas his comedies were largely insufferable, action or horror seem to be where his strengths lie.  For being a home video release, like many of Mastorakis’ others, it contains a fair amount of character actor-actress star power amid the howling wind machines and rocky isolated Greek terrain.  Fans of the director will be delighted with Arrow Video’s director-supervised release while those not all that keen on digesting everything under the sun he has to offer will still find an enjoyable scenic thriller here.  One wonders why he didn’t do more of these as he definitely has a knack for it.

--Andrew Kotwicki