Wind Chill (2007)

Director:

Gregory Jacobs

Writers (WGA):

Joe Gangemi (written by) &
Steven Katz (written by)

Release Date:

3 August 2007 (UK)

Genre:

Drama | Horror | Thriller

Tagline:

There Are Worse Things Than Dying

Plot:

Two college students share a ride home for the holidays. When they break down on a deserted stretch of road, they're preyed upon by the ghosts of people who have died there. |

Plot Keywords:

Car Radio | Cellular Phone | Death | Bulletin Board | Apparition

Cast

Emily Blunt	...	Girl
Ashton Holmes	...	Guy
Martin Donovan	...	Highway Patrolman
Ned Bellamy	...	Snowplow Driver
Ian A. Wallace	...	Priest (as Ian Wallace)
Donny James Lucas	...	Stranger (as Donny Lucas)
Chelan Simmons	...	Blonde Girl
Darren Moore	...	Clerk
Linden Banks	...	Proctor
Caz Odin Darko	...	Teenage Boy #1 (as Caz Darko)
Heath Horejda	...	Teenage Boy #2

Directed by
Gregory Jacobs

Writing credits (WGA)
Joe Gangemi		(written by) (as Joseph Gangemi) &
Steven Katz		(written by)

Produced by
Graham Broadbent	....	producer
George Clooney	....	executive producer
Ben Cosgrove	....	executive producer
Peter Czernin	....	producer
Peter Lhotka	....	co-producer
Peter Phillips	....	associate producer
Steven Soderbergh	....	executive producer

Original Music by
Clint Mansell

Cinematography by
Dan Laustsen		(director of photography)

Film Editing by
Lee Percy

Casting by
Sean Cossey

Production Design by
Howard Cummings

Art Direction by
Kelvin Humenny

Set Decoration by
Carol Lavallee

Makeup Department
Raymond E. Bailey	....	special makeup effects artist
Ken Culver	....	mold/lab technician
Todd Masters	....	prosthetics designer
Nicholas Podbrey	....	special effects makeup coordinator
Geoff Redknap	....	special makeup effects artist

Production Management
Jim O'Grady	....	production manager
Peter Phillips	....	post-production supervisor

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Trey Batchelor	....	first assistant director
Jesse Cooper	....	trainee assistant director
Cory Faulkner	....	second assistant director
Megan M. Shank	....	third assistant director

Art Department
Vaughan V. Baker	....	paint coordinator
Victoria Balharry	....	art department coordinator
Dean Barker	....	property master
Brent Boates	....	illustrator
Nancy Anna Brown	....	assistant art director
Niki Charalambopoulos	....	scenic painter
Michael Dundas	....	paint foreman
Michael Toby	....	set designer

Sound Department
Scott Conrad	....	ProTools engineer
Vanessa Lapato	....	sound editor
Tim LeBlanc	....	re-recording mix technician
Kimaree Long	....	dialogue editor
Mark A. Mangini	....	sound re-recording mixer
Rory O'Neill	....	sound assistant
Billy Theriot	....	assistant sound editor
Tony Wyman	....	boom operator

Special Effects by
Cara E. Anderson	....	special effects buyer
Chris Flemington	....	on set special effects
Chris Hatchwell	....	special effects assistant
Ken Reynolds	....	special effects technician
Chris Sturges	....	special effects technician
Attila Vaski	....	special effects technician

Visual Effects by
Ann-Marie Blommaert	....	visual effects project manager
Landon Bootsma	....	compositor: Technicolor
Randy Brown	....	compositor: CIS Hollywood
John Cassella	....	cg artist: CIS Hollywood
Paul Chapman	....	digital compositor
Patrick Clancey	....	digital opticals
Jon Cowley	....	visual effects supervisor: Technicolor
Louis Cox	....	visual effects
Craig Crawford	....	compositor: CIS Hollywood
Brandon Criswell	....	compositor: CIS Hollywood
Pete Dionne	....	3D artist: Technicolor
Donald Fly	....	general manager: CIS Hollywood
Julia Gaudette	....	visual effects production manager: CIS Hollywood
Heather Elisa Hill	....	visual effects coordinator: CIS Hollywood
Brian Holmes	....	systems engineer: CIS Hollywood
Chris Holmes	....	visual effects supervisor: I.C.O. Entertainment, Inc.
Jeffrey Kalmus	....	digital effects supervisor
Yann Laliberte	....	digital compositor
Gregory D. Liegey	....	senior compositor: CIS Hollywood
Erik Nordby	....	lead compositor
Robert E. Phillips	....	digital intermediate assistant producer: EFILM
Greg Shimp	....	paint and rotoscope artist: CIS Hollywood
Danita Slaughter	....	digital opticals editor
Thomas J. Smith	....	visual effects supervisor: CIS Hollywood
Sebastien Veilleux	....	digital compositor
Matt Wilson	....	compositor: CIS Hollywood
Kyle Yamamoto	....	research and development programmer: CIS Hollywood
J. Kitazaki	....	production assistant: CIS Hollywood (uncredited)
Scott Rushforth	....	junior systems: CIS Hollywood (uncredited)

Stunts
Ed Anders	....	stunt coordinator
Garvin Cross	....	stunt double
Andrea Kinsky	....	stunt double
Gerald Paetz	....	stunt double

Camera and Electrical Department
Herb DeWaal	....	key rigging grip
Sean Elliott	....	first assistant camera: "b" camera
Bryan Forde	....	gaffer
Aaron Haesler	....	camera operator: "b" camera
Aaron Haesler	....	second assistant camera
Leigh Jenkins	....	assistant camera
Paul Matsalla	....	lighting technician
Steve McGuire	....	rigging grip
Ryan Monro	....	dolly grip
Craig Nix	....	crane operator: Technocrane
Karen Obertowich	....	video assistant
Dan Power	....	still photographer
Timothy Robin Spencer	....	key first assistant camera
Keith Woods	....	rigging gaffer

Editorial Department
Lisa Cossettini	....	assistant editor
Ryan Hogan	....	dailies colorist
Jack Lewars	....	assistant color timer: Efilm
Alex Ott	....	post-production assistant
Amy Pawlowski	....	digital intermediate editor
Robert E. Phillips	....	digital intermediate assistant producer: EFILM

Music Department
Gustavo Borner	....	score mixer
Rick Giovinazzo	....	orchestrator
Peter Rotter	....	orchestra contractor
Justin Skomarovsky	....	musician: piano
Booker White	....	head of music preparation
Joshua Winget	....	music editor

Other crew
Doreen Beaulac	....	production accountant
Jim Dunlap	....	production accountant
Wesley Emms	....	production assistant
Danny Ho	....	playback supervisor
Lana Krotenko	....	script supervisor
Sheri Mayervich	....	location manager
Rod McDonough	....	glassworks
Chooch Paglaro	....	playback coordinator
Jaime Peters	....	assistant accountant
Sarah Pickersgill	....	laboratory technician
Nicholas Podbrey	....	lead puppeteer
Marie-Hélène Riverain	....	assistant to director
Dinean Stayk	....	assistant location manager
Larry Tardif	....	special equipment
Matthew Tingey	....	production assistant
Stevi Williams	....	contact lens technician
Shayne A. Wilson	....	executive assistant: producers
Shayne A. Wilson	....	script and clearance coordinator
Maryjane Layani	....	production accountant: CIS Hollywood (uncredited)

Thanks
Jennifer Fox	....	special thanks
Heather McGrath Jacobs	....	special thanks (as Heather Jacobs)

Production Companies

• Blueprint Pictures
• Section Eight

Distributors

• TriStar Pictures (2007) (USA) (theatrical)
• Falcon (2007) (Czech Republic) (theatrical)
• Columbia TriStar Films de Argentina (2007) (Argentina) (all media)
• LK-TEL (2007) (Argentina) (DVD)
• LK-TEL (2007) (Argentina) (VHS)
• Hollydan Works (2008) (Yugoslavia) (DVD)
• Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (2007) (Netherlands) (DVD)
• Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (2007) (USA) (DVD)
• Sony Pictures Releasing (2007) (Germany) (theatrical)

Special Effects

• CIS Hollywood (visual effects)

Other Companies

• Chapman / Leonard Studio Equipment  dollies
• Pivotal Post  Avid editing equipment provided by

MPAA:

Rated R for some violence and disturbing images.

Runtime:

91 min

Country:

UK | USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital | SDDS | DTS

Certification:

USA:R | UK:15 | Netherlands:16 | Australia:MA | Argentina:16 | Singapore:PG | Ireland:15A | Germany:16 | Italy:T

Filming Locations:

Brenda Mines Road, Peachland, British Columbia, Canada

Company:

Blueprint Pictures

Goofs:

Miscellaneous: The car that the couple are driving has no license plate.

Quotes:

Guy: I was going to tell you everything eventually.

Promising and Eerie Ghost Story, but with a Disappointing Resolution

In Christmas, a female college student (Emily Blunt) accepts to share a ride home to Delaware with a stranger (Ashton Holmes). The driver tells her that they study philosophy in the same class, and they briefly discuss the definition of Nietzsche's theory of eternal recurrence. The girl tells to a friend in her cell phone that the highway was boring and the driver takes a shortcut through a nice and romantic scenic route. They are forced off the road by another car; they have a car accident and get stranded in the lonely road. When the driver is blamed and pressed by the girl, he explains that he is a shy man that had a crush on her, and used the trip to spend some time close to her. Along the night, the temperature gets colder and colder, and they are haunted by ghost of people that have died in the location.

"Wind Chill" is a promising and eerie ghost story, but with a disappointing resolution. I am not familiarized with Nietzsche's theory of eternal recurrence, the theme of the whole plot, and I found in Wikipedia that "Eternal return (also known as "eternal recurrence") is a concept which posits that the universe has been recurring, and will continue to recur in the exact same self-similar form an incomprehensible and unfathomable number of times. The basic premise is that the universe is limited in extent and contains a finite amount of matter, while time is viewed as being infinite. The universe has no starting or ending state, while the matter comprising it is constantly changing its state. The number of possible changes is finite, and so sooner or later the same state will recur." This philosophical definition explains the existence of ghosts in that deserted road living the same situations of fifty and something years before. However, it is never clear for me when the driver died: is he struggling to survive along the cold night, or did he die immediately after the accident? In the end, his ghost guides the girl back to the gas station and saves her life. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Estrada Maldita" ("Damned Road")