I'm trying to get around to watching all of the horror films that After Dark produced or distributed since their first Horrorfest. I've only watched a few so far, but Wind Walkers is the best one I've seen yet. It's not the most polished indie horror you'll ever see, and it's not very scary, but it has a good cast and tells a relatively original story.
I classify this as a PTSD horror movie. It's one of the films in a new wave of veteran stories whose subjects are young and were fighting in the Middle East in the last 10-20 years. The other most notable example I enjoyed was Pod, which I think is equal in quality to this film.
The main highlight of this movie for me was Glen Powell, who you may know as Chad Radwell from Scream Queens. I was pleasantly surprised when I saw him in the cast as I began watching and surely would have watched this sooner had I known of his involvement! He's especially hilarious but also holds his own in tense and suspenseful scenes. Another good point was the sense of mystery surrounding the Wind Walkers and how it propelled the film forward.
On the negative side, some special effects were less than believable, but overall they kept them subtle so it was a minimal distraction. Also, no spoilers, but some of the reveals in the second half of the film felt underwhelming and ended up being disappointing. There is also a pretty awful intro/outro bookend that features a Native elder obviously reading in front of the camera. It just felt completely out of place, and the filmmakers should have come up with a better way to integrate the information that he conveys into the main plot.
After Dark is prone to distributing some underwhelming movies. While Wind Walkers occasionally falls into this camp, most of the time I found it enjoyable and worth the watch.
