The Wendigo: Native American Stuff of Nightmares
(The following article contains spoilers for the 2022 movie Prey)
In 2022 the seventh movie in the Predator franchise was released. The movie, Prey, was in many ways similar to the 1987 original, although trading the steaming jungles of Central America for the Oklahoma plains and the wisecracking mercenaries for stoic Comanche was a surprising, and appealing twist.
But once again we have an extraterrestrial descending from the skies to pick fights with the most dangerous adversaries they can find. Once again all pre-existing conflict is overruled as those caught in this monster’s sights struggle for their very survival, and once again it is ingenuity and preparedness which wins the day: all those who rush in to face the threat die, and quickly.
The Predator once again has his bag of tricks, which (although more primitive, as the movie is set almost 300 years before the Arnold Schwarzenegger original) are functionally the same. This predator can still turn invisible, still collects the skulls of its defeated foes, still has an array of technically advanced weaponry, still has the famous thermal vision.
Perhaps the biggest difference about the creature is in its appearance. This is not the Predator of the original films, this monster is leaner, its facial mandibles larger and more menacing, and its armor and equipment much more primitive, with a huge skull for a mask.
In arriving at this new design, and especially given the surroundings, it seems that the filmmakers took inspiration from a Native American legend, something horrific which was said to stalk the plains and forests of North America. No ordinary creature, this monster was a cannibalistic horror which towered over ordinary men.
The monster they called the Wendigo.
