Known as The Windmill Massacre or the The Windmill depending on the country and release, this supernatural slasher set in Holland follows Jennifer who is running from her past and goes on a tour of the countries beautiful windmills. Once in the countryside, the bus breaks down and the passengers start getting picked off one by one. Director Nick Jongerius creates an effective slasher with a twist written by Chris W. Mitchell and Suzy Quid, based on a story by Jongerius. The characters here are varied which gives the film an edge over the usual slashers where high school or college students are the only one being picked off.
In this film, the variety of people involved gives a basic slasher some originality. The killer they create is nasty, as in he does not joke around with his kills. The first kill sets the tone nicely and shows that this film is not kidding, it will get bloody. And it does. The script follows the slasher formula a bit but it also goes in an interesting direction with the reason for the killings and how they are done. The characters built are decently done so with performances that works. In the lead of Jennifer, the Australia trying to run away from her past and survive is Charlotte Beaumont who does well with her part giving her character that possibly crazy vibe that adds to the layers of issues she is dealing with and makes her a bit of a more attractive lead than we often get in these films lately.
The cast here, most of them supporting, is composed of talented actors who do well with their parts. Memorable are Fiona Hampton and Tanroh Ishida who add a bit of Japanese to the spoken lines which create an interesting aspect for the film. Kenan Raven is The Miller, the slasher, the killer, the feared man, and he gives his character a looming presence with a menacing way of standing over his victims and starring them down from away. He creates a good new slasher to add to the already long list of them. As this is an unashamed horror film, it has gore and it’s quality gore. The first kill establishes how fun the effects will get. The makeup effects team composed of Rick Wiessenhaan, Erik Hillenbrink, and Rob Hillenbrink does great work on the effects and they do not skimp on the blood.
The visual effects by Harold de Groot and Thaumar Rep look good for most of the film, but the CGI fire looks not so good which is sadly something that happens far too often with CGI fire. The film and of itself looks good with cinematography by Bart Beekman. Some of the scenes look almost like a tourism ad for Holland and its windmills. The dark scenes look good as well, which is something that deserves to be noted as a lot of the film takes place after dark, but the action and characters are still visible making what happens to them clear.
The Windmill Massacre is a fun supernatural slasher with a slight issue with the ending, at least in this reviewer’s eyes, but it’s easy to get over it and just enjoy the rest of the film. It’s a new slasher killer that could easily get a few more movies in him if they develop him and his mythology correctly.