Written on the Wind: Mastorakis’ Grecian Thriller a Find for Foster Fans with “The Wind” | Blu-ray Review

Arrow Video continues to champion and resurrect the filmography of B-movie director Nico Mastorakis with his 1986 title The Wind, which was released theatrically in European territories but on video in the US. For those familiar with previous Arrow restorations of Mastorakis, this Greece set cat-and-mouse thriller is something of an anomaly in his filmography.

Featuring both a solid cast and a likeable lead performance from Meg Foster, the overly simplistic narrative concretizes into rigid formula by the third act, but it’s a comparably coherent exercise to some of the director’s other titles helmed before and after this venture.

Los Angeles based mystery writer Sian Anderson (Foster) flies to the remote Greek town of Monemvasia to complete her latest novel. The house she’s renting is owned by the pompous British expat Elias Appleby (Robert Morley), who employs the intense Phil (Wings Hauser) as handyman and delivery boy. When Phil is suddenly fired, he decides to kill everyone, but when Sian sees him burying Elias, she is able to remain one step ahead of Phil as they both shelter from the seasonal, hurricane-force winds which keep the townspeople indoors.

The real reason to catch The Wind is for a lead performance from Meg Foster during her most fruitful period. Though remembered most for her work in Carpenter’s seminal They Live (1988) or the cult classic Guardians of the Galaxy (1987), Mastorakis gives her a resilient opportunity which trumps other genre fare offerings she starred in, such as her damsel-in-distress suburbanite in The Stepfather 2 (1989).

Mastorakis also stumbles upon a useful mechanism with the gale force winds equaling the playing field between victim and perpetrator, reminiscent of the titular device Victor Sjostrom utilized in the Lillian Gish led The Wind from 1928. Wings Hauser is appropriate as the psychotic American who goes on a rampage after killing his employer (the usually unappealing Robert Morley), and Steve Railsback provides an odd camp element as a fisherman stepping in to do police work. An effective score from Hans Zimmer and Stanley Meyers (The Witches; The Deer Hunter) is also an asset.

Film Rating: ★★½/☆☆☆☆☆
Disc Rating: ★★★½/☆☆☆☆☆