By John Corrado

★★ (out of 4)

The 2023 Canadian Film Fest runs from March 28th to April 1st, with films screening in-person at Scotiabank Theatre in Toronto and virtually on Super Channel Fuse.

Set in a vague, post-apocalyptic world that has turned much of the population into depressive zombies, Wintertide follows Beth (Niamh Carolan), a volunteer watchmen in a remote northern city tasked with reporting any sightings of “strays,” who are captured and housed in a secure facility. While everyone around her slowly seems to be getting infected, Beth realizes that she is seemingly immune to the disease, and able to avoid the illness by entering into a dreamlike state during a series of one night stands that allow her to leave her body.

Directed by John Barnard, Wintertide is an example of a film that has flashes of potential, but is held back by a story that feels underdeveloped and doesn’t do a good enough job of explaining itself. The screenplay, co-written by Barnard and Carrie-May Siggins, does introduce several intriguing ideas, but struggles to fully flesh them out, and only ever offers vague hints as to what is going on (Beth keeps a chalkboard by her door counting how many days it has been without sun; 98 at the beginning of the film).

The film is somewhat effective at capturing the cold, desolate, snowy landscapes of Winnipeg to provide a post-apocalyptic backdrop, and there is a sort of clever Anne Murray “Snowbird” needle drop. But the film, which never quite finds the right balance between zombie movie and psychological thriller with a few elements of body horror mixed in, struggles to build momentum with scenes that can get a bit repetitive, and doesn’t quite add up to more than the sum of its parts in the end.

Wintertide is the closing night film of the Canadian Film Fest, and screens on Saturday, April 1st at 9:10 PM ET, at Scotiabank Theatre Toronto and on Super Channel. Tickets and more information can be found right here.