The Wind
Also known as The Edge of Terror. This was the title on the screen of the version I saw.Sian Anderson (Meg Foster)'s voice is retelling the story of Pinocchio and Jesus Christ. The camera pans over a Hollywood mansion and its swimming-pool. It's a ridiculous joke that she is telling to his lover, John (David McCallum), a 40-something still attractive wealthy man. They are hugging after sex. He complains that he is not one of the heroes in his novel,so that he can only have sex once every night. She says that he will have time to rest afterwards, during the weekend, as she is flying away.Suddenly,there is the noise of a helicopter or something like that getting close. She wonders what that noise is about. He undraws the curtains electronically showing her a flying announcement saying "Bon voyage".Sian is telling this story to somebody else, one of her girlfriends (Summer Thomas). The friend feels jealous,but Sian says that he is perfect, but that she wants freedom and a different man every night. The friend thinks that Sian will have lots of sexual adventures during her holidays, but Sian says that she needs to work in her following novel. Awkward moment of another girlfriend, I guess, wearing a skimpy Baywatch-like red swimsuit who smiles and sits down and the same poolside table and Sian and friend.Her wealthy boyfriends sees her off in a limo, saying that he will miss her. Sian is skeptical, though. He mentions that many people think that she has "huevos" like a man, but she says that that is only because she uses a male pseudonym in her books. At that moment, Carol, his secretary, calls him. He also worries about Sian getting on well with her landlord, Elias Appleby (Robert Morley) because he doesn't have a very English-sounding name, so that they may have misunderstandings. But Sian is confident she can get well with him. Finally, he asks her to phone him often, but she says a non-committal "I will call you when I miss you." Sian says that she will spend the night with her friend Jane and the next day she will go to Monemvasia. He can't pronounce that name.A Greek-looking village by the sea in an island. The landlord mentions that historically, Monemvasia has been an isolated place, although at its peal 60,000 people used to live there. The name of the town, Monemvasia, means "single entrance", according to wikipedia.org, which has helped to keep it isolated. Elias is an idiot, saying that he is sorry that Sian has to carry her own luggage across the stone-paved street of Monemvasia, but then he moves onto saying that if women want to be liberated they had to do without pleasantries, and then he adds he's too old anyway - he is carrying a walking stick. Sian says that it's not problem for her. Elias hasn't heard her as he is a bit deaf and only carries a hearing aid on his right ear. Elias says that he married a Greek woman, and that Greek women never complain. He also adds that she never learnt English and he never learnt Greek, so that they can't communicate but they can't argue as well, which is a good thing, as he believes like Homer Simpson that too much communication. She says that he may be right, and he stops and states that he is always right. He shows her a 1,700-year-old building. Then he says that he had an orgasm when he saw the house for the first time. He tells her that he bought the house for cheap, and then asks her whether she believes in ghosts. She says that she has never seen any. Neither has he, but he sometimes feels that history is watching him when he approaches that house. The breeze opens and closes the shuts of a window in the background. Finally, they enter the house. It is very messy. Elias mentions that he doesn't usually rent the house to strangers, but that the agency has spoken well of Sian and her books - which he has never read. Elias says that Phil (Wings Hauser) should have tidy everything up, but that he is going to speak with him so that he does it now. She asks where everybody is, and he says that there are only farmers in Monemvasia, but that they migrate to Switzerland all year to work, and only come back in the summer because of the tourists. There is a corridor through which he cannot walk because he is too fat - although he is not that fat. Sian looks at the black-and-white photographs of a woman - it's Elias' wife (Dina Giannakou), who used to be an actress.Elias will sleep in the village because he doesn't like driving after dark, but the next day he'll come back to his life in the city. He is going to leave, but mentions the wind, which is capricious: it may be a hurricane or a slight breeze. He advises Sian not to stroll during the night, tells her that in wardrobes there are only personal belongings like his son's hunting shotguns, He finally leaves. She has found him annoying, although she smiles and is nice to his face.Unpacking, she notices a man hiding behind a corner. Five seconds later, he is not there. She goes to the terrace to feel the breeze and the salty air. There is a cliff right underneath her terrace.Sian calls John. She says that when she is not working in her next crime novel she will speak to herself as she usually does. John offers to go and call on her once in a while, but Sian prefers that he won't. She feels tired but rejoices at her loneliness. She gives him her phone number 22608. He promises to call her later on, but the call gets cut off by the wind. All the windows crack and slam.This noise doesn't prevent Sian to start writing in her typewriter. She hears a knock in the door,but there is nobody there. Somebody has left what looks like shopping bags. She looks around while the wind blows up the dust in the unkempt streets. We can hear a man's laugh and the back of that man going away. Sian walks around the village, but it looks like there is not anybody.Phil just comes in, chewing gum and being a moron.He says that he only wants to make sure that she saw the shopping. Mr Appleby had told Sian that Phil was American, and he says that he is so, but he has lived in France, Nicaragua, and many other countries. Phil says that Elias calls him names, and Sian says that Elias is only nice to her because she is paying him a lot of money. He says that if she needs any help, he is living in the house next to hers.The breeze becomes a gale. Sian is not scared of the noises,the crack and crackings. She reads aloud what she has just written and then writes some more. She is describing somebody killing an old man with a poker. That happens when Mr Appleby fires Phil with a torrent of abuse. Phil says that he has nowhere to go and kills Elias with a poker. He buries her.Sian hears the digging noise. Phil realises the turned-on light on Sian's window. Sian has to push herself against the wind to leave her house. She goes to the digged-out area with a torchlight. A scarecrow falls on top of her. She falls to the ground touches Elias's hand. She is sure it is his hand because of a huge blue ring she had noticed before. She runs back to her house, but the door is closed.She can't push it open, so she goes to a ground storey window and is about to break it with a stone. However, Phil shows up at that moment and gives her her house keys.Back home, Sian tries to speak with Elias' wife, but she doesn't understand. Finally, she tells what has happened to John.The line goes silent so he tries to phone her back, but he doesn't know the province code - apparently, this works like the old system in many other countries - that you only need to know the whole province code if they were calling from outside that province. John threatens with calling the local police. Meanwhile, Sian goes back to correcting and reading her novel while smoking. Somebody is trying to open the door. Sian runs to the kitchen door but it's too late - Phil is already in. Phil says he is sorry about scaring her again, and tells her that the wind has cut the phone lines, and admonishes that the power can go out as well.Sian says thank you and Phil leaves, giving Sian her key. Sian is putting on her sneakers, wondering why Philhas given her the key if he has killed Elias. She wonders if he knows that she knows. Sian realises that the power may truly come off if something happens to the generator. She prepares candles and turns them on even though there is still light.Phil picks up a scythe. He has also problems to move around because of the wind. Sian gets to the generator first, locking the door after her. Finally, Phil goes Bernese and attacks Sian, who locks a basement door. Sian throws something on Phil's eyes through the holes that he has created on the door. At this point, Phil is playing with the generator. All the opposite, there is too much power on the line and light-bulbs explode.Sian starts a fire in the fireplace.Elias' wife felt nervous enough to visit the village herself. She was taken there by two young men. She walks on her own among the dark and the dizzying blaze.Phil calls Sian, pretending that nothing is happening. Phil says that he is not crazy, that he has killed Elias, but it was self-defense. He also admits that he likes her.She tells her to rot in hell and hangs up.He says to the phone "I don't want to hurt you.", but then he wonders aloud, "why do they force me to kill?".The wife arrives and enters the house, calling out for Elias. Phil kills her with the scythe. Sian looks at Phil running around and tries the phone again. She picks up a huge carving knife from the kitchen. She goes to phone from Phil's house. Phil comes back and closes the door of his house. Phil walks around with the scythe. John is swimming comfortably. He goes for the operators' numbers. Apparently, he is speaking with two call centre people. He is about to give Sian the numbers, but she stares at Phil, who is hollering at the window of Sian's house, saying that the wind has died, and that she will die as well. Sian hangs up and hides in another room when Phil comes back. She makes a noise because in that room Phil has put the body of Elias' wife. Phil hears her but he is not sure of where she is. Suddenly,a mop falls on top of Sian who screams and leaves running through the main door. Phil goes after her.There is a gale outside again. Both Phil and Sian have to push against the wind,but Phil cannot get to Sian in time. Sian locks herself in the house again.Andros (Mihalis Giannatos) is the local policeman.He speaks with John in English. Kesner (Steve Railsback) is a stranded sailor because of bad weather. Kesner offers to forget about the money Andros sows him if he gets his passport back. He intends to see Elias' wife. Andros says that however goes to the village with that wind is suicidal.Sian boils water to throw to Phil who is trying to break a window with his scythe.Kesner knocks on Sian's door. Sian refuses to open the door. Sian is waiting for him with the knife. Kesner speaks to her. Now the phone is working. Kesner seems to think that the writer is making it all up. Kesner wants to take a look around the house, although Sian would rather leave. She puts a new light-bulb, as Kesner has told her to. There is a noise, but Kesner doesn't reply. Then he screams. He scares her when he goes up to the house again - the generator had so many loose cables that he could have been killed. Both go to see the corpses at Phil's house. Kesner has a gun and opens the room shooting the lock,but there is no body. Phil sees the scarecrow and jokes that Elias has a good look tonight.He digs,but there is only rubbish bags. Kesner will finally take Sian away. He tells her to make her luggage. He has never liked Phil anyway, even when he once advised him to be more ambitious and to have more goals in life. Kesner will take the risk of taking Sian back to the police office.They are speaking when Phil stabs Kesner with his scythe.Sian goes to fetch the carving knife again. She goes back to the room again, having seen the shoes of somebody behind the curtain,but it is the dead bodies of Elias and his wife again. She steps back crying when she overhears a noise. Music blares from her room. She turns off the music. Phil picks up his scythe again.Phil asks her not to die in silence.Phil shows himself. Sian runs up the stairs. Phil trips her and grabs her ankle. She runs away. Phil applies a red-hot knife to his wound. He reads parts of Sian's manuscript but deems it too bad. He stops playing with the red apples and says aloud that the party is over. Phil phones Sian saying that she is very intelligent.At this moment, Sian remembers what Elias had said about the hunting guns of his son. He picks a shotgun up. On of her characters, Fabiani, has used it in one of her former novels. She only has four attempts. So she fails three times, the last one hitting a plant pot.Phil has a knife stabbed on his chest, but he climbs to the roof anyway. Sian hears him crawling on the roof.Sian takes a painting from the wall, ties a rope around the nail which was holding it and prepares a booby trap. Phil is finally inside the house. When he jumps in, he is shot in his stomach.Sian weeps. She leaves.A couple of newlyweds (John Michaels and Tracy Young) are arguing because they got lost, the village looks like a ghost town and there is not even a phone booth on sight.Sian stumbles around in the dark. She falls in a natural cave/hole and sees a skeleton.The couple argue some more. She says that it is 6 in the morning, and that everybody must be sleeping. With the dawn, an Orthodox priest is sounding the bell. Finally, Sian sees the newlywed couple, who leave with their tins and cans making noise on tow. They don't hear Sian shouting for help.It is not an Orthodox priest; it's Phil who is still alive and runs after Sian. Phil is supposed to be badly-hurt, but he runs as though he were in perfect health. They approach the shore. They both get close to the sea. Sian trips and stays in a ball in a corner.Phil is about to kill her with the scythe, but for no reason, he looks as if somebody has stabbed him in the back, and for no reason at all he falls down the cliff into the sea.Last shot of a still distraught Sian in her corner.
cult