Caitlin Gerard in The Wind (IFC Films)

The Wind starts off tantalizingly with a beautifully composed shot of two men at dusk waiting outside of a wooden cabin in the middle of a prairie, in which the screams inside the dwelling mingle with the howling wind. A young woman enters through the door frame in a white blood-stained dress, carrying a small bundle in his arms. One man makes his way to her, looks at the bundle, and then moves off camera from where you hear an anguished cry.

The next 10 minutes or so consist of these artful, oblique shots that give us provoking glimpses of what’s to come. In fact, the film hops back and forth in its time line pretty frequently, forcing us to reevaluate our previous conceptions while creating unsettled moments as we try to orient ourselves to where we are in the story. And the bones of this story are good. We are in a remote prairie sometime in the 1800s, following the lives of Lizzie and Isaac Macklin. They seem a happily married couple who are self-sufficient. The nearest homestead is a mile away, visible from their front doorstop. Aside from that, there’s not much but prairie and wind.

Lizzie, who was originally from Germany, has fears of a presence on the plains, an apprehension Isaac angrily dismisses. Her suspicions are, in her mind, confirmed when the neighboring wife, Emma (Julia Goldani Telles), in the aforementioned cabin starts talking about sensing a presence as well. Then Lizzie’s husband leaves her alone to go to town, which takes about a week, for provisions for winter, and either her imagination gets to her or something really is out to get her.

Lizzy (Caitlin Gerard) is pretty hardy and no-nonsense, so when we witness her sensing fear, we know that something must be going on. Someone like her, who can take care of herself on the prairie and, when needed, chloroform a pregnant woman having a panic attack, wouldn’t just be imagining demons. On the other hand, since Lizzy can take care of her family so handily and tirelessly, feelings of anxiety could be chalked up to “nerves,” according to the lore of the time. Eventually, some history about Lizzie’s and Isaac’s past explains her behavior once new neighbors show up, the wife having just learned she’s with child.

Again, the movie has a lot of meat on its bones and a lot to explore, but The Wind doesn’t quite get off the ground. Aside from Gerard, the acting feels like a group of green actors performing a period piece in the library basement. They never slide into their characters. The dialogue doesn’t help them at all, caught somewhere between affected and everyday speech without coming down hard on either end. And considering its setting, when the big bad does arrive, it’s disappointing that the visual effects team lacked the imagination to make it stand out from dozens of other recent horror films.

Once the film is over and the story comes into focus, you realize how psychologically astute it is, and the ending is ambiguous enough that no clear answers are offered. Yet that is not enough to offset its many flaws. The Wind seems like a sincere attempt to make an original sort of horror film, but it lacks the wit or will to actually do so.