Where Was The Wind Filmed?

‘The Wind’ blends western and horror genres to hair-raising effect. Director Emma Tammi’s feature film debut follows Lizzy Macklin and her husband as they move to a sparsely populated region in the days of the Wild West. The film’s exploration of the haunting nature of solitude is perfectly complemented by the wide-open landscapes of the American Frontier in the late 1800s.

As Lizzy begins to unravel amidst the forces that haunt her, the surroundings she finds herself in make things all the more ominous. A crucial aspect of any film in the western genre, the film’s backdrop, in this case, goes even further and plays an almost active role in tormenting the protagonists. Let’s explore where ‘The Wind’ got its haunting 19th-century backdrop from!

The Wind Filming Locations

Based in New Mexico, the film was also shot entirely in the southwestern mountain state. The filmmakers’ focus on authenticity drew them to the sparsely populated plains of what was originally the American frontier. Filming was mostly carried out on location, with the natural landscape, lighting, and weather (especially the wind) providing a lot of the film’s atmosphere. The movie was shot in late 2017, during October and November. Let’s take a closer look at the specific filming locations used in the film.

Santa Fe County, New Mexico

‘The Wind’ was filmed in New Mexico, around its capital city of Santa Fe, which lies in Santa Fe County. The outskirts of the city contain large tracts of sparsely populated plain land, which is perfect for recreating the backdrop for the horror movie that explores solitude.

New Mexico contains a multitude of ranches in its countryside, and the production team used ones that were located in the outskirts of Santa Fe. Due to the large distances between the ranches, the filmmakers were able to portray a period more than 200 years old while being just about half an hour outside of Santa Fe.

Director Emma Tammi also clarified that a lot of the sounds, especially those of the wind, which are crucial for creating the film’s haunting atmosphere, were recorded during production instead of being added on later. The sounds recorded in the cabins used for on-location filming were so loud and authentic that they were used in the final cut instead of the foley sounds created for the film.

The backdrop of ‘The Wind’ remains one of its highlights and is largely responsible for giving the film its Western aesthetic. Filming a movie where the events that inspired it occurred is not always possible, especially when the events took place hundreds of years ago. However, in this case, the filmmakers were able to shoot their period film in what used to be the American Frontier and Wild West, giving it an air of authenticity and making it feel all the more ominous to audiences.

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