"The Wind" follows an American novelist (played by Meg Foster) who travels to the Greek island of Monemvasia to work on a book in isolation. She rents the home of an eccentric elderly man, and, on the first night there, witnesses his murder at the hands of his mentally-unstable American handyman (Wings Hauser). As a windstorm rages, she attempts to survive the night.

This late-'80s slasher offering from Nico Mastorakis, known for his gloriously graphic films such as "Island of Death", is a rather tame feature that is more of a home invasion suspense film than it is an outright slasher. It's a fairly bloodless affair with a low body count and no mystery surrounding the killer, but I still found this to be an entertaining film for a number of reasons.

The primary highlight here is Meg Foster, who gives a wonderfully expressive performance as the world-weary writer who is faced with a psychopath similar to the characters she has written in her own crime novels. Secondly, the atmosphere is wonderful--fog and dust encircle the house, window shutters bang, and the wind howls. It's the stuff of classic horror movies, albeit in a rocky Mediterranean setting.

The film does have a few issues with editing that result in some clunkiness, and there are moments of tension that take a nosedive when Foster's character--well aware she is being pursued by a psycho killer who is trying to break in--lounges about the house, ruminating and making a fire in the hearth as though her life is not in danger. That being said, Foster herself somehow makes these moments watchable. Wings Hauser is over-the-top as the nutty antagonist, and Steve Railsback also appears as an American marine who tries to help Foster's character (seriously, what are the chances there are this many Americans congregating on this small Greek island during a storm?). Meanwhile, David McCallum has a small role as Foster's British boyfriend who corresponds with her by phone from Los Angeles as she attempts to fight for her life.

All in all, I found "The Wind", despite some inconsistencies and slower moments, to be an oddly entertaining film. Foster's performance, paired with the setting, make this a watchable affair. 7/10.

In Los Angeles, the successful writer of crime novels Sian Anderson (Meg Foster) decides to travel to a Greek village in the off-season to write a new book. She leaves her boyfriend John (David McCallum) and travels to the desert island, where she meets her landlord Elias Appleby (Robert Morley). He takes Sian to his house in the top of the hill and warns her about the wind. Later, his American employee Phill (Wings Hauser) brings groceries to Sian. During the night, Sian sees something strange at Phill's house and she decides to snoop around. She finds Elias dead and buried, and returns home. Soon she finds that Phill is a deranged killer and now he is looking after her.

"The Wind" is a tense slasher with a good storyline. Meg Foster's eyes are very well explored in this B-movie that could be a little shorter. Wings Hauser's character Phill seems to be indestructible and immortal. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "O Sopro do Demônio" ("The Demon Blow")

I assume Greek people have a thing for wind… The popular Greek singer Demis Roussos dedicated a worldwide hit to the weather phenomenon entitled "My Friend the Wind" and the Greek writer/director Nico Mastorakis even revolved a full-length thriller on plain ordinary wind. Mastorakis is known by avid cult/horror fanatics because he made "Island of Death" in 1977, which is one of the most notorious and universally banned movies ever. Not because it's the bloodiest or most disturbing film, but mainly because it's full of perversion and depraved imaginations, like someone doing very anti-catholic things with a baby goat. In the mid-80's, Mastorakis emigrated to the United States and directed a handful of less controversial and semi-successful thrillers, like "Blind Date", "The Zero Boys" and the utterly bonkers "Nightmare at Noon". "The Wind" is a rapidly in-between made straight-to-video effort in which Mastorakis takes his protagonists back to his beloved home country Greece for a very conventional and unsurprising, but nevertheless entertaining cat-and-mouse thriller. Meg Foster, with eyes so crystal blue they glow in the dark, stars as the pseudo-eccentric mystery writer Sian Anderson who travels to a remote and extremely isolated Greek coastal town to work on a new novel in solitude. The town is practically abandoned due to the season and there's a constant heavy and ominous wind blowing from the sea. Sian witnesses how the mentally unstable handyman Phil murders her landlord Elias Appleby and buries his corpse in the garden. From then onwards, she finds herself stalked and threatened by the crazed psychopath but there's nowhere or no one to run to. As said, "The Wind" is a very prototypic and forgettable thriller, but it contains a few noteworthy suspense sequences and more than adequate performances from an terrific cast. Meg Foster is amiable as the damsel in distress and Wing Hauser gloriously goes over-the-top again as the sneering psychopath. The supportive cast is impressive as well with names such as David McCallum, Steve Railsbeck and even classic actor Robert Morley. Even though Hauser's character commits his murders with a sharp and over-sized sickle, fans of gory horror flicks might be disappointed as there's very little bloodshed. The pacing of the film is very uneven and the climax sequence is incredibly stupid, yet still I can't bring myself to rate "The Wind" negatively as I wasn't bored for a minute.