Wendigo - References in Popular Culture

References in Popular Culture

While wendigos have been referred to in literature for many decades (most notably in Algernon Blackwood's 1910 story "The Wendigo," which introduced the legend to horror fiction, and in Stephen King's novel Pet Sematary), recently they have become something of a stock character in horror and fantasy films and television, along the lines of werewolves and vampires, usually bearing very little resemblance to the Native American legends. A notable exception is Jean Zimmerman's 2012 novel, The Orphanmaster, which features a plot centered around the Wendigo and Wendigo psychosis.

Creatures based upon the wendigo appear in the movies Wendigo and Ravenous and in episodes of the television series The X-Files, Blood Ties, Charmed, Supernatural, Haven, Grimm and others.

They also appear as characters in a number of computer and video games, including Final Fantasy, The Legend of Dragoon, and the Warcraft Universe, as well as role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons. Additionally, there is a Marvel Comics character known as "Wendigo".

In one episode of the animated series My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, they are portrayed as spirits of disharmony and hatred. The windigos feed off of the hatred between the three feuding tribes of ponies and bring about a deep, cold winter that kills all of their crops and further fuels the hatred. In the end, the windigos are defeated when the assistants to the leaders of the tribes are gathered in a cave, the leaders frozen solid near them and the entrance frozen shut, set aside their differences and find friendship.

They are referenced in music as well: the Cree singer-songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie's song "The Priests of the Golden Bull" asserts that the "money junkies" of the world are Wendigos.

In the Dark Horse comics, B.P.R.D., a hunter named Daryl is turned into a wendigo, and features prominently in the storyline.