Heather, a neglected teenager, is dropped off by her parents at a boarding school deep in the woods. She's not too happy about her situation and it soon gets worse when her classmates starts tormenting her. The teachers are uptight and all Heather wants is to go home, but her mother won't let her. It doesn't take long before students start disappearing and Heather starts to have horrible visions along with that she hears strange voices. She realize that the school is not what it first seemed to be, and also, is there something out there in the woods that has a connection to the school somehow?
I've been wanting to see The Woods since I first heard about it, but I was somewhat disappointed with the way it turned out and at times when watching it, I was close to falling asleep. Now, I watched it kinda late and I was tired but I'm sure that if the movie would've had more to offer, it would definitely have kept me totally awake. But I'm not going to start complaining right away, because The Woods had some quality stuff to offer for its viewer and one of those things was a man named Bruce Campbell. I truly believe that you can't go wrong with putting this man in your movie since even if he would appear in some really crappy film, his presence alone just lifts things up. Don't expect to see too much of Campbell though, because the movie's not about him and I'm not saying that he was the only good thing the movie had to offer, so read on for what else.
Lucky McKee has his own unique style which could be seen in both May and Sick Girl, not that I thought those two films were that great, but at least he separates himself as a horror film-maker, and that's of course always cool. The Woods is really no exception when talking about a different kind of style, something that made it seem more interesting, well, at least for a while. It takes place in the 60's which made it have a certain kind of mood or rather a certain feel to it, something that was also quite interesting and that made it different. It looked very slick and had these tones of different colors which were sort of candy for the eyes. In other words, it had a lot of different qualities to it, but that's something that'll only get you so far.
 
Heather who's a troubled teenager is sent to a remote boarding school that she doesn't like one bit. Things soon gets worse when her classmates starts harassing her on a daily basis. The teachers and the principal are strict and very uptight, and basically, life at the school isn't easy at all for Heather who just wants to go home. Eventually, strange things start to occur and students disappear and all that's left of them is a pile of leafs in their beds. Heather hears stories about witches, that from the beginning were some sisters who attended the school. If things weren't bad enough, Heather hears voices, has horrible visions and it seems like something strange is out there in the woods.
From a horror point of view, The Woods had some semi-ok stuff to offer, but unfortunately not close to enough. There was this scare early on in the movie that had a freaky feel to it which made my hopes go up, but something similar was never to be seen again which I felt was just too bad. I guess some of the other scares were kinda ok but just not very effective, and I kept losing interest because at times the movie felt more like a teenage drama rather than a proper horror movie. Acting-wise Marcia Bennett who played the principal of the school stood out and delivered a really good and believable performance. Agnes Bruckner was totally ok as Heather and did a fine job, even though I can't say that there was anything special there. The other were ok, and Bruce Campbell is always Bruce Campbell which is a good thing, but like I mentioned earlier, the movie's not about his character.
To be honest, I expected more. Why, I don't know, and even though it was definitely watchable I wouldn't watch it a second time. The 60's mood does a few things for the film, but on the horror front I guess it would work best on clueless teenagers who get scared easily. It looked nice and had a number of things going for it, but in the end, it was just not my cup of tea.
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ALTERNATIVE TITLE:
MOVIE YEAR: 2006
DIRECTOR: Lucky McKee
WRITING CREDITS: David Ross
GENRE: Horror, Mystery
CAST: Agnes Bruckner, Bruce Campbell, Marcia Bennett
COUNTRY: USA
RUNTIME: 92 min
RATING: 5/10
Woods, The Website/IMDB Click here
Woods, The Trailer Click here
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