Reel Horror

The Woods (Widescreen Edition) asin: B000H5TH0W

The Woods tells the story of a secluded all-girl school in Anywhere, USA. This school, however is surrounded by a "woods" that has a mystical power over the inhabitants of the school. It stars Patrica Clarkson as the school's matriarch with a dark secret, and features the Man, Bruce Campbell, as the father of the most recent student.

Gorehounds and slasher fans need to look else where, because this film belongs to a genre that is almost completely overlooked now with Saw, Hostel, and Texas Chainsaw Masacre embracing the formula "bloody=scary". This is a film that dishes out story and character development to give you a story beyond "girls running through forest at night," although it does feature sequences that bring memories of Evil Dead (what is it about Campbell and possessed fauna). What this film does bring, very successfully is creepy girls, strange happenings, and well directed suspense that is carried from the first frame to the last.

It is unsurprising that this film did not have a theatrical release, primarily because it falls into the class of film I like to call "hard to market." It has moments of blood and spookiness, but lacks the slasher chases or over the top bloodiness of some of this years horror "blockbusters." Instead of relying on gimmicky uses of blood and carnage, the director, Lucky McGee (who has my favorite name in Hollywood), uses the almost forgotten "ghost story" approach to horror, to tell a tale that will have you looking over your shoulder the next time you are out late near The Woods.

Definitely recommended as a rental. Come on, it has Bruce Campbell in it.