I first heard about this movie a few months back. The movie sounded pretty good, and last night, I noticed it at the video store, and was quick to pick it up. Despite its generic cover (enough of assembling a semi-circle of scared people--it is definitively old now) and the terrible description on the back (describing our protagonists as "five sexy actors"), I thought I knew it would be good.
Hm. Guess not.
"Deep in the Woods" is French, so right off the bat, there's something awkward about the feel of the movie, something somewhat unsure about the cinematography. The acting is an immediate low point, since dubbing jobs are always guaranteed flops, there just so the viewer knows what the characters are saying. The only real perk is that, most likely, the music will be good. (Then again, remember "Anatomy," the pseudo-American German flick?) Anyway, sure enough, there was a great musical score, probably too good for the movie it was in, the dubbing job was terrible, and that certain Euro-feel was there, big time. Even the opening credits were European.
The plot is fairly simple: "five sexy actors" (hehehe) are asked to perform at some rich man's mansion in the woods (a beautiful house, indeed) for his strange little son Nicolas. They put on a (terrible) performance of "Little Red Riding Hood," and afterward, that night, are killed one by one by someone dressed in the wolf costume from their performance. Of course, this could only be the rapist the troupe heard about on the radio on their way to the house...or is it? Perhaps it is one of them. (Why? Jeez, I don't know.)
Actually, before it completely goes down the toilet, the movie has the potential of at least being weird, and making its audience squirm. The rich man, Axel, has a growing sexual interest in one of the male protagonists (Wilfried aka Frederick, as the dubbed voices call him), and as it becomes more obvious, you start to wonder how French this movie is going to get. Also, two of the girls, the innocent Sophie and the mute Jean, are lovers, and if we couldn't figure it out from Sophie putting her hands all over Jean on the way to the house, the director throws in a short albeit explicit love-making scene between the two gals once they get there. If anything, at least it was different from the typical American fare.
Anyway, then the movie decides, "Let's be cool and go at it American-style!" and it all gets pretty dull from there. Once the murders start, everyone starts pointing fingers, and some inconsequential detective character shows up for about two minutes, disappears, and reappears later, much later, which leaves you to wonder, "Well, what the hell was he doing all that time?" (Oh, I'm sorry, he's supposed to be a suspect, silly me.) Anyway, the plot becomes sort of unclear, and the director seems to start guessing what to do next. You're never really positive who our hero/heroine is going to be, seeing as that, except for Matthieu, none of them are really innocent enough, and anyway, he actually becomes more suspicious as the movie goes on. Sophie didn't seem likely, seeing as that she bared all and had sex AND she was a lesbian, and Jean was mute, and any characters who are weird always end up killed (unless the movie was going for a "The Spiral Staircase" sort of approach) and anyway, she eventually has sex with Wilfried, who's not the hero type, and Mathilde, though I really liked her, eventually turns into the bitch character. So, you don't really know who you're following through this whole affair.
Meanwhile, something happens to Axel, I'm not really sure what, and his son, who looked like a bald Linda Hunt (the ET-like chick who played the Chinese guy in "The Year of Living Dangerously") seems to wander around the house in his "The Last Emperor" PJ's the whole time. And the characters don't really seem to worry much about little Linda, though sometimes Sophie brings him up for good luck, I guess, when talk of getting out of there comes up. (And what held them back from just leaving after the first one got the boot? I don't know, they had an excuse.)
The movie does have style, though, and Dario Argento fans will love the opening murder, and the reoccurring Little Red Riding Hood theme was creative if you could stay awake enough to follow it. But by the lengthy, confusing, and downright muddled killer's explanation, my eyelids were getting heavy, and I had a tough time enduring to the end, which doesn't come soon enough. So, in the end, I do not recommend "Deep in the Woods," unless you're looking for some violence and nudity, but then again, despite the somewhat explicit amount in both categories, you could still do better. In fact, just stay away in general. This one's a stinker.
Hm. Guess not.
"Deep in the Woods" is French, so right off the bat, there's something awkward about the feel of the movie, something somewhat unsure about the cinematography. The acting is an immediate low point, since dubbing jobs are always guaranteed flops, there just so the viewer knows what the characters are saying. The only real perk is that, most likely, the music will be good. (Then again, remember "Anatomy," the pseudo-American German flick?) Anyway, sure enough, there was a great musical score, probably too good for the movie it was in, the dubbing job was terrible, and that certain Euro-feel was there, big time. Even the opening credits were European.
The plot is fairly simple: "five sexy actors" (hehehe) are asked to perform at some rich man's mansion in the woods (a beautiful house, indeed) for his strange little son Nicolas. They put on a (terrible) performance of "Little Red Riding Hood," and afterward, that night, are killed one by one by someone dressed in the wolf costume from their performance. Of course, this could only be the rapist the troupe heard about on the radio on their way to the house...or is it? Perhaps it is one of them. (Why? Jeez, I don't know.)
Actually, before it completely goes down the toilet, the movie has the potential of at least being weird, and making its audience squirm. The rich man, Axel, has a growing sexual interest in one of the male protagonists (Wilfried aka Frederick, as the dubbed voices call him), and as it becomes more obvious, you start to wonder how French this movie is going to get. Also, two of the girls, the innocent Sophie and the mute Jean, are lovers, and if we couldn't figure it out from Sophie putting her hands all over Jean on the way to the house, the director throws in a short albeit explicit love-making scene between the two gals once they get there. If anything, at least it was different from the typical American fare.
Anyway, then the movie decides, "Let's be cool and go at it American-style!" and it all gets pretty dull from there. Once the murders start, everyone starts pointing fingers, and some inconsequential detective character shows up for about two minutes, disappears, and reappears later, much later, which leaves you to wonder, "Well, what the hell was he doing all that time?" (Oh, I'm sorry, he's supposed to be a suspect, silly me.) Anyway, the plot becomes sort of unclear, and the director seems to start guessing what to do next. You're never really positive who our hero/heroine is going to be, seeing as that, except for Matthieu, none of them are really innocent enough, and anyway, he actually becomes more suspicious as the movie goes on. Sophie didn't seem likely, seeing as that she bared all and had sex AND she was a lesbian, and Jean was mute, and any characters who are weird always end up killed (unless the movie was going for a "The Spiral Staircase" sort of approach) and anyway, she eventually has sex with Wilfried, who's not the hero type, and Mathilde, though I really liked her, eventually turns into the bitch character. So, you don't really know who you're following through this whole affair.
Meanwhile, something happens to Axel, I'm not really sure what, and his son, who looked like a bald Linda Hunt (the ET-like chick who played the Chinese guy in "The Year of Living Dangerously") seems to wander around the house in his "The Last Emperor" PJ's the whole time. And the characters don't really seem to worry much about little Linda, though sometimes Sophie brings him up for good luck, I guess, when talk of getting out of there comes up. (And what held them back from just leaving after the first one got the boot? I don't know, they had an excuse.)
The movie does have style, though, and Dario Argento fans will love the opening murder, and the reoccurring Little Red Riding Hood theme was creative if you could stay awake enough to follow it. But by the lengthy, confusing, and downright muddled killer's explanation, my eyelids were getting heavy, and I had a tough time enduring to the end, which doesn't come soon enough. So, in the end, I do not recommend "Deep in the Woods," unless you're looking for some violence and nudity, but then again, despite the somewhat explicit amount in both categories, you could still do better. In fact, just stay away in general. This one's a stinker.