Within the first minutes of "The Woods" one can see that director Lucky McKee and writer David Ross are horror film geeks that came of age in the video age of the 80s and feasted their eyes on films like Dario Argento's "Suspiria" and Sam Raimi's "Evil Dead" series. This is a Suspiria remake in anything but name, crossed with some wood demons and Bruce Campbell to fight them. The picture is beautifully helmed and McKee's compositions are often quite effective and moody, even if the overbearing influence of Argento's masterpiece sometimes works against "The Woods". It's influence is so blatant because Ross recycles not only the basic plot, but even detailed plot points such as the drugged drinks. McKee follows suit by having numerous visual references to that film, even copying whole shots. This can become a distraction for fans who are very familiar with "Suspiria" though McKee gives it enough of a spin for the film to not look like a lame rip off and more like an inspired "let's do it like in the good old days" romp. The film has some pacing problems, though, most of which are linked to the heavy foreshadowing. When a girl tells new arrival Heather a spooky myth about the boarding school deep in the woods she has just arrived in, the avid viewer pretty much knows the secret of the place, the main villain's motivations and secrets and can easily map out the proceedings from there. The second third of the film suffers from this predictability. "The Woods" does pick up some steam towards the hour mark with the reappearance of Heather's parents and the first words spoken by a formerly silent Bruce Campbell, who plays to his adoring cult following once more here. The finale is a bit of a let down, though, even if the involvement of the titular woods is fun to see (thanks also to some convincing CGI, not the second-rate crap that often destroys the atmosphere in these small-budgeted movies). It's pretty much by the numbers, though it is enormous fun to see Bruce "Don't Call Me Ash" Campbell wield an axe and split some witch bitch open.
"The Woods" certainly isn't the most innovative movie of the world - especially not if you have seen "Suspiria" - but it is very well made and has some really efficient sequences, despite the absence of anything truly scary. Considering the poor quality of the horror genre in general, this is a small delight for genre fans.
"The Woods" certainly isn't the most innovative movie of the world - especially not if you have seen "Suspiria" - but it is very well made and has some really efficient sequences, despite the absence of anything truly scary. Considering the poor quality of the horror genre in general, this is a small delight for genre fans.