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Not rated. () |
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4438 |
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(1252) |
1989 |
6389 |
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(1540) |
2449 |
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Plot:
A psychological horror story that begins when a neglected teenager, named Heather, is dropped off by her parents at a remote all-girls boarding school deep in the forest. Watched over by sinister head...( read more 
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Meet Other Fans
Recent Reviews
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MCT:October 9, 2008A tormented teen has terrifying visions, while her classmates at a remote boarding-school for girls go missing.
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MCT:October 3, 2008a very well crafted film from lucky mckee its just such a shame song just threw it out there on a bare bones dvd that just sickens me becuase its very well done and bruce campbell gets to do a little ass kicking at the end and you dont see many films like this anymore
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MCT:October 3, 2008
A simple story of avenging witches, nothing spectacular; but there are some scenes that do make you jump out of your seat a bit.
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MCT:August 29, 2008its pretty entertaining especially for these kind of movies! and bruce campbell is in it for a bit! thats always a plus!
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MCT:July 27, 2008
New girl Heather (Agnes Bruckner) isn't haven't the greatest time. Her mother is shoving her into an all-girls school due to trouble she caused, one girl seems bent on making her life miserable and the teachers are all strange. The woods outside the school seem to whisper to her too. When she learns of girls disappearing from the school and the back story behind the place, she realises that the voices she hears and the things she sees may not be so crazy after all. This isn't a scary film, pretty tame, the legend that is Bruce Campbell doesn't have any words when he first appears at the start but comes back later on. The best bit of the film? Bruce looking for a way in the school and entering the shed...we were hoping for a chainsaw to be there but that would have been too much of a tribute. He does get a one-liner earlier on though!
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MCT:July 22, 2008
Pretty standard stuff in this one. The Woods isn't terrible, but it offers absolutely nothing new, either. Worth watching if you're a big Bruce Campbell fan, I suppose.
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MCT:July 20, 2008The year is 1965 as we open in a car filled with tension: Prissy Mom and mute Dad have had enough with young Heather. The unhappy teenager has a small problem with pyromania, and so she's being shipped off to an isolated girls' school that's jammed in the middle of a foreboding forest. Obviously Heather is not happy about the situation, what with the creepy headmistress (Patricia Clarkson) and the dozens of unfriendly young faces. After reluctantly settling in at the school, Heather realizes she has a lot more to worry about besides homesickness and unpopularity. This is a school that has a nasty tendency of "misplacing" its more troublesome students. The cast is uniformly excellent throughout; Agnes Bruckner delivers a quietly commanding lead performance while Patricia Clarkson sinks her teeth into a witchy role and is clearly having some good fun while doing so. Emma Campbell provides a chilly turn as Heather's unfeeling mama, and genre demigod Bruce Campbell adds his own patented brand of color to the proceedings. Young actresses Lauren Birkell, Rachel Nichols, and Ivana Shein contribute exceedingly fine support work. The shocking thing is how well the film works despite these weaknesses. The Woods plays like an old fashioned chiller that borrows elements from recent Asian schoolgirl horror films while leaning on mythology from old Dario Argento films. The result is a movie that doesn't live up to either Memento Mori's or Suspiria's standards, but successfully places itself within the cinematic traditions of both. One might be even able to compare it to The Craft, however The Woods is a smarter more intelligence film.
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MCT:July 1, 2008
It moves at a really slow pace and is a really weird movie. It only gets sweet in like the last 15 minutes when a bunch of stuff happened. If Bruce had his chainsaw, the movie would have been shorter.
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MCT:June 10, 2008
your basic horror plot more or less...acting was ok...a little slow in points...the setting was excellent though!
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MCT:June 6, 2008
The Woods is a very slow moving and not to exciting horror movie which promises alot but ultimatly disappoints. Bruce Campbell was excellent in his all to small role which i think if increased would have improved movie for sure. Overall the story wasn't too original and the acting was decent enough for a horror.
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MCT:May 30, 2008The only real highlights of this movie are the creepy atmosphere and Bruce Campbell. Unfortunately that's just not enough to make it interesting.
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MCT:April 6, 2008
It was Uniquely creepy. It has a differnt kind of plot. It was okay movie. The cast wasn't that bad. It was scary but kinda werid.
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MCT:April 5, 2008
i just love scary movies like this and i would die if i had to go to that school instead of the teachers trying to kill me
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MCT:April 1, 2008
I liked the idea of it. I loved the effects and the art behind it. Great plot but fell a bit muddled towards the middle and the end...and the ending was predictable and went a bit too fast like it was hurried.
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MCT:March 26, 2008
Nice little horror flick featuring cute schoolgirls in brutal catfights and Bruce Campbell puking up black goo. Gold stars all around.
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MCT:March 16, 2008
Pretty good. Somewhat scary. It kind of had an Evil Dead feel to it (not just because Bruce Campbell was in it).
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MCT:March 1, 2008
At the director's own admission, the film that has been released (so far anyway) was subject to studio interference, which includes the removal of around half an hour's worth of material. This may explain the slightly uneven shift in tone around the final third mark, but The Woods is still an excellent film.
Patricia Clarkson is unusual, surprising and inspired casting as Ms Traverse, the headmistress of an all-girls boarding school situated deep in a forest. New pupil Heather (Agnes Bruckner - also excellent) - whose mother's idea it was to send her to the school for "one last chance" at making her proud - is almost immediately bullied by her classmates (but finds friendship with one girl), and wants to go home, but her mother insists she stays. It's not long before Heather starts to become suspicious over the true nature of the school as odd things happen - she hears voices in the woods, fellow pupils go missing, and the teachers seem to be hiding things.
For it's first hour, The Woods subtly builds intrigue and suspense, before shifting in tone to more of an out and out horror, filled with blood and special effects. Throughout, the film remains technically very accomplished: the costumes, lighting, direction, music score and locations are spot on, and the editing, which largely uses transitions and overlaps between scenes, is very effective and allows the film to have a rythm all of its own. The story itself is reasonably compelling but the final act does feel somewhat rushed and abrupt considering what has gone before. The special effects aren't state of the art, but again, are subtly done and it's the smaller bits that really stand out: the smashing of the radio which results in the pieces all standing on end, the hint of a face that appears on a tree limb, the fog that surrounds the girls' beds while they're sleeping. And my favorite moment has no special effects trickery at all - the peeling back of bed clothes to reveal a carefully formed pile of leaves.
Not a perfect film but an original and involving one, and completely different from Lucky Mckee's first feature, May.
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MCT:February 4, 2008
Lucky McKee's "The Woods" is the director's follow-up to his 2003 debut "May." That was a masterful horror/black comedy mixing elements of "Frankenstein" and "Carrie" to tell the wrenchingly sad and achingly beautiful - if horrific and disturbing - story of a lonely young girl who simply wants to make a connection and learns "if you can't meet a friend, make one."
McKee is in no less homage-y territory here: There are elements reminiscent of both "Carrie" (yet again) and Dario Argento's classic "Suspiria" within this tale set in 1965 New England (I'd assume that's where it's set, but it's never revealed). We meet Heather (Bruckner), a troubled youth who has started a fire in her home and whose parents (including hammy actor extraordinaire Bruce Campbell!) decide to ship her off to a private all-girls Academy.
This school is somewhat off-putting and strange, and ultimately the headmistress (Patricia Clarkson, creepy and realistic all at once) is near-immediately suspicious of the young upstart she's admitted to her school.
Soon, disturbing noises, darkly lit sojurns to off-the-beaten-path territories within the school grounds, and more than a few cliched myths and confrontations between adversarial students rear their ugly heads, and we have a rather straight-forward thriller - especially coming from the young and promising writer-director of one of my all-time favorite horror films.
Mr. McKee, as I've read, may have had this film taken away from him. Still, some if not all of the old McKee touches are present: especially a creepily slowed down version of the classic "You Don't Own Me" straining on the soundtrack at various intervals - including the end credits.
Ultimately, this is a very standard and mildly boring horror-lite effort that neither engages that much, nor wows us with anything really new. Well-made and intriguing, it's worth checking out on a cold, dark and scary night...Watch it on DVD. -
MCT:January 19, 2008
Visually looks good with some good performances but the story felt incomplete.Suspenseful but has is flaws & because of it will be one of those forgettable straight to dvd films.If you want to see something different like trees possessing people for no good reason it could turn out to be a pleasant experience.To me is a average thriller but not a bad film.
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MCT:November 23, 2007
Another great little movie by Lucky McKee about the mysterious going ons in a 50s girls boarding school.
Comments
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drbloodposted 364 days ago -
