Don’t Go Into The Woods
The movie opens with a young lady running through the woods. The view quickly changes to the point of view of person or thing watching her. Of course like most slasher movies she falls down and is overtaken by whatever was watching her. Next we see a group of friends then quickly jump to a bird watcher. We come back to the group of friends, where the movie begins. We meet Peter who seems to be the whipping boy of the group. Next we come to a photographer who is thrown over a waterfall and lands next to a couple who is playing the water, what really through me through a loop was the couple never notices this. Next the photographer’s mother (or wife, I am not quite sure they never take any time with the characters to explain their relationship) is murdered. We come back to the group of 4 I mentioned at the beginning who arrive at their camp for the night. Again we jump to a random couple in the woods in their van making out, with names like Cherry and Dick I was sure their fate was sealed. Without giving away too much of the story I will stop here. But I must say ***SPOILER ALERT*** the killer is a normal wild man, which I didn’t quite understand how he was able to completely shake and then proceed to flip over roll a 80's VW Van (Think Texas Chainsaw Massacre style van) down a hillside.
The movie is an A-typical 80's slasher film. We follow the group from the point of the killer before he is seen for the first time. As much as I am a fan of 80s slashers and wanted to love this film. The movie jumped all over the place. It had very little continuity till half way through. At this point we begin to mainly focus of the group of 4. It seemed like the director was trying to use the first half of the film to amass a high body count and the story suffered for it. It also suffers from VERY little story and almost no character development before killing them off. With the exception of the group of four we never really get to know any of the characters in the woods. That being said the acting that was put forth probably was the reason their parts are short lived.
other. It was very grainy which I did enjoy getting that video tape feel of my youth. But was disappointed that this was being passed off as a high definition film.
Next the sound quality also seemed like they did very little to restore it. Also part of what turned me off was the dialog which was very straight to the point like very little thought was put into it, if any at all. Another problem I had with the film was that you often hear wolves or coyotes howling but they never have any impact on the film. Also the soundtrack and film track were never properly lined up which made for a hard time getting through it. It was almost like the English sound track was laid over in the essences of a bad Kung-Fu film. Also in some scenes the sound drops out and sounds like they are talking at the end of a hallway.
By this point you’re probably wondering “Did this guy like anything about this film?” That is a good question, and yes I did. Some of the killings were unique and the gore for an early 80s film was good. I think that is because they put most of their budget into special effects. This was mainly what kept me going through the film. Also like all good, heck all 80's slashers the music and off the wall sound effects made the movie survivable.
In closing the movie had a very Wrong Turn meets Friday the 13th feel. If I had to classify it I would say it was a B-Movie attempt at a 80's slasher. So if you enjoy the campiness of bad acting, cheesy 80's slasher sound effects and music, can look past very little story and bad dialog then you will love this film! But in my humble opinion this was not one of those b-movie where it is so bad it is good.
reviewed by Shawn
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