The Woods (2006) – Film Review

Director: Lucky McKee
Cast: Agnes Bruckner, Patricia Clarkson, Bruce Campbell
Certificate: 15

By Sarah Morgan

It never fails to astonish me just how many low-budget horror movies are out there.

Most of them are released with little fanfare, and only a handful receive the kind of publicity that helps them attract an audience. The rest have to hope that genre fans can find them on whichever platform makes them available.

“Disturbing visions”

The problem for some of these titles is that they don’t offer anything any different – they’re rehashes of old settings and ideas. That’s certainly the case with The Woods. There’s nothing actually wrong with director Lucky McKee’s movie – in fact, it’s pretty well made – it just feels as if we’ve all been there, done that before.

If, however, you’re dipping a toe into the low-budget horror movie oeuvre for the first time, the story takes place at the decidedly spooky Falburn Academy, an all-girl boarding school set deep in the kind of forest that wouldn’t look out of place in a Grimm’s fairy tale.

Vines creep up the building’s interior walls and the staff are just plain weird – why any parent arriving to drop off their daughter wouldn’t immediately turn the car around on arrival is a mystery.

Nevertheless, one day in 1965, rebellious teen Heather Fasulo is dumped there unceremoniously, although you get the impression it’s more of her hard-faced mother’s idea than her softer-hearted father’s.

Before long, Heather realises that Falburn isn’t the place for her. Not only does she fall foul of the school bully, Samantha, she begins hearing voices and seeing disturbing visions. She’s then told a legend about three witches who once called the place home – but is it really a myth, and did the spellcasters ever depart?

“Decent support”

After some blood, gore and a few unsurprising revelations, the truth is revealed.

Agnes Bruckner is fine as Heather, gaining decent support from Lauren Birkell as her only friend, Marcy, and young Jodie Foster lookalike Rachel Nichols as Samantha.

Patricia Clarkson heads the adult cast as headmistress Ms Traverse; sadly, it’s telegraphed from the start that she’s a ne’er-do-well, doing away with any kind of tension in the process. Genre legend Bruce Campbell pops up too as Heather’s father, but is somewhat underused.

Special features include interviews with McKee and Bruckner, but if this was a school report, I’d give it a C for effort; it could certainly do better.

Sarah Morgan( Writer )

Sarah Morgan studied film journalism at post-graduate level with the BFI and has been writing about TV and film for PA Media’s newspaper, magazine and new media customers since 1996. She’s also written for a wide range of other publications, both online and in print, including the book Offbeat and Intermission magazine, and is a regular contributor to the Talking Pictures TV podcast. When she isn’t watching movies, she’s collecting and reading vintage crime and horror paperback books or, for her sins, watching her beloved Sheffield Wednesday.

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