{"id":12511,"date":"2006-09-10T03:03:28","date_gmt":"2006-09-10T07:03:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=12511"},"modified":"2006-09-10T03:03:28","modified_gmt":"2006-09-10T07:03:28","slug":"the-woods-2006","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2006\/09\/10\/the-woods-2006\/","title":{"rendered":"The Woods (2006)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"the-woods-01\"<\/a>Director Lucky McKee\u2019s second film is another twisted tale involving the sick minds of women, and delves into the psyches of girls both old and young, and bears shades of \u201cWhispering Corridors\u201d and \u201cSuspiria.\u201d With a cast of Patricia Clarkson, Bruce Campbell, and Agnes Bruckner, respectively, it\u2019s a damn shame \u201cThe Woods\u201d won\u2019t get much attention beyond horror fans, and curious video renters with a two for one card. Because McKee is on his game here, and my expectations for \u201cThe Woods\u201d were met above and beyond.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Woods\u201d is set on a beautiful yet creepy mansion that plays the role of a boarding school for young girls. The school is a posh institution with the usual quirks and devices; bitchy girls, the outcasts, strict teachers, lesbian undertones, and tension by the barrel full. The set pieces behind McKee\u2019s sophomore effort are beautiful resembling more of a mausoleum than a school in the end. The lovely Agnes Bruckner plays Heather, a young girl who is forced to go to the school thanks to her hobby as a pyromaniac, and finds herself in a heaping helping of trouble. Set in the pastoral backdrop of the early sixties, the world in and around these woods is a morbid juxtaposition only McKee is capable of, and McKee doesn\u2019t go for gore this time around.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Woods\u201d is based more around build-up and mounting tension rather than torn limbs and amputation. Those who adored \u201cMay\u201d for its carnage won\u2019t expect the turn around from McKee whose story telling is much more low-key and understated. Agnes Bruckner\u2019s second outing into horror is much better and memorable this time as the bitchy and somewhat snide Heather who rebels against the school, and now must find out how important a role she plays there. In spite of the mysterious goings on at the school, Heather\u2019s number one motive is to get kicked out, and she finds there\u2019s something more for her there. Patricia Clarkson is all kinds of menacing here as the school\u2019s cold headmaster, and Bruce Campbell is fun as Heather\u2019s put upon father who decides to get his daughter out of the school if it\u2019s the last thing he does.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Woods\u201d will have definite replay value for those who find novelty in McKee\u2019s direction, and he adds a very distinct flavor to his films, and that flavor is definitely in \u201cThe Woods.\u201d The mix of dark comedy, and demented horror is well orchestrated and his moody piece is worth watching. Sadly, though we\u2019re told by the characters that school just doesn\u2019t let the students leave and that there\u2019s no escape, we never get enough of a sense of that throughout the film. Ross doesn\u2019t fully explore the cruel machinations within and beyond the school, enough thus we\u2019re never given enough of a tense example of what will happen should the girls decide to venture beyond it. And Clarkson is very underused here making only small ineffective appearances to remind us that she\u2019s the villain and only is able to shine in the climax, but by then the disappointment sinks in.<\/p>\n

McKee doesn\u2019t take enough of an advantage of the actress\u2019s talents, and it\u2019s disappointing to say the least. Ross makes a point of defying logic and sometimes enlisting plot holes just to move the plot along, and viewers will find some instances hard to swallow. Ross rips off a scene directly from \u201cThe Craft,\u201d and then proceeds with some plot holes. What was the deal with white I-Pod earphones? It\u2019s 1965, isn\u2019t it? What kind of cop goes off on a one man hunt for three girls in a large area of woods? Is he the only cop available? How come no one noticed he\u2019d been missing? Its questions like that that make \u201cThe Woods\u201d pretty flawed. While there are certain plot holes that require the viewer put logic on hold, and scenes that lift from other stories, \u201cThe Woods\u201d is a very good horror film with great performances, a tight story, and atmosphere that will keep audiences salivating.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Director Lucky McKee\u2019s second film is another twisted tale involving the sick minds of women, and delves into the psyches of girls both old and young, and bears shades of \u201cWhispering Corridors\u201d and \u201cSuspiria.\u201d With a cast of Patricia Clarkson, Bruce Campbell, and Agnes Bruckner, respectively, it\u2019s a damn shame \u201cThe Woods\u201d won\u2019t get much […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[302,477,1008,1087,1170,1196],"class_list":["post-12511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-drama","tag-horror","tag-supernatural","tag-thriller","tag-w","tag-witches"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12511\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}