Voces en el bosque

If you try to estimate The Woods as a horror flick it's 2 out of 10. Scary? Impressive story? Good finale? Effects? ... are you kidding?

But despite of all the above the Woods is surprisingly watchable and somehow enjoyable. How's that?

Yes, it's style and imagery (excluding those ridiculous chopping scenes). Hypnotising manner of photography and acting. Slow dialogs, slow movements, close-ups on leading actresses, nice soundtrack selections, charming vocals in chorus scenes. Tea tanned picture, old-fashion haircuts and clothes.

Second, it's a human touch. I mean that scene with radio listening, scene when Heather mimics Mrs.Mackinaw, and so on. It's too common thing for nowadays horror flicks to forget that people are people in the first place, not just screaming dummies for chopping.

In fact, The Woods resembled me Body Snatchers - same slow, beautiful, stylish, and hypnotizing.

A young arsonist is tossed into a prestigious all girls boarding school for "gifted" children and immediately starts to realize that the teachers might be witches using the student body for their own nefarious rituals.

The Woods appears to have a decent budget and the cast is wonderful, but the script feels a few drafts away from memorable and the tone switches from serious to semi-comic a bit too often to take anything that's happening on screen seriously. It also sticks us with a lead character who comes across as too sour and surly to ever get on her side and root for her.

If you are looking for a bloody slasher flick, then look elsewhere, as this film is a spooky thriller along the lines of Dario Argento.

Agnes Bruckner, a superb young actress, plays a troubled teen whose mother puts her in a boarding school. It just so happens that she has special talents the headmistress (Patricia Clarkson - The Station Agent, The Green Mile, Pieces of April) and the other teachers are looking for.

Despite warnings from sexy Rachel Nichols, she is trapped and part of their diabolical scheme.

The suspense is tense throughout and it only gets bloody at the end. The acting is great and the tree effects are spectacular.

In 1965 Heather (Agnes Bruckner) is sent to an exclusive all girls school by her parents who really don't care about her. All the teachers act strange and Heather is tormented by one of the more vicious students. She slowly (VERY slowly) finds out she's there for a reason. Things get darker and students start disappearing and Heather realizes she might be next.

We have a lot of good actors (Bruckner, Patricia Clarkson and Bruce Campbell) who are great but this just doesn't work. The story is confusing and it moves very slowly. When things barrel out of control at the end it isn't scary at all--just puzzling. Also add in bad special effects and you have a pretty poor movie. It's too bad because they have a good cast but a bad script.

In 2002, director Lucky McKee made a big impression with his first full feature film, the oddball horror 'May'. Since then, he went on to direct the best episode of the Masters of Horror series, and this film...which has unfortunately remained in limbo for far too long. It's not difficult to see why the film struggled to get a release, as McKee's film isn't exactly your average slice of horror. It's clear that the director has a thing for deviant young women, and that theme is carried through with this film; along with a whole load of influence, which ranges from Video Nasty classic 'The Evil Dead', to Dario Argento's masterpiece 'Suspiria'. The film takes place in 1965, and focuses on central character Heather Fasulo - a girl sent to a an all-girl boarding school by her parents after she decided to burn down their house. The school is surrounded by thick woodland, and the girls there tell stories about it which revolve round a coven of witches that decided to take the school by force many years earlier. Furthermore, this story seems to have some truth as Heather suffers nightmares which focus on the surrounding woods…

The film is really slow paced for the first hour, and despite some mysterious goings on at first; there isn't a lot of horror involved. But that's not to say that the film is boring! McKee utilises this time well and uses it to create mystery around his central theme and build the characters up to a point that we can easily care for them. The atmosphere is continually creepy, and this bodes well with the mystery theme and the dark and gloomy woodland. While The Woods doesn't feature much in the way of blood and gore, McKee skilfully manages to work some schlock sequences into the film, and the frenzied final third brilliantly offsets the slow build of the first two. The director has managed to put together a good line-up of acting talent for the film, which sees Agnes Bruckner doing well in the lead role, and receiving good feedback from experienced actors, including a devilish Patricia Clarkson, and cult icon Bruce Campbell; whom I'd like to have seen more of. It all boils down to a satisfying, yet open, climax and overall; despite its problems getting a release - this is a damn good horror film and will surely rank as one of the best of 2006! Here's to hoping McKee has an easier time getting a release for his next film.