Nobody Sleeps in the Woods Tonight

Thanks to Netflix I've gotten to watch several Polish films, admittedly all horrors, and of the ones I've seen, I've enjoyed them all. Nobody Sleeps in the woods (to be lazy, and use the translation,) is really rather good.

It's true, there isn't really any new material here, but what is done, is done well. Very much a Polish Wrong Turn, with a bit of Cabin in The Woods mixed in. It takes a bizarre twist, when we learn how things came to be, and there are enough shocking moments.

A few times we hear points about how it is for people in Poland, being gay etc. It seems that the writer and producer wanted to make a few points.

Clichés apart, rather good. 7/10.

It's Polish, and I tried watching it in German, with subs, and the original language as well, but turned to English eventually.

It resembled a lot of familiar horror movies, like f.i. Wrong Turn, as mentioned.

But it's not bad. It does have it's gory moments, and I liked it.

It's not great, but also not bad.

Under the layer of an archetypical slasher movies there's a strong political statement that some people fail to recognize. The story of two twin brothers is a clear link to "The Two Who Stole The Moon" and that's just a start. Among thrills, chills, blood and boobs almost every dialogue scene criticizes the nowadays Poland; the lack of tollerance, the pathologies within the catholic Church etc. But at the end of the day it's a well crafted, well acted, fun film.

This film has nothing new to offer in terms of the horror genre. It's really predictable and full of clichés, which is even pointed out by one the characters in the plot of the film. Actually, it's really similar to Wrong Turn and some themes are literally taken straight out of The Ritual and The Cabin. It's like you're watching horror movies that you already know, so the whole thing is hardly surprising and definitely not creative. What is surprising, though, is the soundtrack - suffice it to say that it's weird... Reminds me of The Goonies from 1985. And the 'monsters' were created quite well. I was really glad to see a lot of new faces on the screen. Surely, this wasn't the debut for some of the young actors, but still it was entertaining to see new talents. I quite enjoyed it, although there were two or three moments when I couldn't help laughing out loud since the scene was so predictable or out of common sense. Watching this film you really need to stop analysing and thinking - just enjoy what you're served. The movie was about to have its premiere on March 13, 2020 but one day prior to that all the cinemas (and many other places) in Poland were shut down due to the coronavirus spread, so the film premiered on Netflix instead.

Just watching a random YouTube video tonight about "5 Most Not Talked about Good Horror movies" and this was #1. The second he mentioned this movie I never heard of before, I stopped the YouTube video and went straight to Netflix to watch this. I AM SO GLAD I did. This In-the-wood slasher is every-bit the quintessential slasher from the 80s without bothering to do another homage every few scenes. Enough with the homages! Just glad they just made another clone but with great effects, fantastic characters, plenty of gore and kills and mostly shot in daylight, which is ballsy and wonderful simultaneously. Not 100% perfect - the exposition got a little too easy, like they didn't have faith the audience could put the pieces together and the reason behind the killer was...well, meh. Still, HIGHLY recommended.

***

Final thoughts: "Nobody Sleeps in the Woods Tonight"? Well, to be fair, I did see main character Zosia sleeping in her tent. The others, no evidence.