Lurking Woods

Three guys and three gals in their mid-20s go out to a cabin for a college reunion, but a masked slayer is mysteriously lurking in the area. Will anyone make it out alive?

"Lurking Woods" (2015) is a conventional slasher, which the viewer is tipped off to at the outset by the shot of an arm wielding a knife in the air, reminiscent of the infamous "Psycho" shower scene. Of course this is a slasher of the cabin-in-the-woods variety and an Indie at that (costing about $270,000 in USD). Some scenes probably could've been tightened up, but the movie worked for me as an all-around entertaining slasher with a gorgeous rural setting, proficient Indie filmmaking, a quality score, a couple of rockin' songs on the soundtrack, an interesting reveal at the end and a decent no-name cast.

Speaking of which, the creators knocked it out of the ballpark with the female cast, featuring blonde Dominique Shenton (Arleen), Chloe Brown (Alice) and Hope Devaney (Andrea). Redhead Cassee Lazic is also worth a mention in a cameo as Amy. The director has a good eye for depicting feminine beauty without getting raunchy (although the final girl does have a brief top nude scene).

At the end of the day, "Lurking Woods" doesn't try to do something new, it's just effective at what it is, a low-budget standard slasher. The contemporaneous "The Lake on Clinton Road" and "Crazy Lake" are good American examples. If you liked those, this is as good or better.

It runs 1 hour, 17 minutes, and was shot in Toodyah, which is an hour-drive northeast of Perth.

GRADE: B.

I give lots of films a shot,..this was just bad all around, acting,plot, etc.....its completely ridiculous, when you find out the motives behind it all.....smh....no,no,no, n no.

This is actually a really good movie. Yes, it's a typical "bunch of college kids go in the woods for a camping holiday and end up being terrorized", kind of film, but as far as that genre goes, this one is one of the best.

The acting is not the best for some of the players; some seem to be fresh out of their first acting class, and trying too hard, but they were also stuck with cliche characters as most of these types are. One actor, the one playing the nerd, stood out. What made this movie better than most was that the ending really did trip me up a couple of times with several unexpected twists.

It's not Oscar-worthy, lol, but if you're looking for an entertaining "college kids go into the woods" type of film, this one was better than most.

Amateurish in it's script, acting, and sound design. The story is stale, even with some attempts at a twist or two. Australia produces some quite good cinema, but this is not one of them. Hokey, slow, dull.

So standard plot of young people on vacation in a cabin in the wilderness. Add a psycho-slahser and viola! Movie! Acting is generally poor, and if there are moments of adequate acting, it is quickly followed by awkward pauses while someone searches for a line. Random motivations, stupid plot points, and standard filming. Don't believe higher ratings.