Beyond the Woods

I was actually pretty impressed with this film. I was expecting more of a floppy script and cheesy acting but they had a good bunch of actors and the film had everything you would want in a drama, horror film. A top quality movie to watch on the weekend.

Beyond the Woods was apparently crowd funded so we know it is a micro budgeted effort. Even so, director, writer and, producer, Seán Breathnach, has cobbled together an eminently watchable film full of believable characters.

It is another entry in the group of friends in a cabin the woods genre though the Irish setting and cast give it a distinctive twist. Oh, and there is the ever-present sulphuric stench from a nearby sinkhole, the pungency of which the cast do well in conveying to the viewer.

We are 25 minutes into the movie before anything actually happens. Cinematographer, Paraic English, is up to the job though and the viewer remains engaged. In fact the cinematography is a definite strength of the film. My one small quibble is most evident during this early period. The audio is muffled at times.

Jump cut shots, now you see me, now you don't, are used sparingly but to good effect and mark the gear change from a sort of Big Chill feel into horror.

Whilst mentioning horror, the film is strong technically and in terms of cast but not so much in terms of actual horror. It's too talky to be terribly scary. And the horror tropes are perhaps the main victims of a very tight budget. Whilst acknowledging all of this, Beyond the Woods is not without its occasional but moderate moment or two.

Marissa, Ruth Hayes, creates an unnerving moment when she attempts to escape the holiday house but all roads see her returning to it. Perhaps if Breathnach had done more of this and abandoned the monster, etc and opted for frights created by using subtly and filmic techniques à la Cat People it would have been scarier and avoided the budget constraints.

All in all, Beyond the Woods deserves an audience and those involved with it bear watching in the future.

The best part of the movie is the acting...I think that's what held the movie together...locales- simply beautiful...direction - not bad, but he didn't know how to end...all horror aspects are cliches, but as I said, the actors keep you engaged.

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed most of this movie. Good character development and chemistry between the actors; with the acting being rather impressive, and likely best thing going for Beyond the Woods.

If this film were just a straight up drama about some old friends dealing with becoming different people in the interim time from when they last got together until this trip, it would have been rock solid. Even some of the creepiness was at first very well conceived, and could be explained away in the story by the drug/alcohol use and human anxieties they cycle through during their time secluded in the wilderness. It really would have been just fine if left at that. Unfortunately, it was originally developed as a horror flick and so the filmmaker ruined a 7 star indie drama by eventually forcing it into becoming a cliched supernatural slasher. I feel like that's a pretty big shame because the final twenty minutes was just super cheesy and so jarring when compared to the bulk of the story. Things just escalated too fast and it felt out of place. 5/10

I was quite surprised with this film. A very misleading poster alluding to a slasher of sorts. If it's a gory slasher you want this isn't what you're looking for. Very light on gore and on screen kills Beyond The Woods does character better than most horror films. A very naturalistic ensemble really sells the story of a group of friends who haven't been in touch as of late. The acting is really outstanding and the small number of special effects are solid too. My only niggle would be I would have loved more horror early on particularly out in the woods during daytime. Best scene in the movie is a guy getting lost in the woods early on which was gripping it really built suspense to breaking point for me. Would have loved to have seen the holy well at some stage too. More horror and I would rate higher but a great film nonetheless. Atmosphere and tension in spades.