Beyond the Woods

Actually good relationship and friendship unraveling drama disguised as a horror movie. Definitely not something you'd want to watch for a cheap scare.

A group of friends & family gather at a remote holiday home in rural Ireland, but they're off-put by the sulfuric stench of a newly opened sinkhole a couple of miles away. The stench will be the least of their cares when a bit o' hell breaks loose.

"Beyond the Woods" (2018) is an Irish horror Indie that's mostly mundane drama at the holiday home where the dudes & dudettes hang around drinking & smoking or maybe walking the yard/woods. If you can handle that, things turn horrific in the last act with pretty good infernal f/x, especially for a spare-change Indie. Personally, I enjoyed the lens into everyday social life in Ireland, but others may understandably find it tedious.

The film runs 1 hour, 23 minutes, and was shot in Cullen (the holiday home & surrounding woods) & Crosshaven (creature nightmare scene), County Cork, Ireland.

GRADE: C

I was almost instantly impressed with the acting in the opening few minutes of this movie. 7 friends gather in a farm house to reminisce about old times. The actors seem like genuine people and real friends, there is some great character work by the actors and all seem very real. One may seem a little OTT , but that's down to him being written as a typical jerk. The premise is good. These friends more or less trapped in this farm house with a mysterious sink ( or should I say stink ) hole opened up two miles away, that maybe spewing up more than nasty smells. Once the friends start to get menaced by a mysterious presence it starts to go down hill. It feels like the writer, who also directs, doesn't seem to know where the story and this antagonistic force is going. It's powers seem undefined , and seems to be able to do what ever the plot demands and has seemingly Omnipotent abilities . Yet we have a dude dressed as Skeletor walking round with an axe. Lot's of questions are raised but very few are answered. It's light on actual horror and gore aswell. The character work is great and cinematography, lighting etc all looks to a good standard . The movie does have a somewhat cheap feel to it too. The man behind this has talent as a director but maybe should work of someone else's script . The cast are top notch and does make you care about the characters . Overall good potential, but lack of experience behind the camera shows

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

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.