Les yeux de la forêt

It's the 80's not even Disney is dodging the horror craze and is attempting a scare for those whose age is still single digits.

What happens when wholesome meets horror? A lot of foliage blowing in the wind, the little girl babysat for in Halloween getting mildly possessed and lots of shrieking when lightning bolts strike.

Seven year old me found this on tv in the middle of a run of Disney films in the 1980's, so after weeks of sickly sweet, this did stand out and I can remember finding it spooky - that's spooky not scary.

That made me the exact audience this was for, unfortunately it's so exact it only really works if you're watching this pre your 10th birthday somewhere around 1984.

It's not a bad film for something that's only a few degrees away from Scooby Doo. Rewatching this 35 years later as an adult I still made it all the way through without getting to bored as there's an 'okay' plot going on.

I will say Bette Davis is fabulous wondering around like a bitter witch looking for her vodka and the rest of the cast pull it off without putting to much effort in.

Make sure you YouTube the alternative endings, it's like the acid just kicked in they really want to try and scare the bejesus out of the kids.

Overall it works as a nostalgic flick for background noise for adults and there maybe a few kids out there that can get over it's early 80'sness and watch it til the end.

Not bad, not good but short n sweet.

Horror fans this will take you to the point where you're 0.5 degrees away from not watching a horror, but you might like the soft copy catting - children writing messages backwards I'm looking at you The Shining. Creepy man in the woods with caged birds and dead animals nailed up, hiya Texas Chainsaw - so at least Disney was trying all it could!

Ok, it might not be the greatest movie out there, but I really enjoyed it when I was a kid. And because of that the few times since then that I have watched it, I have held a kind of fascination with it. But alas, my opinion is tainted by childhood. That scary (oh so scary) scene in the fun house haunted me for a long time. And Bette Davis, she is awesome.

It's an interesting contrast to experience Bette Davis in a Disney family suspense thriller--maybe the scariest Disney flick ever made. If anyone could have been more mysterious & bewitchingly secretive, I can't imagine who. I have the 1998 VHS that has a cover with a marvelous photograph of Davis on the back.

Florence Engel Randall's plot in her novel, "A Watcher in the Woods," goes like this: The Curtis family, Helen (Carroll Baker), her husband Paul (David McCullum), & their 2 daughters, Jan (Lynn-Holly Johnson) & Ellie (Kyle Richards), rent an old English manor from it's owner, Mrs. Aylwood (Bette Davis), who lives in the guest cottage. The lady of the manor seems to be haunting, mean & eerily eccentric.

Jan experiences some paranormal events immediately after moving into the manor. For one thing, she can't see her own reflection in a bedroom mirror. Then, Jan begins to strongly sense that someone is watching her in the woods. Neither Helen nor Paul are keen about the girls spending time with Mrs. Aylwood. But, as Jan becomes more scared & curious about who or what is in the woods, the pre-teen begins investigating, starting with Mrs. Aylwood.

After Jan goes into Mrs. Aylwood's cottage to talk with her about the mysterious phenomena that she's noticed, the secret of the woods starts to be revealed by Mrs. Aylwood. Although she's very reluctant to talk about it, Mrs. Aylwood tells Jan the story about her pre-teen daughter's disappearance in the same woods 30 years ago.

The supernatural cinematic effects are well done. Bette Davis' subdued performance as a mysterious older woman makes the show a spine-tingling thriller. The suspense builds to a climax that is not predictable. The settings are spot-on & befitting for a haunted mood.

Keeping in mind that the genre of this movie is a family suspense suitable for children, I found it to be excellent.

"The Watcher in the Woods" was made at a time when Disney was getting ambitious, making PG-rated films and dipping its toes into different genres; other efforts, of course, include "The Black Hole", "Tron", and "Something Wicked This Way Comes". Co-written by Brian Clemens ('The Avengers', "Captain Kronos Vampire Hunter") based on the novel by Florence Engel Randall, it tells a story with a very atmospheric feel. As others have said, it has the appeal of a fairy tale.

An American family comes to live in an isolated English country estate owned by a lonely recluse, Mrs. Aylwood (screen legend Bette Davis). In no time at all, the two daughters, teen-aged Jan (Lynn-Holly Johnson) and younger Ellie (Kyle Richards) are besieged by otherworldly forces, and Jan realizes something must be done to resolve the case of Mrs. Aylwoods' daughter Karen, who'd disappeared many years ago when she was Jans' age.

Director John Hough and crew make this something worth watching with their moody and stylish presentation. Sometimes the special effects get overly cheesy, and they do tend to stick out a little too much. The reasonably compelling, and never too complicated, story does a decent job of pulling the viewer in, along with especially strong lighting by Alan Hume and camera-work by Jack Lowin and Malcolm MacIntosh. Right from the start these individuals help to create a very weird feel to the proceedings.

Carroll Baker and David McCallum don't get a lot to do as the parents, especially McCallum, but the other adults are all fine, including Richard Pasco as the frightened Tom Colley and Ian Bannen as the cantankerous John Keller. Ms. Davis is wonderful as the distraught old lady who realizes that she could finally find out the truth behind her daughters' disappearance, while Johnson, despite her appeal, really overdoes it in terms of her characters' hysteria.

What's interesting is how many times the ending was altered during the history of this film. It was originally shown at 100 minutes, with an overly abrupt ending, then given an elaborate special effects based finale, and then it was reworked again for the films' re-release the following year. The alternate endings are available on DVD for fans to check out.

The film is not particularly memorable, but it's pretty enjoyable while it lasts.

Seven out of 10.

When I was younger I saw this film for the first time and it made an impact, although with age of course the memories faded. However, when I spotted the recent release DVD of this title I had to get it. I felt compelled, and so I snatched it up. When I sat down to watch it, I was instantly drawn into a world of eerie mystery that's surprisingly well-done, especially for a film that bears the name of Disney, notorious for their sanitized, 'family-friendly' fare. This certainly wasn't anything like most of their films, and it was a welcome change. I found myself putting together the mystery a bit faster than the characters, although I was indeed thrown a curve by the ending, which was still quite impacting. The thing about it is, even the alternate endings included on the DVD are still just as impacting, each in its own way. Each one makes quite an impression, and each one resolves the story without tying up each loose end in an impossibly pat way. The 'default' ending is abrupt but poignant, whereas the others are more drawn-out and overtly horrific. But the buildup makes it so, and the buildup is absolutely faultless, especially with the inclusion of the understated and brilliant Bette Davis.

I was absolutely floored by it. Watcher in the Woods is every bit as brilliant a horror film as any other much-discussed title, if not better. It's reminiscent of Lovecraft in many ways and yet gives a distinct impression of a dark, dark fairy tale. The acting is very good, the cast excellent, and the settings simple and isolated yet stunning and evocative. Every fan of film, horror fans in particular, must see The Watcher in the Woods. The DVD release is something that collectors too will enjoy, with the trailers and alternate endings cleaned and clarified for their magnificent DVD presentation. This is a film that should, and will, live in history as one of the hidden gems of film.