A Night in the Woods

It all started with Blair Witch in '99. Since then, 'found footage' and 'handicam'-style films have become all the rage. There was the less-remembered 'Last Broadcast' which actually preceded Blair Witch but did not capture the imagination in the same way the viral marketing method pioneered by Haxan Films managed to. And since those early days, well-received efforts such as Cloverfield and Paranormal Activity have upped the budget but endeavoured to keep themselves to the same principles.

So, with these films now extremely common, it takes something a bit special to stand out. Sadly, nothing about 'A Night in the Woods' is special, and it blows several good chances to be a great film, instead ending up a bit of a mess of a production which could have been so much more.

The story sees 3 'friends' decide to go camping out in Dartmoor - the complete lack of explanation as to why they are going there is one mild flaw. A 'sinister' (contrived) element of risk is thrown in with a visit to an Irish pub and tales of horror from the area the intrepid 3 are aiming for. And after a very long and dragged-out first portion of the movie we finally end up on location for a night in the woods.

This film tries insanely hard to be Blair Witch, in Britain. Just like the earlier masterpiece it's 3 friends isolated in the woods with inexplicable evil apparently descending upon them. And to its credit it does manage to create a semblance of tension approaching the crescendo of the story.

But unfortunately the makers decided to throw in a whole bunch of bizarre red herrings which made no sense. They included revelatory back story but unfortunately none of it was remotely developed nor did it make any sense in context of the environment - it did not appear to affect anything.

They also included a few moments which were from the eyes of certain characters. The whole point of these films is you only ever see from the view of the camera they are holding. As soon as you get an eye-view from a character who has no camera, it doesn't work.

It was, as mentioned, also let horribly down by the unnecessarily long intro - the story took far too long to get going and created the criminal error of making every character dislikeable in the process.

That all said it is not the worst cam film I have ever seen, but it was poorly-conceived and lacked sense and cohesion. Its forced and contrived nature let it down horribly, even if the acting was actually half decent.

Seen much better.

Another offspring, another "Found Footage" Film. But should you judge a movie, just because it tries to ride a wave (you'd be missing out on some good movies, if you have prejudices). On the other hand, this movie does not have what it takes to really be considered a good entry into the "sub-genre".

It's not so much about the actors (given the roles they get), more about the script and the execution of it. I can't say that I think you'd be surprised. In any way that is. But even if that's not what you are looking for, with logic out the window what does remain, that makes this movie at least a bit worth-while? Only saving grace might be the sound design, which is quite nice.

Definitely influenced by The Blair Witch Project, this standard "terror in the woods at night" flick starts with a young couple embarking on a camping trip with the woman's cousin in tow. Things and people turn out not to be quite what they seem, however, and as night grows near scary things start to happen.

I found this one to have an interesting premise with some mildly interesting characters.The lead up to the actual horror part showed lots of promise, but never really delivered. There were a few interesting twists and turns present as well as a couple of effective jump scares but there was little to no payoff. 5/10.

I saw the trailer for this a while ago and it looked really cool. It took a while to get the film because you cant get it in Australia but finally I got it and watched it with a friend who also loves horror movies. However this was really disappointed.

The trailer and cover looked really good but the movie was slow, boring, pointless, not scary and only had the final scene which had some form of action appear from that the characters did nothing but talk and sit around a camp fire.

Very disappointing film, don't bother wasn't good at all

The acting was also not very good

The twist at the end however was alright I guess but it could have been so much better if they added some more scares and a better twist at the end

Lets start off with the PROS PROS: Many pop out scares (especially if watching on a high volume..), the few black and white night vision parts are excellent in making trees look like people (several times I thought I saw someone hanging from a tree, which is what the Hunter does in this movie) CONS: Too much inactivity, not enough stimulating dialogue, TOO MANY IDIOTIC DECISIONS (even for someone who is scared out of their mind.. One small example is having a flashlight and not pointing it in the direction of sound!) HOWEVER... this movie was pretty nice and really good at making your eyes deceive you, and then scaring you with distorted sound, blurred camera vision and pop out scares.. I honestly recommend watching at high volume... but not too high, and at nighttime. I viewed it during the day at high volume and it got me pretty good in the last 40 minutes of the film...

FINALLY: One last thing I should mention is that this movie does tdo a very good job at making you hate the characters, then like them, then hate them again.. so its well worth one watch.