A Night in the Woods (2011)


A trio of friends go hiking deep in the woods, to an area with a horrible and mysterious history. What should have been a peaceful camping adventure turns to a trip into terror as collective paranoia reaches fever pitch and it becomes clear that there is a much darker force at work in the ancient eerie surroundings.

REVIEW: Even at only 82 minutes, A Night in the Woods felt overly long. Actually, the part of this Found Footage movie that moved along the fastest for me was the first chunk, where we're being introduced to our various main characters and having them sight seeing around the English countryside. You know, the 'boring' filler stuff. Once they actually get to their campsite in the woods and hunker down for the evening, that's when I started loosing interest because characters were acting out-of-character to how we were shown them as previously in the movie, and doing things that made no sense whatsoever other than to just move the story along.


It certainly doesn't help that none of these characters are likeable in any shape, way, or form. The lead is a pervert that secretly films his girlfriend every chance he gets, the other male lead is a trouble-making hooligan (Or 'skeet' if you're from where I live in Atlantic Canada) that breaks into people's houses and sneaks around, and the main female lead is willing to cheat on one with the other the second the one she's dating isn't around. Why give a shit about any of these characters when they're all disgusting human beings? 

To make matters worse, the movie doesn't even bother to try to explain anything that happens in it. It throws out tons of potential 'maybe it's this' and 'maybe it's actually that' explanations and red herrings as for the 'supernatural' going ons, but it never truly commits to confirming or denying any of them, so by the time the credits are rolling at the end, you still have no answers as to what exactly just happened for the last 80 minutes.


It's a shame that so much of this movie is done so poorly, because the stuff that is done well is done really well, and I wish there had been more of that. For example, the filming itself is done good, never once making the viewer feel motion sickness, the acting from the main cast, despite not liking the characters that they portray, is actually really good and believable for a low budget Found Footage movie, and there were one or two genuinely really creepy parts and jump moments in there (a really suspenseful tent scene is easily the highlight for me, even though it only takes up about 30 seconds of the movie). 

Unfortunately, that's about it. I love to review Found Footage movies and when I heard that A Night in the Woods was pretty much the U.K.'s version of The Blair Witch Project I knew I just had to check it out. Unfortunately, this is nowhere near one of the good ones.

3/10 Rooms in the Psych Ward


 

Comments

  1. So, I finally got around to watching "Willow Creek", and damn, that was pointless. Your review of this movie reminds a lot of the issues you pointed out about that flick. Sad that it sucks! (Also, crazy excited that the BMS is back up and running, on a semi-regular basis)

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    1. Yeah, Willow Creek was the type of movie that I was really enjoying for the first half or so, up until I realized nothing at all was going to be happening past that, and sure enough I was right. It had so much potential (and the Behind the Scenes factoids on it are actually really interesting, such as those townsfolks that he interviews are actual real townsfolk from that area and they're essentially playing themselves, quirks and all), it's just the movie continues to go nowhere at all, and then when it finally starts to, it still shows us nothing and just ends on a confusing mess (that tent scene though, I loved). There's a new FF Bigfoot movie out now, haven't had the chance to check it out yet though, The Bigfoot Project, supposed to be more of a comedy than a horror, but I'm always down for more Bigfoot FF, so I'll probably end up checking it out over the weekend sometime.

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