Review #151: The Woods (2006)

Cast/Notable Credits:
Lucky McKee (Director): May (2002)

Agnes Bruckner (Heather): Venom

Emma Campbell (Alice Fasulo): FeardotCom (2002)

Bruce Campbell (Joe Fasulo): The Evil Dead

Patricia Clarkson (Ms. Traverse): The Untouchables (1987), Jumanji (1995), Simply Irresistible (1999), The Green Mile (1999), Carrie (2002), Miracle (2004)

Lauren Birkell (Marcy Turner): Cast Away (2000), Van Wilder (2002), Nancy Drew (2002), Paparazzi (2004), The Babysitters (2007)

Rachel Nichols (Samantha Wise): P2

Kathleen Mackey (Ann Whales): Gothika (2003)

Plot:

In 1965, a fire setting troubled youth (Heather) is sent to Falburn Academy, an all girls private school out in the woods. Heather is unhappy to be there as she does not “fit in” with the other girls right off the bat. Heather gets picked on by the popular girl, Samantha, on her first day and is already an outcast of the school. Heather gets into a fight, is called names and even has her milk at lunch tipped over (how cruel!)…and that’s the least of her problems.

There is a greater mystery that surrounds the school, its headmistress, and the woods that surround it. The academy’s headmistress, Miss Traverse, subjects Heather to special tests to see if she’s “gifted” and it’s all part of her scholarship to the academy.

Heather sneaks out of the dormitory late at night and goes into the woods. She hears mysterious whispers and noises and then flees the woods. Heather believes that she wasn’t alone in the woods, that her teachers were somehow mysteriously in there with her. She returns to sleep only to be awoken later on by the sound of a girl crying. The crying girl tells Heather that, “This is my bed” and attacks Heather with an axe. Heather awakens only to find out that it was a dream.

Later on the other girls warn Heather about not going into the woods and they inform her about an urban legend surrounding the woods. The result of the legend is that a girl went into the woods, got possessed by the spirits and returned to kill a teacher.

Particular girls, who the headmistress has been tutoring, start to go missing in the woods, and Heather becomes more intrigued with the mystery surrounding them. Popular belief is that the teachers in the school are witches.

Villain:

The Falburn Academy’s headmistress, Miss Traverse (played by Patricia Clarkson), is the film’s main villain…witch. She’s a cold hearted, strict ruling headmistress with another agenda on her table other than the education of young adults.

Traverse administers a series of special tests to a select few members of the student body hoping to find the ones with special abilities (witch powers). She wants to steal those powers to help bring back the spirits of her kind trapped in the woods.

Cast:

Agnes Bruckner (Pictured Below) plays the lead role of Heather Fasulo in the film. She plays a troubled teen that has been dumped off at a strict private school by her parents. From the first moment she despises the school and plays the “bad girl” role. She even has a couple of clever one-liner remarks that are pretty funny.

Bruckner “goes against the grain” with all the other girls and finds herself as an outcast with limited friends. She gains the nickname “fire crotch” because of her red hair. Does the carpet match?

Bruckner is the center piece of Traverse’s plan, and is captured for a ceremonial “power drain” at the end. Agnes comes through and gets pissed off and does a little damage while swinging a mean ole’ axe.

The Woods has another one of my iconic horror actors in the film, Bruce Campbell, who plays Heather’s father, Joe. Bruce Campbell’s the man!

As we have come to love and know, The Chin does have somewhat of a significant part in the flick. At first I thought it was just a cameo of him dropping off his troubled teen at a private school, but then he pops up again for a larger role at the end of the film.

The popular hot mean girl, Samantha, is played by the gorgeous Rachel Nichols. She acts like the mean b*tch to Heather, only to hide her true intentions as the one who wants to help and save her in the end.

SFX/Gore:

The Woods is a low budget independent film that featured a couple of deaths. Nothing in the film was really gruesome in nature, even the deaths. The deaths seemed pretty ordinary, as none of them struck me as awesome.

The tree came to life a couple times in the flick and they had good special effects to them, and they weren’t as cheesy as the “tree rape” looking effects in The Evil Dead.

TNA:

The younger teenage versions of Agnes Bruckner and Rachel Nichols (Pictured Below) star as the TNA in The Woods. The film’s about an all girls private school, so expect 1965 dress code attire, matching grey skirts, long black socks and non revealing sweater tops. They’re not as attractive as our visions of Catholic school girl outfits, but similar in nature.

T.Gun’s Take:

Wow. Agnes Bruckner actually played a significant role in a good horror movie. I never thought that it would happen. I’m a big fan of her…looks…and have been suckered in time after time into her other “attempts” at horror movies only to be disappointed in the end.

The Woods on the other hand was actually a pretty decent witch flick. Not the best, but still worthy enough to watch. Usually, I’m not a big fan of “witch” movies, so my expectations were set a little low, but The Woods came up on the “good” side of me. I’m sure ones who do enjoy witch movies would get a kick out of this one.

There were a couple things that I would have liked to be done better, but…you can’t win ‘em all. I didn’t really buy into the whole blood in the food and milk thing, but I guess you need some type of connecting piece. I was also a little puzzled with the blood on the hand covering one’s mouth and sending them into some type of comma deal.

The Woods was a little slow paced and had an overall dark tone to it. The Woods displayed a good colorless film. What I mean is that it did a good job of not using bright colors and stayed with dull shades to help give it the murky and gloomy feel.

Misc. Movie Trivia:
-Film opened on October 3, 2006 and went straight to DVD
-M.Night Shyamalan had to change the name of his film The Woods to The Village because of this flick. That makes The Woods a great film in my book on that fact alone!