Directed by Lucky McKee.Starring Patricia Clarkson, Agnes Bruckner, Rachel Nichols, Bruce Campbell. Horror/Drama. Synopsis:A troubled young girl is sent to a boarding school that is located next to some woods that harbor old and supernatural secrets.
I have mixed feelings about this one. I was primarily interested in picking it up because it had Patricia Clarkson (The Dead Pool, The Green Mile) who is an actress that I like but have not seen in many leading roles. I also like horror, which this film was billed as, though I don't know if that is really the best fit for it as it is mostly a drama with tinges of mystery and some horror, with a dose of pure camp and references/homage to the sub genre of "girls in boarding school/prison" theme which specializes in pure titillation. But, The Woods does not go all the way with any of these themes.
The plot of the film concerns a troubled teen girl named Heather (Agnes Bruckner) who has some issues, including pyromania, an inattentive mother, and the voices she hears. As such, mom and Dad (Bruce Campbell) elect to place her in a remote, yet supposedly elite, boarding school.
Well, Heather, not to mention the viewers, immediately sense that something is not quite right with this school and its Gothic setting next to some foreboding woods. And that does not even take into account the faculty, a group of women who are courteous without emotion and, well, strange. Chief among those is the headmistress, Ms. Traverse (Clarkson). Right from the beginning, Heather seems to be a square peg in a round hole here, befriending only a couple of other misfits in the school, where the girls all seem to bunk down in the same room. And, of course, whenever a protagonist goes into a new school against his/her will in cinema, you know there will be a chief tormentor and, true to form, there is here. Her name is Samantha (Rachel Nichols G.I. Joe: Rise Of Cobra) and she has a strong dislike, in addition to an implied attraction, for Heather from the start, leading to a couple pf physical altercations.
But, the story does not really follow or develop that plot line, as Heather stays in the school and realizes that her parents will not come get her, other strange things happen, chiefly the disappearance of some of the students, which is troubling because no one seems to be overly concerned.
At this point, Heather begins to learn the history of the school and the dark legends of the neighboring woods, with tales shrouded in a belief in witchcraft.
For me, the first part of the film, though relatively slow moving, is the more interesting and better scripted. When things start to pick up in the second part of the movie with regard to pace, it becomes kind of jumbled and harder to follow the plot. Having said that, I can't say that it is an uninteresting film. It is certainly not scary or the kind of movie that will keep you on edge or surprise you, but you can be entertained.
I knew nothing of Bruckner prior to seeing this flick, but I was impressed with her work here as she needs to carry the story, being in almost every scene, and she does. I think Heather needs to be a head strong girl without coming across as a bad girl and Bruckner does this and there is actually some depth and different layers to her character, something you can't count on with a film that is walking the thin line of being a campy pseudo horror flick.
Patricia Clarkson didn't seem to have much to do except be the creepy, foreboding presence that flits in and out of the film until the end, when the whole truth comes out. She does this well and it's a very different type of role for her.
My chief criticism of the acting would be that this story is set in the '60's and, other than some scenes with the girls listening to a transistor radio, you really don't get the sense that this is supposed to be happening 40 years ago. These come across like Generation Y girls in school uniforms to me. But, that could be more of a criticism of the script or direction and, honestly, there are no glaring anachronisms that I saw and I'm not sure how important that is to the film, just something I wanted to share.
After all, witchcraft is timeless, isn't it?
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