Movie Review: The Woods (2006)

The movie stars Agnes Bruckner, Bruce Campbell, Emma Campbell, Patricia Clarkson and Lauren Birkell.

My wife and I actually had a night with nothing planned and were able to sit down and relax at a reasonable time last night as a result. Since it was early enough, we decided to watch a movie and I ended up picking out this film, which I recorded off of one of our movie channels earlier this month. After seeing the movie, my opinion of it was a bit mixed.

At first, I thought this movie would be somewhat unique, mostly because I liked the setting. An all-girl boarding school might not seem overly creepy but, when combined with the fact it is an older building in a remote location, there was something about it that did set a good tone.

I also liked the fact the head mistress (Clarkson) and her staff weren't overly friendly. That, combined with the fact Heather (Bruckner) has pretty much been abandoned there, had potential in itself.

The problem I ended up having with this movie is it was just too predictable. I think a big part of the reason for this is the writers essentially eliminated the mystery by revealing the school's history and the rumors it was once taken over by witches. By letting that cat out of the bag, there was no mystery about why the students were disappearing (or dying) or what the staff was up to.

I will say this about the movie, I was glad to see Bruce Campbell get an opportunity to show some of his old-school horror movie moves. At first, I thought that wasn't going to be the case and he would only have a (boring) cameo. But, the movie did give him an opportunity to have a bigger part and kick a little butt at the same time. Unfortunately, I just don't think it was enough to save this film.

Had this movie kept the school's history a secret until toward the end, I think this film would have been better. Unfortunately, by revealing the school's past, the film just became too predictable to be scary or even remotely as interesting as it had the potential to be.

My Grade: C