DARK WOODS Movie Review
Dark Woods is what I would call a dark independent psychological thriller. It follows the story of Henry (John Muscarnero) who brings his terminally ill wife, Susan (Tracy Coogan), in a cabin in the woods far from the hospital so she can die in piece. While there they have a weird encounter with an intruder which sort of leads to Henry finding and rescuing a young girl, Alicia, in the woods. The sheriff (James Russo) then convinces Henry to let Alicia stay with him and his wife for a few days until foster care can place her somewhere else. And that’s when things get a little bit out of hands.
The concept for the story and trailer had me intrigued, but it just didn’t live up to my expectations. To be completely honest I just couldn’t get into it. The film just dragged on and I didn’t understand what the point of it was. The characters are not very likeable, especially Alicia. It feels like she has a dissociative identity disorder. One minute she’s nice, one minute she goes insane. I just didn’t understand why Henry didn’t throw her out, which actually made me want to shake him so that he would stand up for himself and his wife. But instead, Henry starts to get attracted to Alicia, while his wife is lying in bed in the other room dying.
As for the wife, Susan, well I’m still not sure what the storyline surrounding her was all about. Mostly she’s just laying around hurting, but it also seemed like she had some sort of hallucinations. At some point I even wondered if it was going to turn into a supernatural movie (it didn’t). And although I assume that it was set up that way to show her deteriorating health, it just didn’t work.
The ending of the film has a twist, which is sort of the payoff of the story. And while it is an interesting twist, this whole movie would have worked way better as a short film. I think the impact would have been more effective that way.
Overall, it’s clear that Dark Woods was not for me. That said if it sounds like the type of film you enjoy, why not give it a shot. However, if you’re not into the slow, dark psychological type of movies, I would recommend you just skip it.
___________________________________________________________
Title: Dark Woods
Director: Michael Escobedo
Cast: Tracy Coogan, John Muscarnero, Mary Kate Wiles, James Russo
Synopsis: Dark Woods is a psychologically tense portrayal of human sexuality, grief and loneliness.
A young couple moves to a secluded cabin in the woods to cope with a terminal illness. After rescuing a young girl form the abusive hands of her psychotic uncle, he is coerced by local law enforcement to allow the young girl to stay with them. As the illness consumes his wife and Henry struggles with his own human connections, the young girl attempts to claim her place in their home. Henry must rediscover his humanity and choose between his increasingly erratic and sexually explorative new housemate and his horrifically deteriorating wife.
Watch the trailer here
