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"Agnes is Running
in an Effort to Catch Up
with Her Talent..." |
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Directed by Lucky McKee
- Written by David Ross
Starring Agnes Bruckner,
Patricia Clarkson,
Rachel Nichols, Bruce
Campbell
Lauren Birkell, Jane
Gilchrist, Emma
Campbell, Gordon Currie
Distributed by Sony
Pictures Home
Entertainment -
2006 - 91m - Rated PG13 |
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TC Candler's Review
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C |
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Agnes Bruckner, the curvaceous dish from great films like "Blue Car"
and "Dreamland", is a bit of a conundrum. She is a tremendous young
talent with a few cinematic gems on her CV... but she's also signed
on to do a few too many bombs in recent years. So, in terms of "The
Woods", which is it... a gem or a bomb? |
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"The Woods", a film
plagued with distribution issues, finally makes its way to DVD and
it treads the line between "eerily creepy witch story" and "campy
cheese-fest witch story". In truth, it veers back and forth between
both.
The setting -- a very strict private school for girls, deep the
heart of "The Woods". The time -- 1965 New England. The premise --
Bruckner plays Heather, a teenage girl sent to live at the school by
her heartless mother and spineless father because of her pyromaniac
tendencies.
Heather is a loner, only mustering up the energy to befriend Marcy,
the loser girl that everyone else picks on. Heather instantly
becomes the focus of scorn from the school bully, Samantha (Rachel
Nichols), who insists on calling her "firecrotch" due to her red
hair.
The headmistress, Ms Traverse, is played with stoic elegance by the
wonderfully foxy Patricia Clarkson. She, along with all the other
teachers, seems oddly mysterious to Heather. Something doesn't ever
feel right.
There are rumors at night when all the girls gossip in their
nightgowns before lights-out... rumors of murders and ghosts and
witches haunting the woods. Heather becomes petrified of those woods
when she hears voices whispering in the trees and because she has
violent dreams about them.
The film often works to great effect in bring out the goosebumps. It
stumbles when it veers into the campy clichés of high-school horror
flicks. It gets a little "Mean Girls" meets "The Faculty" from time
to time.
The film is virtually bursting at the seams with Sapphic imagery...
It is quite liberal with its use of catfights, catholic schoolgirl
uniforms, bleeding and female discipline. It sometimes oversteps
into eye-rolling innuendo.
The ending was crucial in determining whether or not I would be able
to recommend this film. Unfortunately, it dwindles rather rapidly
into ludicrous crap. The final twenty minutes explain nothing. There
is a big special effects sequence and an attempted "Wicker Man"
ending that is absolutely ho-hum. I held out hope until the bitter
end that this creepy premise would maze its way to an original final
chapter... It didn't. What remains is a well-shot, well acted,
creepy opening hour ruined by a story that had no idea where to go. |
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© Written by TC Candler -
Email Me! |
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How We Rated This Film
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TC Candler -
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C |
| Richard Propes
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Jacob Hall
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Richard
Propes' Comment
n/a
Jacob
Hall's Comment
n/a
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