The Woods

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Rating 2¾


Directed by Lucky McKee

Written by David Ross

Starring Agnes Bruckner (Heather Fasulo), Patricia Clarkson (Ms Traverse), Bruce Campbell (Joe Fasulo), Emma Campbell (Alice Fasulo), Lauren Birkell (Marcy Turner), Rachel Nichols (Samantha Wise), Kathleen Mackay (Ann Whales), Jane Gilchrist (Ms Cross), Catherine Colvey (Ms Leland), Marcia Bennett (Ms Mackinaw), Cary Charevoix (Ms Cary Lawrence), Colleen Williams (Ms Arbor), Jude Beny (School Nurse), Gordon Currie (The Sheriff) and Angela Bettis (Voice in the Woods)

1965: When she starts a fire in a forest that nearly burns down her parents’ house, Heather Fussulo, a rebellious and sullen teenager, is sent to the strict Falburn Academy, an isolated all-girls boarding school. She repeatedly hears voices in the surrounding woods and is plagued by strange nightmares – and then some of the other girls begin to mysteriously disappear.

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In 2002 Lucky McKee wrote and directed the low budget independent psychological horror film ‘May’, starring Angela Bettis and Anna Faris, which received a lot of critical attention, won several awards and became a cult favourite. His next film ‘The Woods’, this time as director only, working from a screenplay written by David Ross, gathered dust for three years after it was made until finally being released on DVD in October 2006.

‘The Woods’ is a creepy psychological horror film, employing witchcraft as a kind of allegory for sexual repression, and is clearly influenced by Dario Argento’s hugely influential 1977 film ‘Suspiria’, as has been mentioned more than once in articles and reviews I have read. It has a deliberately slow pace that helps to create the atmosphere of soul-destroying oppression and tedium caused by the strict and repressive regime in the school. There is all kinds of repressed sexual imagery represented in scenes throughout the film. However, the pace is so slow that the sense of suspense does begin to dissipate after a while and there are no surprises to be found here. It is possible to surmise almost from the start exactly where the film is going and once it arrives there it does prove to be a rather flavourless, unsatisfactory and frankly botched climax. Having said that, it is a film that refuses to tread the same by-the-numbers path of most current horror films and there is much to admire here, including nice understated use of some Lesley Gore tracks, even if it perhaps never fires on all cylinders and ultimately disappoints more than not.

‘The Woods’ has a 67% fresh rating from twelve reviews at Rotten Tomatoes, although there are extremes of opinion expressed. Nick Schager calls it “polished and inventive”, but David Nusair thinks it “a complete misfire”. I think it is perhaps a misfire, but one that is certainly worth watching.

Review published 22 November 2009


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Blood and Chocolate

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Rating 1


Directed by Katja von Garnier

Written by Ehren Kruger and Christopher Landon, based on the novel by Annette Curtis Klause

Starring Agnes Bruckner (Vivian), Hugh Dancy (Aiden), Olivier Martinez (Gabriel), Katja Reitmann (Astrid), Bryan Dick (Rafe), Kata Dobó (Beatrice) and Sandu Mihai Gruia (Pharmacist)


Aiden travels to Bucharest in Romania to do drawings and research the local legend of the loup-garou for his latest graphic novel. A chance meeting with Vivian, a mysterious nineteen-year-old chocolatier, sets a chain of events in motion that Aiden could not possibly have anticipated, as he discovers that some legends are more than just stories.

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‘Blood and Chocolate’ is very loosely based on a 1997 novel of the same name. That book is set in Maryland, but this is just one of many deviations that apparently exist in film. Loop-garou is the French word for werewolf. Having switched the story to Romania, the terms vârcolac or pricolici would have been more accurate. The film had been in talks and pre-production since 1997 and had gone through several directors before the German director Katja von Garnier signed on in 2005. The initial screenplay was written by Christopher Landon, the son of the actor Michael Landon (‘Bonanza’, ‘Little House on the Prairie’) and the film was released into cinemas in the U.S. at the beginning of 2007. It has an 11% rotten rating at Rotten Tomatoes from 71 reviews and grossed approximately $6.3 million at the box office worldwide.

The film was slated by most critics and some compared it unfavourably to both ‘The Company of Wolves’ and ‘Ginger Snaps’. I was also put in mind of ‘The Howling’. Reviewing the film for Empire magazine, Kim Newman wrote, “If it came to a wolfbitch fight, the girls from Ginger Snaps could rip up the entire werewolf race from Blood and Chocolate without mussing their fur.” It would be difficult to argue with this supposition.

The film is an unholy mess that even manages to mangle the dilapidated elegance of its setting, largely due to the flashy and constantly irritating editing. It obviously thinks it is sexy and erotic and romantic and mystical and mysterious and foreboding – and fails miserably on every count. Agnes Bruckner could have been a clever piece of casting, but her East European heritage is not exploited and instead she rarely seems anything other than a young American woman and gives a slightly flat performance, although not a bad one. Hugh Dancy is quite personable as Aiden, but Olivier Martinez is a pantomime villain and the pack (led by Bryan Dick) are more like a bunch of spotty oiks on a champagne rampage in Mayfair than mystical shape-shifting wolves.

There is the seed of an interesting story, albeit one that is no more than a pale variation of ‘Romeo and Juliet’, but this is the worst film I have seen since ‘The Sin Eater’ - a real stinker.

Review posted on 9 November 2009


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Venom

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Rating 2¼


Directed by Jim Gillespie

Written by Flint Dille, John Zuur Platten and Brandon Boyce, from a story by Flint Dille and John Zuur Platten

Starring Agnes Bruckner (Eden Sinclair), Jonathan Jackson (Eric), Laura Ramsey (Rachel), D J Cotrona (Sean), Meagan Good (CeCe), Rick Cramer (Ray Sawyer), Bijou Phillips (Tammy), Davetta Sherwood (Patty), Pawel Szajda (Ricky), Stacy Travis (Laura Sinclair), Marcus Lyle Brown (Terry Parker), James Pickens Jr (Sheriff), Deborah Duke (Miss Emmie) and Method Man (Deputy Turner)


Following an automobile accident on the outskirts of a small town in Louisiana, Ray Sawyer, the owner of a local filling station, dies while rescuing an elderly woman from her car before it falls off a bridge into the swamp below. An old battered suitcase inside the car contains poisonous snakes, talismans used in voodoo ceremonies to suck evil spirits out of people. The body of Ray is now possessed by these evil spirits and goes on a murderous rampage.

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‘Venom’ is a by-the-numbers horror film directed by Jim Gillespie, whose previous films include the 1997 box-office hit ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’. It was produced by Kevin Williamson, the writer of that film and ‘Scream’ (and its immediate sequel). Williamson was also the creator of the television series ‘Dawson’s Creek’. The film went on release in American cinemas in 2005 just a few weeks after Hurricane Katrina had caused widespread devastation and loss of life in New Orleans and southeast Louisiana and grossed just $882,000 at the box office. It was slated by critics and has a 10% rotten rating at Rotten Tomatoes from 61 reviews.

This is a fairly run-of-the-mill horror film that offers nothing new and conforms to all the clichés one might expect from a film of this type in this setting, as evocative as it is. I quite like the early scenes, up to and immediately after the automobile accident, but after that it somewhat predictably degenerates into a bloodbath with decidedly too much screaming for my liking. However, although it is all rather mediocre, it is also effectively done, given that there are several gaping holes in the plot, and I actually quite enjoyed it. Agnes Bruckner, whose other films include ‘Murder by Numbers’, ‘The Woods’ and ‘Blood and Chocolate’, is competent and believable in the lead role.

Review posted 8 November 2009


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