The Watcher in the Woods

source: The Watcher in the Woods

Moviecut—The Watcher in the Woods

I was hoping for a chance to see this story be told as an adult horror but I was disappointed. One should watch a movie on its own terms, not by the standard you impose upon it and this movie's terms is not as a horror or even a dark thriller. It's a family fantasy with a sort of dark edge. Not half bad but this side of the age of majority it just seems a bit too by the numbers to really have an effect and it's not exactly subtle. Good production gives a sort of good atmosphere which they clearly didn't want to be too scary, but carries the movie a long away are its performances from two great actors of very different ages. Huston of course makes it look so easy and the other one: a very able thespian and a really beautiful girl with lips and butt that will haunt your dreams.

Good movie. I like Angelica Huston. She was perfect for this role. She was creepy, unpredictable and melancholy. I liked all the characters except the Dad. Bit of a moaner and vocal sceptic. Yes these type of movies are incredibly predictable but with this one it's predictable but enjoyable. Good comedy and it wasn't forced. Question. The Welsh locals all had London accents. Huston accent I couldn't determine. The production was spooky with nice locations. I will watch the original version and compare them. A family friendly movie with some scares and finally I am glad Karen ends up safe with her Mom.

First off, I loved the originally, even with it's different endings. This remake, however...was bad. I don't normally write reviews but dang! I saw it three days ago and it's still bugging me. I gave it three stars for the story and the actors; most (not all) of them tried their best and the story wasn't half-bad. That being said, I felt like the movie was missing several scenes. I don't know if it was the director or the editors. We wasted time on: watching the family decide which house they were going to rent backstory on people looking at themselves in funhouse mirrors talking to unnecessary people that didn't move the story forward. That time should have been spent on the characters getting to know each other. To me, it felt like these people met and three minutes later they are chasing a mystery together. Also, the parents seem to hate their older daughter for some reason that's never explained. They kept reprimanding her for scaring the younger daughter when she never did anything of the sort. And the 'Nancy Drew' of the film was just a girl who wouldn't stop asking questions. I'm not talking, interesting, probing questions, she asked questions like a yammering three year old. She then gets the 3 people that were with Karen to come to the forest with her but why? Who is this girl to them? They never show why they should believe anything she says. Then, Anjelica Huston, she's one of my favorite actors and she tried her best, but the material they gave her just wasn't good. She simply came off as weird and instead of sad, forlorn, and protective, as a woman who lost her daughter might feel. Overall, I feel that this movie tried to tell a good story but because of the time allotted, they cut out a lot of parts that would have made it better. Oh, and left in a lot that brought nothing to the story. Just stick to the original, it's so much better and you actually believe in their motivation. --- On a random note, did anyone else think that tree looked like a giant vajayjay when it spit out the girls? WTH was that? There's no other way that could have been designed. Lol!

Maybe I'm biased since I grew up reading the original novel and watching the original film version of The Watcher in the Woods, but this film doesn't deliver any of the same thrills as the source material. Even the usually wonderful Anjelica Huston feels like she's phoning it in (with an accent that comes and goes at whim). It starts out well enough, but it soon takes a few detours and adds in a ridiculous, silly backstory involving the Black Plague to explain who "the watcher" is and what their game is. It kills a lot of the mystery and manages to drag down the pacing (which really takes skill since the film isn't even 90 minutes long). If you're a fan of the original movie or the novel, you're likely to be very disappointed.

I loved the original version of this movie. But what Melissa Joan Hart has done to this updated take on it is criminal. She obviously has no skills as a director and should stick to acting in Lifetime Christmas movies where she belongs.

Although the plot is slightly intriguing (strange happenings in a creepy mansion), and not everything about it is bad, there's something about it that comes off cheesy. I can't decide if it's the poor film quality, or the over done scary-movie cliches that happen too soon in the story; i.e. old ladies "sneaking" up, antique dolls, haunted little girls, and crows. And, of course, there's the parents that refuse to believe anything is amiss. Please, filmmakers/writers, can we have open-minded adults just for once!!! It really wouldn't make the story any less creepy. There's also many non-scary movie cheesy plot terrors: a boy telling our protagonist "I've never met a girl like you before" after knowing her for a total of 1 day. Additionally, they mention a certain character is homeless, yet later we see her living comfortably in her not too shabby trailer. (Plot hole alert!) In it's defense, Anjelica Huston is pretty talented in her role, some of the camera shots are genius, and the locations are beautiful. And it picks up a little towards the end, luckily. So, if you're wanting a truly haunting mystery, you could take or leave 'The Watcher in the Woods'.

Saw 'The Watcher in the Woods', being fond of horror regardless of budget (even if not my favourite genre), being a fan of Anjelica Huston and being intrigued by the idea. Being behind on my film watching and reviewing, with a long to watch and review list that keeps getting longer, it took me a while to get round to watching and reviewing it. Giving 'The Watcher in the Woods' a fair chance with being interest and apprehension, it turned out to be far better than expected. Won't say that 'The Watcher in the Woods' is a great film because it isn't and the potential, while not wasted, is not fully lived up to. Considering the large number of films seen recently being mediocre and less and wasting potential, was expecting worse and was relieved that while wanting in a few areas it was actually one of my better recent low-budget viewings by quite some way. 'The Watcher in the Woods's' first half in particularly has a promising, unsettling and atmospheric note that really does intrigue. Production values did have some eeriness and nowhere near as cheap as expected, and the music, which not the most memorable in the world, didn't detract from the atmosphere. The setting is effectively spooky and the acting was better than average, mysterious Anjelica Huston and fetching Tallulah Evans being good even. There are enough spooky, dark and suspenseful moments and it isn't dull. The direction doesn't feel phoned in and the storytelling in the first half especially does intrigue. However, the final act is on the silly side, trying to take some of the events and tone at face value and with a straight face was somewhat hard. The ending is prematurely easily foreseeable and comes over in a contrived fashion. Found too the script to lack natural flow and with a fair bit of cheese ad blandness going on and some of the approach to the material is on the tame side for such a haunting story that can be dark. Overall, much better than expected but could have been better. 6/10 Bethany Cox

Moving to a house in England, a family finds their daughters becoming involved in trying to solve a local urban legend of a young woman's disappearance from the area and set out with a friend to finally put an end to the ghost stories plaguing the town. This proved to be a surprisingly enjoyable effort. One of the more enjoyable aspects here is the way this one manages to generate the feeling of superstition around the town. The small-town community which features the urban legend of the central disappearance that sets the plot in motion gives this a strong enough start, and the investigation that ensues offers plenty of thrilling material to coincide with those traditions and customs. That gives the scenes of the family arriving in the area and getting subjected to the hauntings in the house a rather fun atmosphere here with a much more thrilling concept than expected so that the tie-in with the backstory allows for a stronger horror aesthetic with the notion of the plague into the towns' history. Those few scenes, from the different breaking objects around the house which signal the start of the whole affair to the two daughters going after the woman in the woods and the flashback to what happened to her daughter, manages to give this a solid series of scenes that really move this one forward into some thriller categories. The big ceremony at the end, where it uses a much darker setup than expected to offer up a rather chilling set-piece which brings the town history and their own rituals into play rather nicely that generates some thrilling action in how they go about dealing with the ghost and ends this on a rather nice note. Alongside some creepy atmosphere out in the woods throughout here, these manage to give this one enough to like that it holds up nicely over the few flaws. One of the minor issues here is the rather troublesome storyline here as this one goes back- and-forth between the different needs of the ghost. At first, this one features the story about the witch haunting the woods before moving on to the setup about the lost girl and then brings in the historical connection within the woods which does make some sense but ends up feeling way too scattershot to really be of much use overall. The other small issue to be had with this one was the films' obvious tameness of the haunting material, where it's quite obvious how this was made for its TV audience. There's never any real danger posed by the ghost due to not really appearing all that often, the scares aren't all that intense and the whole thing feels incredibly tame in this aspect which does tend to lower this one slightly. Otherwise, it's certainly enjoyable enough despite these flaws. Rated Unrated/PG: Mild Violence and Language.