It is almost time to watch a movie with Dawn and Terry once again. I wanted to watch Dead Wood (2007) before I got around to the movie that Dawn picked out for us. This is my Netflix DVD I have had for a couple of weeks now, so I wanted to get it out in the mail Saturday. The movie that Dawn picked out is on Netflix's instant watch, which would have been my next selection, so it all works out. I will be a little late getting a review in at my other blog, but I can live with that. You can probably tell from my title of this post what I thought of this movie, but let's get into a bit more detail about it.
Two couples, Webb (Fergus March) and Larri (Emily Juniper) along with her slightly younger cousin Milk (John Samuel Worsey) and his friend Jess (Rebecca Craven), decide to get out of the city for a little while and enjoy a camping trip out in the woods. They don't get very far into the woods before hitting a deer, which is never a good sign. As they make their way to their campsite, Milk spots a nest and decides to grab the eggs for breakfast. The group ends up being attacked by bees and they make a run for it. The next morning they discover Ketsy (Nina Kwok) cooking some of their food. She explains that she was camping with her boyfriend who just disappeared. The group decides that they will help Ketsy find him, but head to the lake instead so Ketsy can get cleaned up. As Ketsy and Webb play some game in the water, Webb disappears. They soon learn that something in the forest is out to claim each one of them.
Dead Wood is from the UK and was co-written and co-directed by David Bryant, Sebastian Smith, and Richard Stiles. The first thing I noticed about this movie was just the odd character names. A woman named Larri and a guy named Milk? No wonder they are from the same family. I suppose Milk could be a nickname but I sure wouldn't be proud of that one. Besides the odd names, there was never any build of tension here. We get to see what happens to Rob, played by David Bryant, who turns out to be Ketsy's boyfriend. Things don't end well for him. We don't get to see whatever it is that kills him, which is fine. You don't want to play that card right away after all. We never learn what this "force" is, just that it can appear as anyone that it has taken. We never learn why this force is killing people either. I'm guessing it had to do with our group not respecting the forest all that much. Stealing eggs, littering and so on. To give the film credit, some of the kills were kind of interesting in what the force did with the bodies. It was never clear if Ketsy had been claimed by this force before or after our group came across her. I suppose an argument can be made for both sides of that. I thought that the film and the story would have been better if this had been played off as more of a mystery to help increase the tension. Not a whole lot happens until the last act. We get to know the characters some, which is fine. They try to keep things interesting by having Ketsy show up to talk about what happened to her boyfriend and having one of their group suddenly disappear, but it still feels like it drags along. Even when things pick up, it doesn't get crazy enough to completely save the film. Dead Wood did have some things about that I liked, so I can't get it my worst score despite how boring it could feel at times. The kill that had to do with a tree was pretty cool. A face in a tree looked pretty cool as well and had a minor jump scare attached. There was also a pretty cool scene involving the flashlight at one point.
The effects aren't the best here, but I didn't mind them too much. I guess I gave most of them a pass because this was obviously a low-budget style film. The only effect that I didn't care for at all was Ketsy's face being covered in blood, I assumed it was blood anyway, and then using a reverse effect to show the blood retreating. It just didn't look all that great to me at all. The acting was okay as well, but I liked the acting way more than the effects at least. I say the acting was just okay because I thought they all could have done better in certain scenes. Emily Juniper was someone I wasn't sure about at first because I didn't care for her acting that much for a while, but I felt she got better as the film went on. With the acting being hit and miss, the story being very slow and hardly any tension, I can understand why Dead Wood doesn't go over all that well with fans.
The biggest problem that I had with Dead Wood is that it does try to do something different with people being killed in the woods, it just takes too long to reach that point. It could have been an interesting film even though it does use things other films have done. I did get a bit of an Evil Dead vibe from this movie with the way it showed the force moving through the woods. The characters can never seem to find their way out, which has been used in various films as well. I'm not really trying to say these are bad things, as it is hard to come up with things other stories haven't used at this point. What I found funny at one point is one of the characters being confused about not being able to find their way out because "these woods aren't that big." And then they show a shot above the trees which all you see is trees, so obviously it was a large forest. One last thing that I did like was just after the last character manages to find their way out. It got a reaction out of me, almost laughter even though I don't think it was meant to be funny. Anyway, Dead Wood isn't a film I would have anyone seek out. Judging from sites that you can rate films on, it doesn't look like many have given it a chance though. It isn't all bad, but it is borderline. Give it a chance if it sounds like something you might like.
2 out of 5 Bees make a better breakfast than eggs. Just kidding!
Two couples, Webb (Fergus March) and Larri (Emily Juniper) along with her slightly younger cousin Milk (John Samuel Worsey) and his friend Jess (Rebecca Craven), decide to get out of the city for a little while and enjoy a camping trip out in the woods. They don't get very far into the woods before hitting a deer, which is never a good sign. As they make their way to their campsite, Milk spots a nest and decides to grab the eggs for breakfast. The group ends up being attacked by bees and they make a run for it. The next morning they discover Ketsy (Nina Kwok) cooking some of their food. She explains that she was camping with her boyfriend who just disappeared. The group decides that they will help Ketsy find him, but head to the lake instead so Ketsy can get cleaned up. As Ketsy and Webb play some game in the water, Webb disappears. They soon learn that something in the forest is out to claim each one of them.
Dead Wood is from the UK and was co-written and co-directed by David Bryant, Sebastian Smith, and Richard Stiles. The first thing I noticed about this movie was just the odd character names. A woman named Larri and a guy named Milk? No wonder they are from the same family. I suppose Milk could be a nickname but I sure wouldn't be proud of that one. Besides the odd names, there was never any build of tension here. We get to see what happens to Rob, played by David Bryant, who turns out to be Ketsy's boyfriend. Things don't end well for him. We don't get to see whatever it is that kills him, which is fine. You don't want to play that card right away after all. We never learn what this "force" is, just that it can appear as anyone that it has taken. We never learn why this force is killing people either. I'm guessing it had to do with our group not respecting the forest all that much. Stealing eggs, littering and so on. To give the film credit, some of the kills were kind of interesting in what the force did with the bodies. It was never clear if Ketsy had been claimed by this force before or after our group came across her. I suppose an argument can be made for both sides of that. I thought that the film and the story would have been better if this had been played off as more of a mystery to help increase the tension. Not a whole lot happens until the last act. We get to know the characters some, which is fine. They try to keep things interesting by having Ketsy show up to talk about what happened to her boyfriend and having one of their group suddenly disappear, but it still feels like it drags along. Even when things pick up, it doesn't get crazy enough to completely save the film. Dead Wood did have some things about that I liked, so I can't get it my worst score despite how boring it could feel at times. The kill that had to do with a tree was pretty cool. A face in a tree looked pretty cool as well and had a minor jump scare attached. There was also a pretty cool scene involving the flashlight at one point.
The effects aren't the best here, but I didn't mind them too much. I guess I gave most of them a pass because this was obviously a low-budget style film. The only effect that I didn't care for at all was Ketsy's face being covered in blood, I assumed it was blood anyway, and then using a reverse effect to show the blood retreating. It just didn't look all that great to me at all. The acting was okay as well, but I liked the acting way more than the effects at least. I say the acting was just okay because I thought they all could have done better in certain scenes. Emily Juniper was someone I wasn't sure about at first because I didn't care for her acting that much for a while, but I felt she got better as the film went on. With the acting being hit and miss, the story being very slow and hardly any tension, I can understand why Dead Wood doesn't go over all that well with fans.
The biggest problem that I had with Dead Wood is that it does try to do something different with people being killed in the woods, it just takes too long to reach that point. It could have been an interesting film even though it does use things other films have done. I did get a bit of an Evil Dead vibe from this movie with the way it showed the force moving through the woods. The characters can never seem to find their way out, which has been used in various films as well. I'm not really trying to say these are bad things, as it is hard to come up with things other stories haven't used at this point. What I found funny at one point is one of the characters being confused about not being able to find their way out because "these woods aren't that big." And then they show a shot above the trees which all you see is trees, so obviously it was a large forest. One last thing that I did like was just after the last character manages to find their way out. It got a reaction out of me, almost laughter even though I don't think it was meant to be funny. Anyway, Dead Wood isn't a film I would have anyone seek out. Judging from sites that you can rate films on, it doesn't look like many have given it a chance though. It isn't all bad, but it is borderline. Give it a chance if it sounds like something you might like.
2 out of 5 Bees make a better breakfast than eggs. Just kidding!
