Girl in Woods (2016)
Matt Boiselle
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Starring Juliet Reeves, Jeremy London, Charisma Carpenter
Directed by Jeremy Benson
Want to spruce up your horror film? Need to give it that extra added dose of the “oh, shit!” factor? Take your central dynamic, and simply toss ’em in the woods. You don’t necessarily need a paranormal element that resides there; just dump them DEEP in the expansive, lush greens and tall trees, and let them find a way out.
Director Jeremy Benson’s psychological thriller Girl in Woods employs a pretty devious tactic within the film’s first couple of acts, and it works to an excellent result.
Grace (Reeves) is a woman who has faced her share of turmoil in her life, and as the flashbacks would dictate… let’s just say that these aren’t exactly fond memories that anybody would be proud to recollect. Her solace comes from her boyfriend (and real-life husband, Jeremy London), and he concocts a plan to get his love into the woods on a hike and pop the question – what a smoothie he is!
Well, we all know what a bitch Lady Luck can be at times, and she once again rears her ugly head directly into the young couple’s path (more specifically at Grace’s fella), and following the traumatic undertaking, she is left stranded miles from nowhere in the forest and now must find her way back to safety, all while her mind is working double-overtime in a fashion that isn’t conducive to one’s successful reverse-retreat from the lonely coppice. What makes this film so damn entertaining isn’t the notion that we’re hoping for Grace’s safe passage back home in a survival sense, but more of an internal battle with her own mind that has suffered horribly and now works to hinder her from achieving that goal of continuity.
The images are frightening within, and the only thing better than the scares are the performances themselves – both Reeves and London absolutely knocked their roles out of the park on all facets, and Charisma Carpenter adds not only a vital piece of the story’s puzzle, but a seriously eerie portrayal as Grace’s mom – a real win on all casting counts here. There are a few pacing issues with the film, but they’re not hindering in much of a fashion, as the story does roll along at a nice tempo, and Benson delivers a widened-claustrophobic feel with the shots inside of the woods – so much room to move; yet, you feel infinitely boxed in… maybe this is the reason why I don’t go camping.
In any event, I can definitely recommend this film to viewers looking for a scare not only on the upper levels, but in many subsets as well. If you take nothing more out of this film other than to stay the hell out of the woods if you don’t know where you’re going, then I’d say you’ve received the message quite clearly.
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Film
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