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Four friends
have decided to go camping by a remote
lake for the weekend, but it turns out that getting
there is rather tricky. They decide to set up camp in
the middle of the woods, and are awoken the next morning
by a girl who's making food on their fireplace. They
find out that her boyfriend has disappeared and that
she has been lost in the woods for days. But what they
don't know is what really happened to her boyfriend,
and what is about to happen to them too...
Well here's something I've never seen before. Dead
Wood is a low budget indie horror movie that looks
technically rather low budget but special effects
wise it looks like it cost hundreds of thousands of
dollars to make. Not only that, but the directing is
also extremely innovative with angles that I've never
seen before that are so intriguing that they alone
make the movie worth while. When David Bryant and
Sebastian Smith wrote and directed this movie, they
clearly knew how to spend their money wisely because
since everything is so great about Dead Wood, you'll
quickly forget about the low-budget look that it has.
Dead Wood somewhat reminded me of the campy DTV ghost
flick "Haunted Forest" since they have similar stories.
The only thing is, Dead Wood isn't really a ghost
flick, it's more of a bizarre supernatural tale (not
a creature feature though like the opening scene may
suggest). The movie revolves around four friends who
take a trip to a remote lake for the weekend but
to get to the lake they have to hike for some time
through the woods. As the night creeps up on them,
they decide to set up their tents in the middle of
the forest. Bad idea. See, this is no ordinary forest
and it doesn't take long before the friends start to
disappear, one by one. But what has really happened
to them, and will anyone get out of the woods alive?
A movie which will always be remembered for its
awesomely shot drinking scene by the tents (oh the
creativeness behind it all, I was mesmerized), Dead
Wood is an original and creepy horror flick which
will both frighten you and surprise you in all the
right ways. Naturally it has some minor flaws such
as plot holes, interesting subplots that never
necessarily lead anywhere and so on but the truth be
told, the flaws are so small that they're easy to
overcome. Especially considering that this wasn't a
movie with the best production values. David and
Sebastian obviously used The Blair Witch Project for
some inspiration but were smart enough not to take
TOO much inspiration from it. Meaning that the movie
is not filmed by the four friends with a handheld
camera (which would've resulted in me turning off
the film after about ten minutes).
In the end, Dead Wood was a very positive surprise for
me who wasn't expecting much. These directors will
surely move onto bigger and better projects in the
future but Dead Wood is indeed a brilliant debut.
This is an original and clever horror film which is
sure to scare the hell out of you more than once
(I know that I jumped HIGH at least two times) so
be sure to check this one out.
Not a lot here.
Extremely well done and varied with professional-sounding
pop music, creepy piano melodies and some ambient
background music. Top-notch stuff.
It may be a low budget movie but just like with "Five
Across The Eyes", that doesn't stop it from being a
great and original horror flick. I really commend the
directors of this movie for what they have succeeded
with. Be sure to check this British horror movie out
as soon as it's available.
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