MONSTERS IN THE WOODS (2012)

Streaming on Tubi!
Directed/Written by Jason Horton
Starring Glenn Plummer, Lee Perkins, Linda Bella, Edward Hendershott, Claudia Perea, Blaine Cade, Gladys Otero
Find out more about this film here!

Though the narrative gets kind of murky sometimes, this low fi found footage-ish horror yarn about monsters inhabiting a wooded area outside of Hollywood is at times a lot of fun. The film starts out as your standard monster flick, with a hideous bird beast chasing a topless bimbo through the woods. At this point, I was hoping that the filmmakers were making this film cheesy on purpose and it turns out I was right. The bimbo is part of a movie crew filming a low budget film in the woods. The director says cut and we see the director and crew and the movie really begins. Then a behind the scenes crew starts filming the people making the movie being made and this is where MONSTERS IN THE WOODS starts to get a little confusing.

The acting is surprisingly good, especially the director, Glenn Plummer, who many will remember from THE CROW, PREDATOR 2, and SPEED 2. Plummer’s commentary about Hollywood and the studio system ring especially authentic as he bitches about having to do reshoots because the producers wanted more T&A and gore. I’m paraphrasing, but he says something to the tune of “It’s really appealing to those young directors working to show their art, but that starving artist shit isn’t so appealing when I got bills to pay.” Plummer’s natural acting ability is a true highlight here.

I had fun with the rest of MONSTERS IN THE WOODS as well, but occasionally I felt the filmmakers were making things overly complex narrative-wise with the shifting POV from real movie to found footage style handheld cam and back again. Had a straight up film or a full blown found footager been made, I think the story would have flowed easier. As is, the narrative feels choppy with all of these shifting styles.

The monsters in the woods in MONSTERS IN THE WOODS are pretty fun. All practical effects were used, which when filmed correctly can be very effective. Occasionally, though, long shots of the monsters take some of the fright away from these beasties. There are some cool designs, but the visible legs of the creatures scream “man in suit” a bit too much. Problem is, if this were the movie within a movie it would have been fine, but the shifting realities of this film really conflict when the amateurish monsters show up, making one wonder throughout if this is the movie or the movie within the movie or something in between.

MONSTERS IN THE WOODS has a fun script and capable actors voicing it. I think they might have overthunk the story, though, and the urge to follow a current trend in horror might have bogged down an otherwise fun concept.

Check out the trailer here!!