STRANGER IN THE WOODS (2024)

New On Demand from Red Hound Entertainment!
Directed by Adam Newacheck.
Written by Holly Kenney.
Starring Holly Kenney, Brendin Brown, Paris Nicole, Radek Antczak, Teddy Spencer, Devon Stewart
Check out the trailer here!!

Olivia (Holly Kenney, who also wrote this film) is recovering from a possible suicide attempt, though she attests that someone broke into her house and attacked her. Her best friend Sam (Brendin Brown) decides to take Olivia and her friends to a cabin in the woods. Next door to the cabin, Sam’s socially awkward brother Clayton (Teddy Spencer) lives off the land, trapping animals, cooking them and using their hides for taxidermy. Though they are trying to have a good time, the weekend is riddled with problems from strange interactions with Clayton to Olivia’s dog going missing. Even though her friends believe she is mentally fragile, Olivia believes someone very real is stalking her in the woods.

STRANGER IN THE WOODS is a whodunnit of sorts. The focal question of the story is whether Olivia was attacked or if she just made an attempt to take her own life. While her friends are trying to be supportive, Olivia’s continued fragile state seems to be wearing on them all. Because the acting is pretty solid all the way through by the entire cast, this predicament maintained my interest all the way through as I tried to piece together this little conundrum as it played out. I’m not going to spoil the answer to whether or not there is a stalker, but there wouldn’t really be a movie if there wasn’t, would there?

That said, everyone plays their part really well. Holly Kenney wrote the screenplay for STRANGER IN THE WOODS on top of leading the film as Olivia and is able to reach the emotional level necessary for this desperate situation. Brendin Brown is equally good as Olivia’s potential romantic interest as he is given some pretty intense scenes to chew on. But the true standout of the film is the offbeat Clayton played by Teddy Spencer, whose off kilter sense of what’s appropriate to talk about and awkward interactions with the group really make for some of the most uncomfortable scenes of the movie. This movie really does a good job of fleshing out the characters as even the lesser parts of the film bring their A-game.

That said, this is a pretty unsensational little film that kind of feels like a slightly more intense Lifetime thriller than a straight up horror movie. While the stakes eventually get pretty high, the time it takes to get there is a fair bit as the film teeters on whether things are really happening the way Olivia perceives them or if it’s all in her mind a little too long for me. I could have gone for a higher body count too and maybe a bit more gore to really make this one feel like it had teeth. Instead, the end result feels rather safe and while there are some nice twists along the way, I still felt a lot of cliches were utilized in order to make it all work. I’m going to give STRANGER IN THE WOODS a mild recommendation. It’s not required viewing, but the performances definitely elevate the material quite a bit.