DVD Review: Deep in the Woods
Written by: Kage Alan

Film Rating: B
DVD Special Features: D

It can't be said that there's no beauty in horror.  Italian directors like
Dario Argento have added touches of class and flares for true artistry in
terror for years.  If there's one thing that French director Lionel
Delplanque brings to "Deep in the Woods" that saves the picture from being
just another piece of genre crap, it's style and beauty in the face of some
bizarre and tragic circumstances.

The film opens with a mother reading a version of "Little Red Riding Hood" to
her unseen child.  It's a rather ominous setting, yet is played very much
like a fairy tale in itself.  Tension is heightened almost right away and we
are put on our guard as the mother is strangled from an unseen killer.  Why
do this so early on?  To demonstrate that anything goes and anybody can die
at any time, even those who come across as likeable from the start.  Yikes!

After the initial setup, a group of five actors are introduced driving
through the country on their way to a secluded millionaire's estate.  Well,
we always have to have a group of young people, don't we?  It allows the film
to have a body count, but at least this time they have a reason to be where
they're going.  They soon arrive and are shown into the castle's waiting room
where they are greeted by the older wheelchair bound master of the house.  It
seems he has a young grandson who doesn't speak much and who is "special" and
they have been hired to perform a children's play of "Little Red Riding Hood"
for him.  Do we see a theme here yet?

Things are very odd in this part of the woods, though.  Axel (Francois
Berleand), the master of the house, tends to be a bit temperamental and you'd
swear he's coming on to one of the boys in the group, Wilfried (Vincent
Lecoeur).  While I'll admit that his taste is exquisite, it does seem to be a
bit odd here.  The groundskeeper also seems a bit too intense when it comes
to tasks outside his general job description.  Then, of course, we're told
the Police are searching for a rapist who's loose in the area.  What could be
worse?  The young actors are horny, that's what.  There's a lesbian couple
and then the other three who don't mind sharing whatever is left or comes
their way.  Oddly enough, it kind of works.  Their relationships, that is.  
Those work.

Oh, yeah, I forgot.  Someone takes the wolf costume used in their play and
starts offing everybody in the house in some obviously telegraphed ways and
some interesting and slightly creative ones.  The great thing is that it's
not entirely obvious who's going to live and who's going to die, but the bad
thing is that I could figure out who the killer was almost right away.  Is
anyone going to survive this?  The burning question I had was how they were
going to explain who was doing it and why.  That, unfortunately, is a huge
letdown.

Despite the killer's crappy motivations, what really makes this film
watchable is the cinematography and the ongoing themes (like the big bad
wolf) within the film and those defined by the setup of many of the shots.  
I'm rarely impressed with such things because it's rarely found in genre
films of this kind, but "Deep in the Woods" is just so gorgeously shot that
it almost makes up for the ending.  Almost!  The acting isn't bad and the
actors seem to be enjoying being scared and running around the castle they
shot in (which was a real castle, not a studio setup) and letting their
hormonal sides show through.  Actors in little troupes like that tend to have
unique relationships.

The only other complaint I have is the subtitles.  The English subtitles for
the French language track and English subtitles for the English track tell a
very different story at times to the point where the differences are
ridiculous.  Instead of Wilfried having that name and being from Germany in
the French version, they change the name and suggest he's from Britain in the
English one.  WHAT???  Instead of Axel saying he'd like Wilfried to drive his
car while he leans on his shoulder, the English version has him telling him
that he'd like to lean on his lap.  That's just ever so slightly different
and the meaning shifts from suggestive to entirely homoerotic, which
obviously wasn't the intent of the director.  There are several other
oddities between the subtitles for the French audio and the English audio
other than those, but you get the idea.

As for video and audio quality here, they are both excellent.  This is a film
that is really enhanced by the decent Widescreen transfer, especially
considering how uniquely the film is shot, and Artisan (one of the subjects
of my annoyance lately) has done "Deep in the Woods" quite a bit of justice.  
The French dialogue is the better one to watch the film in, so skip the
English one that changes entire plot developments.  As for extras, we have a
few.

There is an audio commentary by horror director Brian Yuzna ("Silent Night,
Deadly Night 4: Initiation", "Return of the Living Dead 3", "Beyond
Re-Animator").  He reads off a few notes from Lionel Delplanque about the
film and comments from time to time about the onscreen action, but ultimately
falls flat.  They should have just had Delplanque do a commentary in French
and then provide subtitles because Yuzna, while meaning well, is no
substitute for the real thing.  There are also some biographies and
filmographies for some of the actors, a short photo gallery and also a
theatrical trailer for the film.  They hardly add up to anything grand, but
it's not entirely bad for $9.99 at Best Buy.  You just have to wait for a
couple of months and then the price drops to that, which is what I did.

I am really looking forward to seeing what the director does next in his
career.  If only the script hadn't been so ridiculous at the end, "Deep in
the Woods" would have marked a huge revitalization in horror.  "Scream"
helped to reestablish the genre as lucrative, but this would have added a
much larger sense of style that recent films just haven't been able to
capture.  I like the film, but am a little leery of recommending it if you're
not into horror films.  It's not all blood and guts and it does try for some
intelligence, so if you know what you're getting into, you may just enjoy it.


Kage holds degrees in Creative Writing, as well as Film & Video. He has been featured in a Life Journey Tele-Course, published poems in several national anthologies, been a contributor to The Third Coast Magazine and written several novels. kage@modamag.com