Don’t Go in the Woods (2010)

Movie Info

Kill me now!!!

“Don’t Go in the Woods” is the sign at the base of the woods where a musical group is planning an excursion to inspire new music for their album.  Banning all electronics, drugs, and alcohol, the band’s plan to brainstorm hits walls as outside influences begin to creep in which includes the band’s girlfriends.  When the band begins to be hunted by killers, the music stops and the screaming begins…making a hit can be killer!

Don’t Go in the Woods is the directing debut of actor Vincent D’Onofrio and was shot on D’Onofrio’s property.  The movie was released at festivals and available on video-on-demand.  It was released to mostly negative reviews.

I picked up Don’t Go in the Wood on a whim and found it started quit strong as an homage to ’80s horror.  The music and the visuals started out rather pleasant and a short running time was promising…but as the film progresses, the movie gets more and more annoying.

I wish I was deaf after an hour of this movie…

The film starts out pretty straight forward as a song where characters are singing songs and performing.  The music is rather strong, but as the movie goes on, the music gets more and more annoying.  The format also begins to slip into true musical format with songs being sung as the killing continues which doesn’t have the same spirit of the beginning of the film.  It stops being charming and becomes rather cheesy and goofy and lacking inspiration.

The cast is made up of people D’Onofrio just cast off the street and doesn’t have any stars.  While they are (sometimes) decent singers, the movie’s acting doesn’t really hold up as strong.  They are not aided by the script and it is unclear how they would have been if a stronger script existed.

Death by keytar…oh, the humanity!!!

Visually, the movie is much better.  The imagery of the woods and the style of the movie does resemble a B-Movie ’80s slasher film quite decently and that aspect is a fun throwback to older movies…too bad that the movie has to get in the way of a decent horror film.

Don’t Go in the Woods cannot be recommended.  The movie takes way, way too long for the killing to start and you definitely want all the whiny hipsters to die by the end.  Instead of getting better at their craft, the music grows worse and worse and what starts out as a different concept becomes tired and boring…which is tough since the film is less than an hour and a half.  Don’t see Don’t Go in the Woods, it isn’t fun and its worth the time.