Dark Woods (2006)

Director:

Jake Daniels

Writers:

Jake Daniels (writer)
Royce Freeman (writer)

Release Date:

30 May 2006 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Comedy | Horror | Thriller

Tagline:

It's Dark, It's Quiet And You're All Alone Or Are You...

Cast

Bob Glazier	...	Mad Max
Jake Daniels	...	Jack
Carolyn Morse	...	Heather
Joe Vida	...	Victor
Gian Keys	...	Paul Burns
Trish Dempsey	...	Pamela
Catalina Kidd	...	Brenda
Philip Hersh	...	Royce (as Phil Hersh)
Kassandra Counsidine	...	Kerri
Dan McArthur	...	Bill
Jack Valvo	...	Enos
Natasha Hazen	...	Tara
Kevin Bangos	...	Sean
Yordanny Ledsman	...	Beer Buddy #1
Mark Bowie	...	Kane

Runtime:

75 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Filming Locations:

Coral Springs, Florida, USA

Company:

JDB Produtions

Trivia:

This movie was shot in 18 days and took almost 3 years to get edited.

Ultra low budget, melting pot of a slasher movie.

When I found out Jake Daniels was local to the area I felt compelled to watch both of his movies. I started with his sophomore effort The Deviants and was later surprised to find his debut, Dark Woods, to be the more technically proficent of the two. This isn't to say that it comes close to great slasher debuts like Tourist Trap, Phantasm and Paperhouse.

If you were to see this film in your video store be sure to know that it looks like a bunch of buddies making a movie over the weekend with dad's not too expensive digital camera. With this in mind I can appreciate certain scenes and moments of acting, but only because they struggle up to being par for the (slasher) course. Putting down any sound problems, pixel problems or amateur acting seems pointless in this ultra low budget arena. What I do look for is the use of the camera, cutting, plot, characterization, dialogue, originality and other such things that aren't confined by the budget.

The plot is a straight forward combination of Friday the 13th (camp setting, hockey-like mask, horny teens) crossed with 1981's The Prowler (the returning GI motif.) With this in mind the originality is pretty non-existent. Maybe the script was a secondary motive to having the experience of putting together a movie. All men involved in the film are sex-starved beyond belief, making myself starved for any normal conversation pieces. The women are maybe a little less narrow minded, making them far more sympathetic. The villian was disappointing for a few reasons. 1) The mask is used in slashers to symbolize the everyman, the faceless man, every since it's invention in Mario Bava's Blood and Black Lace. Once you have the killer speak and say "slice you up bitc-" he is no longer that everyman. This is why Freddy Krueger isn't required to wear a mask. 2) There is no mystery about who this guy is, he pretty much tells you, so the fact he wears a mask makes him seem like an over grown child on halloween. 3) his motive sucks. No one adopts their kid out at age 4 (I won't try to explain) and why is his aggression targeted at teens and not at the one who jilted him. I'll stop there.

The camera moves far more here than in The Deviants and some things work like the editing of the stabbings, the dream sequence and the throwing of the machete. Otherwise, the camera point of views are not terribly inspired and I started to crave one good close-up between shots. The video store I rented this from told me that director Jake Daniels is going on to million dollar budgets, and I say good luck. Despite anything negative above, the very fact he took a group of friends and made a comprehensible movie is quite an accomplishment. He may have learned some of the rules with this film so maybe he will start to break them (although the Deviants didn't show any signs.)

If anything in it truly deserves such respect, it is the great electronic score by Craig Padilla, an accomplished local musician, who sells many CD's online and probably doesn't need this publicity.