She Came from the Woods Review

She Came from the Woods review.

She Came from the Woods is set in the 1980s. It does this to evoke thoughts of the heyday of camp-based horror. That’s about all that it does with it. It turns out to be an interesting tactic. Instead of winking at the situation or playing things in an over-the-top way…the story itself remains fairly straightforward. It has the feel of a movie that never quite knows what it wants to be. But it ends up being a pretty fun time, nonetheless.

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She Came from the Woods

Directed by Erik Bloomquist

Written by Erik Bloomquist and Carson Bloomquist

Starring Cara Buono, Clare Foley, Spencer List, Michael Park and William Sadler

She Came from the Woods Review

I’m not completely sure why She Came from the Woods takes place in the 80s.  Doing so comes with certain expectations.  Is this a movie that is going to play up a campy tone for laughs?  Is it going to try to recreate the atmosphere and aesthetic of the period?  Will it try to take us back to the time of fun slasher movies?  The answer here was none of the above.  It takes place in the 80s.  That’s about the extent of its usage of the setting.

Truth be told I spent too much time questioning why it chooses the 80s while watching She Came from the Woods.  If it isn’t going to comment on the era…and it isn’t going to play with the era…I was at a loss.  Sure, it takes away the crutch of explaining away modern technology…but its camp setting allows the easy “no signal out here” trope.  The witch unleashed seems to control what technology was available anyway, shutting down cars and exploding telephones. 

Oh yeah…there’s a witch in She Came from the Woods.  Instead of focusing on anything related to the 80s…the story builds out a lore about an urban legend.  We don’t get the particulars about her, and the connection to the camp, until late in the story.  What we do get is the legend of a woman named Agatha and a bunch of rowdy counselors intent on resurrecting her. 

After a surprisingly long time spent introducing the camp, complete with child campers, the action begins.  The kids are shuttled out of camp after the final day of their stay and the counselors resurrect Agatha while partying.  Fortunately, it won’t be the last time we see the kids.  Some of the fun had in She Came from the Woods involves possessed children running around trying to murder the counselors.  There is some good creepy kid moments to be had in our witch in the woods movie.

The counselors range from easily expendable to likable enough.  We get one intentionally unlikable character who is so good at being horrible that you like to hate him.  The core revolves around the family that runs the camp.  She Came from the Woods makes an odd choice by having its defacto lead be one of the unlikable characters.  It makes an interesting choice late in the movie with his character that might make his arc worth it, however. 

There are some fun kills here.  Exploding heads, spitting up tongues, torn apart by children.  Blood flows but perhaps not as graphically as it could have.  Flashes of violence…instead of sustained gore.  Like a lot of She Came from the Woods it comes off like a half choice.  It wants to be graphic…but not too graphic.  Funny…but not an outright comedy.  Serious…but played for fun.  It never fully commits to being any one thing.

The good news is that She Came from the Woods eventually overcomes its issues and delivers a fun movie.  It does bog itself down briefly in dramatic lore telling…but that’s nothing that lighting a man on fire can’t fix.  There are some fun surprises along the way and the cast appears to be having an absolute blast running through the woods trying to survive.  An unfocused effort…but a game one. 

I’m just not sure why it takes place in 1987.

Scare Value

She Came from the Woods puts itself in a weird spot. It could do more with the 80s setting…but it probably makes the right choice to focus on its own story rather than gimmicks. It gives a full story but the placement of a camp in the 80s leaves you waiting for a shoe to drop that never comes. Sometimes it could go bigger. Sometimes it could go funnier. Instead, it chooses to place a story that could have happened at any time in a specific era for little apparent reason. It’s more of a distraction than anything else. That said…there is enough to enjoy here on its own merits that it didn’t need the setting. A good time that doesn’t figure out how to be a great one.

3/5

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If you enjoyed this review of She Came from the Woods, check out another movie set in the 80s…for some reason…Revealer