Stranger in the Woods review.
Trauma horror with a twist…Stranger in the Woods offers up some surprises and an interesting final girl.
New movie reviews will not contain spoilers.
Stranger in the Woods
Directed by Adam Newacheck
Written by Holly Kenney
Starring Holly Kenney, Brendin Brown, Paris Nicole, Radek Antczak, Teddy Spencer and Devon Stewart
Stranger in the Woods Review
Stranger in the Woods is, appropriately, a strange one. It takes some familiar premises and layers some genuinely intriguing ideas into them. It’s not enough to fully overcome its flaws. It is, however, enough to make it an interesting watch.
Olivia (Holly Kenney) is taken to a remote cabin in the woods by her friends after an apparent suicide attempt. She claims that she was attacked…but all the evidence speaks to the contrary. Her friend Sam’s (Brendin Brown) brother Clayton (Teddy Spencer) owns the cabin and lives in the one next door. Olivia can sense that his vibes are off immediately. When her dog, whose presence upset Clayton, disappears one night…she suspects he’s to blame. Her friends, on the other hand, worry about her mental stability.
As we talk about seemingly once a week…trauma is the new hot thing in horror. Stranger in the Woods has plenty of it. The story begins with Olivia jumping out of a bathtub with her wrist slit. Her fiancé recently died in a car crash. Now her therapy dog (and best friend) has vanished with nothing but danger in the woods around her. The story is not shy about presenting pain for Olivia to deal with.
Of course, cabin in the woods horror is as old as the genre itself. It’s always a convenient way to separate characters from modern conveniences. Stranger in the Woods places its small cast into a remote location for a strong narrative reason. Olivia’s friends just want to help. The fact that Olivia refuses to admit to her suicide attempt doesn’t sit right with them. There was a note, a locked door, and no forced entry. Olivia is steadfast that she was attacked. Just as she is certain that Clayton did something to her dog.
The movie spends a lot of time on this setup. It takes about 35 minutes for anything to happen that represents a surefire danger for Olivia and her friends. There are hints, of course. A flat tire…creepy stuffed squirrels in the cabin courtesy of Clayton’s strange hobbies (if these aren’t a portent of doom nothing is). Just enough to keep Olivia on edge…and provide her friend’s reasonable deniability.
At around that 35-minute mark…we are sure that Olivia isn’t just seeing things. The group remains unconvinced. From here out…Stranger in the Woods starts to ramp up. Some tense moments as Olivia investigates Clayton’s home. Group dynamics shatter. The movie teases becoming a standard cabin horror movie…but has something a little different on its mind.
The thing that makes Stranger in the Woods interesting is Olivia. Holly Kenney wrote the script in addition to playing the main character. It’s easy to understand why she would want the part. Olivia is a complex character in some unexpected ways. She’s flawed…possibly crazy…and she doesn’t act like we expect our final girl tropes to act. She confronts things head on…makes plenty of mistakes…and has a good reason for acting cagey around her friends. It’s a surprisingly fresh take on what is usually a two-dimensional role.
That being said…Stranger in the Woods has its share of problems. Pacing is an almost constant battle. When we finally get something to sink our teeth into 35 minutes in…the movie immediately retreats to a slower pace for a while. While that works for scenes where Olivia puts herself in danger of getting caught investigating Clayton…it doesn’t for extended scenes with her friends. While we can understand why they may question Olivia…they are far too quick to side against her. Their stated purpose was to help. Frustration at the roadblocks she sends up are fine…outright withdrawing support almost immediately rings much hollower.
There is a lot of clunky dialog and performances are kind of all over the map. It’s not all bad…it just never all fits. You don’t feel like these people have a relationship to the degree they state. Which makes some of their choices hard to buy into.
Still…there are some interesting story beats here. Unexpected reveals that are refreshingly minor to the overall plot…but give us a deeper understanding of the characters we are watching. There is a major twist too, of course. There must be an explanation for the strange goings on, after all. You might see that one coming. It reverts the things that made Stranger in the Woods unique into something more familiar. A climax that matched some of the story’s higher moments may have elevated the whole affair. Like the cabin the characters head to for the weekend, however…it’s still worth a rental.
Scare Value
Stranger in the Woods sprinkles some new ideas onto a familiar premise. There’s a cabin in the woods…a character dealing with trauma…a lot of things you will expect if not predict. Some strong moments elevate things from time to time. When it works…it works well. Even if the baseline is pretty standard stuff.
2.5/5
