Tuck Everlasting (2002)
Family of Immortals
Disney adaptation of a classic children’s novel about the discovery of a family in the woods who are immortal due to a magical spring
In the Woods
The Woods refers to the use of any forest, bush or large wooded wild area as a locale in fantastic cinema (although not a jungle). Usually the woods will be some distance from civilisation. It is a borderland world where those who come from civilisation, which represents the rational everyday world, are forced to confront forces that lie outside the safety of the world of reason.
In the fantasy film, in particular the Fairytale, the woods can be enchanted where unexpected and magical things can occur. There are also frequently darker elements present in the fantasy woods such as the Big Bad Wolf and Hansel and Gretel’s witch.
In the horror film, the woods can be a place where those who innocently stray are separated from civilised amenities and forced into a brutal survivalism as they come under attack by those that live there. In these cases, the woods can be inhabited with lurking psychos and slasher maniacs, in-bred hillbillies, witches, spirits, demonic forces and those engaged in folk ritual. The cabin in the woods is also a frequent locale where those who venture are forced to hold off at siege from the dwellers of the woods.
The woods is the principal locale of the Backwoods Brutality film and a number of Slasher Films. The Bigfoot Film also takes place in the woods where it is an elusive creature than can be seen as either monster or shy and an endangered species.
Return to Pontianak (2001)
Haunted Spirits in the Malaysian Jungle
Singaporean film about tourists experienced haunted spirits in the jungle, this owes much to The Blair Witch Project
Soft for Digging (2001)
Backwoods Haunting
Film made without dialogue about haunted happenings at a cabin in the woods that attains quite a haunted atmosphere
Wendigo (2001)
Backwoods Stalking/Native Indian Spirit
Early film from Larry Fessenden about a family and a Native American spirit. Much brooding build-up but not much payoff (*)
Snow White (2001)
Fairy-Tale
Caroline Thompson, a regular Tim Burton scriptwriter, directs a uniquely revisionist version of the fairytale in which she digs in to explain the origins of many of the familiar aspects of the story
Versus (2000)
Yakuza Zombies/Splatter
The directorial debut of Ryuhei Kitamura. A film premised on the idea of mashing the John Woo-styled gangster film up with the gore-drenched George Romero zombie film.
Camp Blood 2 (2000)
Slasher Film
The second entry in a surprisingly prolific series of low-budget films – currently running to fifteen films – that homage the 1980s slasher film
Bare Wench Project 2: Scared Topless (2000)
Softcore Blair Witch Spoof
The Bare Wench Project was an inane softcore parody of The Blair Witch Project. This is the first of four sequels in which another troupe of girls go wandering in the woods while finding almost any opportunity to take their clothes off
Camp Blood (2000)
Slasher Film
The first in a surprisingly prolific series of slasher films, which has produced some fourteen sequels at current count. Made on a micro-budget, this vigorously homages the 1980s basics
The Bogus Witch Project (2000)
Anthology of Blair Witch Project Spoofs
An anthology made up of six short film spoofs of The Blair Witch Project with a wraparound featuring the excrutiatingly unfunny Pauly Shore
Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 (2000)
Blair Witch Project Sequel
The much lambasted but not entirely uninteresting sequel to The Blair Witch Project. Documentary director Joe Berlinger adds a fascinating layer of meta-fiction that winds in the real-world reaction to the first film
Deep in the Woods (2000)
French Slasher Film
Stylish French slasher film about actors being stalked as they put on a performance of Little Red Riding Hood at a country estate. The fairytale is adeptly wound in and out as metaphor.
The Bare Wench Project (1999)
Softcore Blair Witch Spoof
Following the success of The Blair Witch Project, this was an excruciatingly lame softcore parody with a group of girls tramping in the woods finding almost any excuse to undress and conduct sex-related takes on Blair Witch
The Blair Witch Project (1999)
Found Footage/Backwoods Haunting
This shot-on-video film that became a word of mouth sensation with many people believing they were watching real video footage of a trio lost in haunted woods by a witch. Of course, what nobody knew at the time was this was creating the Found Footage film
Fear Runs Silent (1999)
Backwoods Horrors
Backwoods horror that starts well, keeping its menace ambiguous but collapses into a mishmash of pretensions and amateurish symbolism
A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1999)
Shakespeare Adaptation/Fairy Enchantments
Amid Kenneth Branagh’s dynamic cinematic revival of Shakespeare in the 1990s, there was this all-star adaptation of Shakespeare’s whimsy about fairy enchantments
Criminal Lovers (1999)
Modernised Hansel and Gretel
An early film from Francois Ozon, this offers a modernisation of Hansel and Gretel where the two are teenage lovers on the run before the story turns into a remarkable gay coming out parable
The Wolves of Kromer (1998)
Gay Werewolves
British werewolf film that wittily uses being a werewolf as a metaphor for being gay
The Last Broadcast (1998)
Found Footage/Mysterious Backwoods Deaths
One of the very first Found Footage films, predating The Blair Witch Project, although this is less people running around the woods with cameras than an investigative mockumentary
Hostile Intent (1997)
Backwoods Brutality
An oddity that seems to start as a film about IT espionage and then becomes a survival horror with a paintball team on a corporate retreat being hunted through the woods
Snow White: A Tale of Terror (1997)
Adult Fairy-Tale
Beautifully made and very adult version of the fairytale, which seems determined to play up the terror aspect of the title, resulting in a work that seems a long way away from Disney
Photographing Fairies (1997)
Fairies and Altered Perception
One of two films that came out in 1997 about the Cottingley Fairies Hoax. In comparison to the other, FairyTale: A true Story, this expands the premise out into a remarkable study of altered perception
Forest Warrior (1996)
Environmental Ghost Warrior
Near laughable film in which Chuck Norris is cast as the guardian spirit of a forest preaching eco-friendly attitudes to kids and inspiring them to stand up against loggers
The Wind in the Willows (1996)
Talking Animals/Absurdist Adventures
Monty Python’s Terry Jones conducts a live-action adaptation of Kenneth Grahame’s classic children’s story
Goldilocks and the Three Bears (1995)
Modernised Fairy-Tale
A modernised version of the Goldilocks fairytale, which now comes with the addition of an environmentalist subplot and where the bears are made into an endangered species
The Companion (1994)
Love Android Amok
Rather amusing variant on the killer android theme where Kathryn Harrold buys a love robot as companion and causes it to become unstable when she overrides its safety protocols
Fire in the Sky (1993)
Alien Abduction/"True Story"
Film based on a true-life claim about a supposed alien abduction. This probably won’t convince anybody who does not already believe but it is undeniably a well-made film, at its most striking when we go aboard the UFO
Once Upon a Forest (1993)
Environmentally Aware Animation/Talking Animals
Appealing animated film with an environmentalist theme where four young orphan animals go on a quest to save their woods
Dreams (1990)
Japanese Ghost Story Anthology
It is some surprise that Akira Kurosawa’s only full venture into fantastic cinema was with his penultimate film here. A beautifully filmed anthology of eight tales, including several ghost stories and two anti-nuclear parables
Pumpkinhead (1988)
Demon Unleashed
Makeup effects artist Stan Winston takes the director’s chair and creates one of the truly original monsters of the 1980s. Several sequels followed
The Unnamable (1988)
Demon in the Attic/H.P. Lovecraft Adaptation
One of the spate of H.P. Lovecraft adaptations that came out in the late 80s/early 90s. This feels like an effort by earnest amateurs but does take its Lovecraft seriously unlike most of the other films of this cycle.
Berserker: The Nordic Curse (1987)
Viking Spirits in the Backwoods
Justifiably obscure 1980s video release that has been intended as a copy of The Evil Dead concerning possible Viking berserker spirits amok in backwoods Utah. Cheap and routine on almost all counts
Harry and the Hendersons (1987)
Friendly Bigfoot
Likeable effort from Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Productions in which a Bigfoot is befriended by a family. The star of the show is Kevin Peter Hall in the amazingly expressive Bigfoot makeup from Rick Baker
The Evil Dead II (1987)
Backwoods Possession/Comedy
Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell return in a sequel to their earlier low-budget cult hit. With a far better budget this time, Raimi goes completely over-the-top with a delirious silliness that will bring tears to the eyes
Red Riding Hood (1987)
Fairy-Tale
One of the cheap fairytale adaptations that Cannon Films made during the 1980s
Hansel and Gretel (1987)
Fairy-Tale
One of a series of cheaply produced fairytale adaptations made by Cannon Films. This adapts the Brothers Grimm fairytale with tatty banality
The Caller (1987)
Strange Psychological Games/Reality Bender
Unexpectedly good film with Madolyn Smith as a woman living alone in a cabin in the woods and Malcolm McDowell as a caller where the two engage in a series of cat and mouse games where nothing is what it seems
The Supernaturals (1986)
Civil War Zombies
The first film on the theme of zombies from the American Civil War. Not too badly made and with an unusual cast line-up including Nichelle Nichols as a drill sergeant
Hunter’s Blood (1986)
Backwoods Brutality
A quite reasonable Backwoods Brutality item with a group who go hunting in backwoods Oklahoma but stir up the inbred poachers and end up being hunted themselves
Deadtime Stories (1986)
Anthology of Horror Versions of Fairytales
Horror anthology with the novelty where all of the stories are horror versions of fairytales. Particularly amusing is the second episode, a modernised version of Little Red Riding Hood
Bridge to Nowhere (1986)
Backwoods Brutality
New Zealand-made variation on the Backwoods Brutality film with a group of trampers being hunted through the bush by a psychopathic farmer
The Emerald Forest (1985)
Amazon Rainforest Drama/Magical Realism
John Boorman film with Powers Boothe searching for his son who has been snatched by Indians in the Amazon. A mystical film, the first to bring issues of deforestation of the Amazon rainforest to public attention
Legend (1985)
Adult Fairytale
Hugely underrated Ridley Scott film that was a box-office flop. Scott attempts to reconstruct the fairytale as something dark and primal and creates moments that are superlative cinema
The Company of Wolves (1984)
Little Red Riding Hood with Werewolves
In his first film, Neil Jordan adapts an Angela Carter story that retells Little Red Riding Hood as a werewolf film that becomes a fascinating swim of fairytale and sexual allegory
The Final Terror (1983)
Backwoods Slasher
From the heyday of the slasher film, this seems to be trying to conduct a slasher version of Deliverance. Largely forgotten today and unremarkable but for an amazing cast of before-they-were-famous faces
Boggy Creek II: And the Legend Continues … (1983)
Bigfoot Film
Charles B. Pierce, a director who gained a cult with his films for 1970s drive-in audiences, makes a sequel to his earlier pseudo-documentary The Legend of Boggy Creek about the hunt for a Bigfoot creature
A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy (1982)
Period Sexual Rondeau Comedy
One of Woody Allen’s slighter films, a sexual rondeau set at the turn of the 20th Century, although mostly riffing on Allen’s familiar sexual neuroses. Contains minor fantasy elements.
The Evil Dead (1981)
Backwoods Possession/Splatter Comedy
Ferociously paced low-budget hit that put the names of Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell on the map. What made the film a cult hit was Raimi’s full tilt pace and entertainingly over-the-top splatter effects
Don’t Go in the Woods (1981)
Slasher Film
One of the ‘don’t __’- titled entries of the 1970s/80s. This was an entry in the decade’s popular slasher cycle with a hulking manic stalking trampers in the backwoods
Unico (1981)
Anime/Young Unicorn Boy's Adventures
aka The Fantastic Adventures of Unico Japan. 1981. Crew Director – Toshio Hirata, Screenplay – Masaki Tsuji, Based on a Story by Osamu Tezuka, Producer – Shintaro Tsuji, Music – Ryo Kitayama, Art Direction – Akio Sugino. Production Company – Sanrio. Plot The gods are jealous of the young unicorn boy Unico who can bring […]
Southern Comfort (1981)
Backwoods Brutality
A beautifully evocative Walter Hill film where National Guard soldiers on training manoeuvres are hunted through the Louisiana swamps after accidentally shooting at Cajun locals
The Watcher in the Woods (1980)
Other-Dimensional Haunting
Problem ridden Disney ghost story with a science-fiction rationalisation that never quite comes together on screen
Mother’s Day (1980)
Backwoods Brutality
A parody of the Backwoods Brutality film. One of the very first films produced by Lloyd Kaufman of Troma fame
Without Warning (1980)
Alien Sportsman Hunts Human Game
One of the first copies of Alien, this essentially acts as a slasher movie but with an alien instead of a hockey-masked killer. It also manages to predict the essentials of Predator in many ways. A B-movie but the cast list makes for eye-opening reading today
Screams of a Winter Night (1979)
Horror Anthology
Obscure horror anthology from the great era of regional drive-in cinema. The stories lose any potential due to incredibly dreary direction
Prophecy (1979)
Mutant Bear Amok
The once celebrated John Frankenheimer flopped with this monster movie about a mutant bear with laughable effects and inflated pretensions to message making
I Spit on Your Grave (1978)
Rape and Revenge
One of the most raw and savage films ever made, this sits on a dividing line between true horror and exploitation as we experience Camille Keaton being raped with no detail spared before exacting a brutal revenge
Day of the Animals (1977)
Nature's Revenge
A cheap 1970s Nature’s Revenge film that blatantly borrows all the essentials of The Birds in the story of a group of trampers in the High Sierras coming under attack by wildlife due to an ozone hole.
Claws (1977)
Killer Bear
This was made as a fairly blatant mockbuster copy of Jaws. This is basically Jaws on dry land with a bear instead of a shark and an assonant soundalike title Claws instead of Jaws
Sasquatch: The Legend of Bigfoot (1976)
Bigfoot Mockumentary
With the sensation of the Gimlin-Patterson film that supposedly depicted a Bigfoot, the 1970s gave us a spate of Bigfoot films. This was the most high-profile, a mockumentary about an expedition that sets out to find Sasquatch
Encounter with the Unknown (1973)
Horror Anthology
A variant on the horror anthology film that manages to let the potential in its three stories fall through its hands. Narrated by Rod Serling, creator of tv’s classic anthology series The Twilight Zone, who must’ve needed the money
A Name for Evil (1973)
Possible Haunted House/Strange Happenings
Obscure almost interesting film where Robert Culp drops out of city life, renovates a possibly haunted house before being drawn into a surreal Free Love fantasia
The Boy Who Cried Werewolf (1973)
Boy's Father Becomes a Werewolf
This comes with a cutely amusing title – about a boy who witnesses his father becoming a werewolf but nobody will believe him – but only emerges as a cheap and shabby B movie
The Legend of Boggy Creek (1972)
Bigfoot Film/"True Story"
One of the numerous Bigfoot films of the 1970s. This takes a quasi-documentary approach that never makes for a particularly interesting film and where the Bigfoot of the show gets to do very little
Deliverance (1972)
Backwoods Brutality
Harrowing wilderness survival film from John Boorman about four men on a trip downriver that fall afoul of hillbillies. A classic that was highly influential on the formation of the Backwoods Brutality genre.
Bigfoot (1970)
Bigfoot Film
The public obsession with Bigfoot grew out of a piece of amateur film shot in 1967 purporting to show a Bigfoot in the world and led to a spate of films and throughout the 1970s. This has the distinction of being the first ever Bigfoot film
Equinox (1970)
Backwoods Occultism
A film about backwoods occult that comes with much H.P. Lovecraft influence. An inngenue film made by several unknowns who later became key figures at Industrial Light and Magic
It’s Alive! (1969)
Backwoods Sadist/Prehistoric Creature
Larry Buchanan is a director on a par with Edward D. Wood Jr. This, not to be confused with the 1974 killer baby film, is his best film. Buchanan creates a perverse obsessiveness that is fascinating to watch
Snow White and the Three Stooges (1961)
Idiots Enact a Fairytale
The Three Stooges are transplanted into a retelling of the fairytale, although their slapstick inanity feels drowned out amid the maudlin banality and Cinemascope spectacle
The Virgin Spring (1959)
Revenge Film
One of the classic works from Ingmar Bergman, uncreditedly remade by Wes Craven as The Last House on the Left, with Max Von Sydow as a virtuous farmer who is driven to vengeance after three youths rape and kill his daughter
Rashomon (1950)
The Subjectivity of Perception
Classic film from Akira Kurosawa about the subjectivity of perception in which a trial is held about a murder and all four witnesses retell an entirely different story about what happened
Bambi (1942)
Disney Animation/Talking Animals
One of the unquestionable classics from Disney’s Golden Age of animation between 1939 and 1942. This is an absolute delight for its unalloyed innocence and tragically affecting emotions
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
Disney Animation/Fairy-Tale
The first full-length animated film ever made and the beginning of the Disney tradition. A superlative effort, full of an adorable anthropomorphism where Disney instinctively grasps all the elements of the formula
Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
Universal Frankenstein Sequel
The first sequel to the 1931 Boris Karloff Frankenstein, which many prefer to the original. Director James Whale comes into his element and provides a whole other level of droll humour that the first film did not have