• Straight to Video
• Director: Lynn Drzick
• Written by: Lynn Drzick
• Running Time: 90 minutes
• Language: English
• MPAA Rating: R - Restricted
• Cast: DJ Perry, Aimee Tenaglia, Tim Jeffrey, Jim Greulich, Stuart MacDonald, Buck Schirner, Renee Pulse, Jim Petersen, Rachel Walker, Matt Murdock, John Hosek, Richard Jewell, Lane Glenn, Todd Dunfield, Andy Campbell, Bradley Wilson, Michael Melik Brown, Chad Randau, Lesley Nagy, Benedetto Sorrentino, Skyler Stone

Alex Kerwood (D.J. Perry) is a firefighter, emotionally scarred from viewing one too many burnt bodies, who has found solace at the bottom of a bottle much to the annoyance of his wife Helen (“Asylum of Terror” star Aimee Tenaglia). When the film opens, we learn just how considerable the problem has become as Helen is promising to leave him if he doesn’t clean up his act. Alex assures her that he’ll change but, the next day, after a call to a fire ends in disaster, Kerwood finds himself, once again, down at the local watering hole drowning his misery in a pitcher of beer… or two. A particularly ugly fight erupts between husband and wife ending with Alex agreeing to join his friend, Wayne Higley (“Banditos” star Jim Greulich), on an overnight jaunt to the woods for an alcohol free weekend of hunting.

Mere moments after arriving, things go from strange to downright frightening after Wayne and Alex venture into a privately owned section of forest and quickly stumble upon what looks to be a secret burial site. Apparently a serial killer is loose in the city, something correlated in an early part of the film, thus prompting Wayne to dig up the crude grave to see if something human is buried there. Reluctant at first, Alex eventually acquiesces to his friend’s wishes. Using their hands as makeshift shovels, the pair is shocked at what they discover under the ground. No, it’s not human, rather, it’s something strange – a skull of what looks to be a giant beast with demonic horns. Upon unearthing the skull, the pair suddenly hears curious, menacing growls emerging from somewhere in the woods… and it sounds like it’s getting closer. Needless to say, the weekend hunting trip ends rather abruptly as our terrified boys make mad dash to the safety of their vehicle.

Pouring out of the forest seemingly unscathed, Alex, now suddenly single after realizing that his wife has moved out, is shocked to discover that his home has become a veritable dumping ground for human body parts. This doesn’t sit well with the local area cops, who immediately suspect that Alex is either the killer or he knows the killer. Alex has reason to worry, as well, as apparently the town’s psycho has his number and he doesn’t know why. Thankfully, one of the lead detectives, Larry Gorham (“Knight Chills” star Tim Jeffrey), actually believes his story and agrees to take him into his home. Larry’s wife (Renee Pulse) even makes an effort to reach out to Helen for support. She accepts but probably wishes she hadn’t when, later that night, a huge, horned beast, looking like a Devil Dog, finds its way to Gorham’s house and proceeds to slaughter Larry and his wife in a violent, vicious display of carnage. Helen is left alive, but is missing an arm. Alex doesn’t have time to ponder why the creature left him without so much as a scratch, as he’s too busy chasing after it to no avail.

In the wake of the tragic events at the Gorham house, Alex becomes suspect number one. The fact that the local pathologist (Rachel Walker) is claiming that the wounds on the victims could only have come from an animal not a man, the police have only Alex in their sights. The arrival of yet another strange reptilian-looking creature in the third act, eventually sets our hero on the right track, namely on a trip back to the woods (and the past) where he uncovers an ancient curse going all the way back to the medieval times involving a sorcerer who conjured up these beasts to wage war between two long since vanished kingdoms. Forget the fact that knights and sorcerer’s were typical of twelfth or thirteenth century Europe, not North America. Ug! Regardless, this ultimately ramps up to the bizarre final act where the Devil Dog (which Alex likens to a pet looking to please its master), and the strange reptile-looking creature (which we suspect is the actual culprit behind the town’s serial murders), is pitted against one another in the mother of all battles. Not really. In fact, it barely registers. “Gozilla vs The Smog Monster” this is not. Who cares? Watching two guys dressed in badly constructed, oversized costumes exchanging clumsy blows, is always good for a few laughs whether it is on a football field or in a cheapo movie, and this time is no different. 

While watching the film, I was struck by how much the “monsters” on display here seemed to be, more or less, a metaphor for varying forms of self-destruction; Alex’s battle with alcoholism, and his attempts to deal with a failing marriage, being the most obvious examples. Even the title “In the Woods” speaks to a man searching for his greater identity. Clearly I do not want to delve that deeply into whatever metaphorical subtext that might exist within the film, alas, a film scholar I am not, but it does seem to be there just below the surface. I sense that a more thorough examination of the film would probably reveal something rather profound, maybe even great, but I’m not the man for that job.

Since the audio seems to have been dubbed in postproduction, it’s hard to gauge just how good the acting was here. From what I could tell, it was pretty poor. The film’s star, D.J. Perry (2002’s “Below”), a guy who has carved out quite a legitimate career in the movies appearing in over forty-three titles in over a decade, seems to offer the weakest performance of the lot. Lacking is the chemistry with his various co-stars, which is essential because it’s calculated, especially in the case of his wife, to be the emotional core of the piece. Granted, it might not entirely be his fault because no matter how much time is spent trying to get it just right, dubbing voices always seems to minimize the effectiveness of a performance. Not entirely sure why dubbing was even needed considering that the actors were speaking English and the dubbing is in English, however, the apparent cheapness of the overall production does suggest that maybe getting good audio was sacrificed in favour of some good location shots (real fire houses etc.). Who knows?

For more information on this film, check out the imdb.com.