She Came from the Woods
Since its establishment in 1945, Camp Briarbrook has been run by the McCalister family, offering healthy encouragement in personal development, performance and outdoor activities for teenage boys and girls, with three generations currently involved, Gilbert, his daughter Heather, and her own sons Shawn and Peter, the latter less enthused by his responsibilities and more with Lauren, who along with her brother Ben are among those helping out for the summer.
The 1987 season drawing to a close, the kids packed onto the bus and driven back to the pickup by Shawn, the team take the time to relax and unwind, drinking around the campfire and telling stories of Agatha Good, former nurse at Briarbrook and supposedly the witch who haunts the woods, Peter coaxing the others to chant the spell which is said to wake her, pricking their fingers to draw blood, a silly game which none of them take seriously even as they comply…
Directed by Erik Bloomquist, She Came from the Woods stars Bill & Ted Face the Music’s William Sadler as Gilbert, his planned retirement derailed by the call to action when the killings start, with Stranger Things’ Cara Buono, Tyler Elliot Burke and Spencer List as Heather, Shawn and Peter, alongside Clare Foley, Dan Leahy, Giselle Torres, Ehad Berisha, Emily Keefe and Bloomquist himself as Lauren, Ben, Veronica, Mike, Kellie and Danny.
Some more diligent in their duties than others, when Nurse Agatha is awoken and unleashes a pack of possessed brats on the staff those who would sacrifice themselves for the good of others find that is exactly what happens at the hands of those who would take advantage to ensure their own survival, Adam Weppler’s Dylan first to volunteer someone else to take the fall if it will save his own odious skin, all of them aware how the story goes and what their chances are.
A twist on Friday the 13th and The Burning and their campmates, She Came from the Woods is a knowing rather than a knockabout comedy, brothers Erik and Carson Bloomquist’s script working with familiar character types and situations, placing them in a setting which is a times atmospheric, even eerie such as in the opening flashback scene of a young girl in pigtails and ribbons running through the dark forest, hearing laughter among the calls of the owls, chased into a clearing where jars of blood are suspended from the branches around her.
Slightly overlong, the pacing drags as the film progresses, never quite recovering from Gilbert’s monologue clarifying the past history of the McCalister clan and Nurse Good, but as low budget comedy horror runs it is better than many similar summer camp slashers, the Connecticut woodland appropriately dense and well-shot for a moderate budget film taking place largely in the dark and with effects a larger production would be justifiably proud of.
She Came from the Woods will be streaming on the Arrow platform from Friday 8th August
