Beyond the Woods

I viewed this film at a festival in Vancouver, BC and was transfixed from the start. The word that comes to mind, first and foremost, when I think of this film is... REAL.

It is not a flashy action movie. There are no jump scares or moments of hilarity... this film tells a real story about life and one that we all could EASILY find ourselves in.

Believe me.

We are all just a few poor choices away from this.

I was engrossed. I enjoyed this and I hated it at the same time. Because it was real.

Definitely not perfect, which is why I have rated this a 8/10. At times the screenplay is on the nose and the dialogue drags... but so does life.

This is worth watching.

How this was described as a 'thriller' is beyond my comprehension: a thriller (in my mind anyway) being a film that provides either tension or a cunning twist in the plot. This film has neither - in fact, it was about as thrilling as a snail on valium and moved at roughly the same pace. The dialogue was almost non-existent, the scenery, for the most part, was bleak, and it felt low-budget on every level. Then there was the ending... in my view, if you are going to bore someone silly for the best part of 2 hours, you should, at the very least, have the decency to provide a definitive ending. But nay, nay - we didn't even get that. Very disappointed.

There is not much to be said for this movie other than it should not have been made as it is so slow and boring and rather a depressing and futile experience and who needs that these days when there is enough misery around; it makes watching paint dry a fun experience.

Not much to review about this film as it does not deserve much more than a few lines - If you are thinking the bad reviews might be shills or exaggerating like I did, then don't; it is a moronic film! So pay attention to the low star reviews on this one or you will waste and hour and a half of your time which would be better spent washing and waxing your car!

Really slow at the start and doesn't accelerate too much. I was tempted to turn off almost instantly but wanted to give it the benefit of the doubt. This then lead to me feeling that I had to finish just because I had started, not because I was particularly entertained or engrossed.

Felt very low budget and some of the scenes were unbelievably long in one shot and dragged out with very little dialogue.

The emotion felt a little forced, the acting was not entirely believable and Andrew was trying too hard, it just came across as boring.

The music was too loud over the dialogue.

A couple of positives though, I did start to feel empathy for Jack and his scenes especially with his sister were the highlights.

However, I would definitely not endure again.

The Story is pointless. 10 mins in you already know how the movie ends. The movie is so slow that you might as well be watching paint dry. Can't think of a single good thing to say about this movie. The only reason I watched to the end was because all along I was thinking that this movie can't be this bad, there must be some really intelligent twist at the end which will totally make watching it worthwhile. I was wrong and I lost almost 2 hours of my life for absolutely nothing. Don't make the same mistake!