Nobody Sleeps in the Woods Tonight

Thanks to Netflix I've gotten to watch several Polish films, admittedly all horrors, and of the ones I've seen, I've enjoyed them all. Nobody Sleeps in the woods (to be lazy, and use the translation,) is really rather good.

It's true, there isn't really any new material here, but what is done, is done well. Very much a Polish Wrong Turn, with a bit of Cabin in The Woods mixed in. It takes a bizarre twist, when we learn how things came to be, and there are enough shocking moments.

A few times we hear points about how it is for people in Poland, being gay etc. It seems that the writer and producer wanted to make a few points.

Clichés apart, rather good. 7/10.

This movie revolves around a little group of youngsters who have to camp in the woods to overcome their childhood trauma's and electronic devices addiction. This adventure goes sour very fast when they encounter the local monsters. The monsters are very well made, the costumes and prostheses are very convincing and very funny. For a country that has no worthwhile movie industry whatsoever this is a very good accomplishment.

This film has nothing new to offer in terms of the horror genre. It's really predictable and full of clichés, which is even pointed out by one the characters in the plot of the film. Actually, it's really similar to Wrong Turn and some themes are literally taken straight out of The Ritual and The Cabin. It's like you're watching horror movies that you already know, so the whole thing is hardly surprising and definitely not creative. What is surprising, though, is the soundtrack - suffice it to say that it's weird... Reminds me of The Goonies from 1985. And the 'monsters' were created quite well. I was really glad to see a lot of new faces on the screen. Surely, this wasn't the debut for some of the young actors, but still it was entertaining to see new talents. I quite enjoyed it, although there were two or three moments when I couldn't help laughing out loud since the scene was so predictable or out of common sense. Watching this film you really need to stop analysing and thinking - just enjoy what you're served. The movie was about to have its premiere on March 13, 2020 but one day prior to that all the cinemas (and many other places) in Poland were shut down due to the coronavirus spread, so the film premiered on Netflix instead.

Just watching a random YouTube video tonight about "5 Most Not Talked about Good Horror movies" and this was #1. The second he mentioned this movie I never heard of before, I stopped the YouTube video and went straight to Netflix to watch this. I AM SO GLAD I did. This In-the-wood slasher is every-bit the quintessential slasher from the 80s without bothering to do another homage every few scenes. Enough with the homages! Just glad they just made another clone but with great effects, fantastic characters, plenty of gore and kills and mostly shot in daylight, which is ballsy and wonderful simultaneously. Not 100% perfect - the exposition got a little too easy, like they didn't have faith the audience could put the pieces together and the reason behind the killer was...well, meh. Still, HIGHLY recommended.

***

Final thoughts: "Nobody Sleeps in the Woods Tonight"? Well, to be fair, I did see main character Zosia sleeping in her tent. The others, no evidence.

I can only assume the person who came up with this film idolises American cliché 'horror' movies, as it's not only predictable but hovers close to the realms of dreadful.

The good and the bad:

• Very cliché. Group of teens in a wood with gruesome killers.
• Predictable. You know exactly what's coming up, what will happen and it will attempt to have a twist at the end.
• While it hovers close to the realms of dreadful, its doesn't go into Them. Despite the cliché and predictable outcomes, I watched it to the end.

Horror standards are all in this movie, including: The pretty girl, the 'fat kid', attempts at recognising the 'already done genre', "don't split up, people always die when they split up", a cabin in the wood and the classic 'policeman is killed'.

The film feels like a Polish attempt at trying to make a horror and wrongly using the American format. Had they focused on how the Japanese make horrors they would have stood a vastly better chance at improving on this.