User reviews

"Someone wants us to do a documentary about a legend that's circulating Hollywood but didn't get into exactly what the legend is......"

We all should have given up at that point.

I watched it so you don't have to:)

This seems like a horrible class project. the "students" are clearly in their 30s-40s... and are the best worst actors in this "film". the secondary female character and the movie producers couldn't possibly be actual actors... they must be relatives of the director or something, maybe they won a contest or something idk but if they are actors i'm a deer. the writing is god awful, the photography and music occasionally make sense so that's the 2 stars. the basic plot is just preposterous, the characters spend the whole movie making the absolute worst and least likely decisions any real people would make. i'm seriously curious how many people actually read this script and said "yup this will be an amazing movie". hellen keller would have passed on this. honestly just astounded this exists.

The actors in this are god awful. Have they even acted before? From the opening scene it's like instant boredom from two actors with no personality or charisma talking to each other in slow motion. It just keeps getting worse with more and more boring dialog exchanged that id rather watch paint dry rather than watch their horrible performance with not one shred of realism to their conversations. It sounds scripted, and badly scripted at that.

It's amazing the film quality and editing seems proffesional. But it's not enough to redeem anything about this monotone snorefest rip-off of the Blair Witch Project, but set somewhere just outside the Hollywood hills.

No good kill scenes either, nothing for gore fans, no creepy bits, no scary parts, and not one thing worthy of qouting. This movie offers absolutely nothing to anyone into this kind of genre and I wouldn't even recommend watching it for free even just once. Its flow is slow, the few characters have no charisma, the diolog is not natural, and its just a god awful movie.

Everything about this movie is bad. The writing is bad, the acting is bad, and the plot is bad.

OMG who spends money thinking they can get a return on this garbage but then again, he or she didn't loose much I'm sure. A few times I've said, "worse movie ever" this one is "worse attempt at a movie EVER!" Only one positive thing...Elissa Dowling, you can act but don't use this film on your resume.

What started out as a rather strong movie just slowly dwindled and then failed. The acting was subpar at times, especially by Felissa, but I found Elissa's acting good throughout most of the movie. The genuine chemistry between the two main characters is the only reason this is getting above a two. It felt like they were actually friends.

The acting is not bad...is horrible like the movie....the script got holes like titanic and is sinking fast before u say rootwood....i ve seen bad films before...but this takes the cake for lame..dont even think to give it a go.....

This was just awful. I created an account just to warn you all. The writer deserves a d...ck.of the year award for writing this POS. Absolutely silly rubbish. Garbage acting, Garbage writing, and garbage plot. A total waste of my time and money watching this farce of a movie. Where is all the wanker friends of cast and crew who always give 10 stars? Did they refuse to help out this time?

Getting the scoop of a lifetime, a pair of podcast hosts on local urban legends head off into the woods with a friend of theirs looking for a local legend called the Wooden Devil, but when they start to believe someone or something is in the woods with them must try to get away alive.

This here was a solid and enjoyable enough effort. One of the more enjoyable elements is the general setup here, for not only their filming of the documentary but the backstory of their assignment. A truthful small-town-sounding story about their belief that he had sold his soul and has now started to haunt a section of the local forest, this is perfectly acceptable fodder to get this going. As well, the stories and evidence about the disappearances from the area serve as a fine enhancement of the local legend that would spawn such an undertaking here, making this one quite worthwhile in the setup. With that taken care of, the film's scenes of the group out in the woods mix a fine sense of playfulness and genuine eeriness. The banter between the girl and the guy where she's trying to put the moves on him against his knowledge gives this a light atmosphere where the advances are lost on him yet causes scolding looks from her friend. These are infrequent enough not to be annoying and balance out the creepier elements that serve this one quite well, as the abandoned home made of twigs, the memorial adorned with names of confirmed missing persons and the noose inside the tree have solid suspenseful attributes. The other really enjoyable aspect to be found here is the chilling final half. Graced with the appropriate creepy build-up about the forest not being safe, there are some genuinely terrifying moments with the sight of various body-parts moving when you aren't focused or least expecting it. Keeping the creature to shadows for the duration of an extended nighttime chase in the woods lit by flashlight with an already terrified individual enhances the scare factor even more by giving off the kind of partial glimpses that later provide a complete picture, which manage to give this enough to hold it up for the most part. There are a few minor factors involved here. Among the biggest issues here is the strangely out-of-character outburst about the missing friend ruining the potential footage for the shoot rather than being more concerned with their upset and traumatized friend who just went missing when that wasn't a problem beforehand. As well, a truly problematic issue is the series of twists and turns offered by the finale, oftentimes twisting on itself in a new twist for no reason and simply doing so for no purpose as none of it makes any sense in the slightest. This is confusing in the extreme and ends this on a sour note with all the flaws being packed into the final minutes.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Language and Violence.

Had a lot of fun with this one. No spoilers, but the final act of the film is radically different to the build-up and it makes for an exciting change of tone while remaining firmly in the horror space. There are some neat, inventive kills throughout.

The awful acting in the beginning to the end just not the worst. The creature outside wood n kill is not creepy and scary. Can't make something new then don't make it.

Barely made it to 10 minutes in - clunky, poorly directed, lame.

I have been wanting to see this for over a year since I heard about it. So I guess I set myself up for high expectations and was completely let down. Towards the end I liked it a lot better then.

I wished all of them would of died in the first 5 minutes. Absolutely worthless, ridiculous and done in an unskillful inept way. Avoid at all costs!

I love found footage horror movies, but this was beyond awful. I hate giving movies bad reviews because I know that was someone's blood, sweat and tears. When it comes to this movie it was just tears!

This wants to be a found footage style film, but it is not. The story is weak and the acting is awful. The ending is a twist on a twist and you don't know what is real which makes it even worse. It was a great concept that was terribly executed. I know this is a low budget horror film, but save your brain cells and do not bother with this one.

Please see the review headliner. Don't want to waste another second on this. I was fooled by the high ratings.

"Rootwood" offers a new crypto baddie in the form of an urban legend surrounding a wood devil. The story is more straightforward typical mockumentary, paranormal exploratory fare. It does break the monotony with some nice third person footage. The concept is intriguing, however the execution of the plot feels a bit messy. Far too much dialog and unnecessary exposition.

The acting has moments of quality, but there are some moments where the cast seem affectively removed from their characters. Still, "Rootwood" has some cool indie film royalty attached to it, which almost forgives the flubs found with the film. I did enjoy the twist, with a cheeky revelation in the final scenes.

The horror leans heavily on a creepy, atmospheric tone, with some cool locations. The night shots are sweet, chilling moments that become the major focal point. I wish more of the film was shot at night. There isn't much in the way of kill sequences, most happen off screen and we never get to enjoy the carnage of the situation. But, the creature concept for the wood devil is awesome and worthy of further exploration.

Overall "Rootwood" misses a lot of momentum as it gets started. To much time is spent building characters that are weighed down by too much dialog and exposition. It takes 55 minutes for anything exciting to happen but what we do get is a spooky urban legend, creepy creature concept, and Felissa Rose. Horror fans of indie, low budget filmmaking should check it out. It has some cool stuff worth watching.

Scare factor totally hit the mark for me. Quite intensely built up, overall enjoyed the movie much!

"Rootwood" is a serious contender for the title of "Worst Movie Ever Made". It is an atrocious effort on a galactic scale. This is a film completely burdened and belabored by and with everything that could possibly be bad in and about a horror movie.

Horrible acting? Check.

Characters making completely implausible, utterly idiotic decisions? Check, and double check.

Piss-poor special effects? "Rootwood has got you covered there, too.

Fittingly, the final scenes manages to frame and encapsulate every single one of these flaws, particularly the fact that not a one of these "actors" should ever appear in another film of any kind, regardless of genre. Gifting this rancid turd of a movie is much, much too generous. This movie is so bad that it will make you want to hunt down and find anyone and everyone who made this film possible, and beat the living crap out of them. Seriously.

AVOID. THIS. MOVIE.

Marcel Walz does it again with an excellent movie! Loved the direction. It will definitely keep you on the edge of your seats.