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Don't Go in the Woods

  • 1981
  • R
  • 1h 22m
IMDb RATING
3.8/10
3.7K
YOUR RATING
Tom Drury, Cecilia Fannon, Alma Ramos, James P. Hayden, and Nick Cleland in Don't Go in the Woods (1981)
Slasher HorrorHorrorThriller

Four friends camping in the woods inadvertently stumble upon the domain of a maniacal killer.Four friends camping in the woods inadvertently stumble upon the domain of a maniacal killer.Four friends camping in the woods inadvertently stumble upon the domain of a maniacal killer.

  • Director
    • James Bryan
  • Writer
    • Garth Eliassen
  • Stars
    • Nick Cleland
    • Mary Gail Artz
    • James P. Hayden
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    3.8/10
    3.7K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • James Bryan
    • Writer
      • Garth Eliassen
    • Stars
      • Nick Cleland
      • Mary Gail Artz
      • James P. Hayden
    • 113User reviews
    • 93Critic reviews
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • Videos1

    Trailer
    Trailer 1:09
    Trailer

    Photos96

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    Top cast56

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    Nick Cleland
    • Peter
    • (as Jack McClelland)
    Mary Gail Artz
    Mary Gail Artz
    • Ingrid
    James P. Hayden
    James P. Hayden
    • Craig
    Angie Brown
    Angie Brown
    • Joanne
    Ken Carter
    Ken Carter
    • Sheriff
    David Barth
    • Deputy Benson
    Larry Roupe
    • Store Owner
    Aimee Martel
    • Artist's Child
    • (as Amy Martell)
    Tom Drury
    Tom Drury
    • Maniac
    Laura Trefts
    • Dr. Maggie
    Alma Ramos
    • Victim - Running Girl
    Carolyn Braza
    Carolyn Braza
    • Victim - Cherry
    Frank Millen
    Frank Millen
    • Victim - Dick
    • (as Frank Clitus Muller)
    Jonathan Bliss
    • Victim - Bird Watcher
    • (as Mc Cormick Dalten)
    Cecilia Fannon
    Cecilia Fannon
    • Victim - Lady Artist
    • (as Cecelia Fannon)
    Dale Angell
    Dale Angell
    • Victim - Tourist at Falls
    Ruth Grose
    • Victim - Tourist's Mother
    Henry Zinman
    • Victim - Fisherman
    • (as Hank Zinman)
    • Director
      • James Bryan
    • Writer
      • Garth Eliassen
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews113

    3.83.7K
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    Featured reviews

    6alphastudio-67811

    Very Good 80s B slasher

    A very good 80s B slasher that proves you don't need a big budget to make a great film.Very suspenseful, creepy music/sound, Gory killing scenes and bad acting, which fits perfectly in this film.

    I Loved it!
    3AlsExGal

    This may be the most inept slasher ever made!

    One is never sure if this is suppose to be a comedy or just bad film making. A group of obnoxious hikers wonder around a forest getting slaughtered by some deranged mountain man. There is no story so we never know why the killings are taking place. The movies has plenty of bloody death scenes but they are thrown in with out reason.

    There are a lot of intentional funny scenes- a woman walking around a house coat in the forest but others are of questionable taste like a poor guy hiking in his wheelchair . The film has been given up a first rate blu ray treatment by Vinegar Syndrome. The print has some stunning Utah locations which could have been put to a better use. The movie has an annoying musical score which is more reason to scream than any thing on screen.
    4juniorrickman

    Don't Go In the Woods Sober

    A bunch of campers, lovemakers, skate bunnies, artists, cops, and sightseers are brutally murdered by a

    To say Don't Go in the Woods is episodic would be the understatement of the century. There's not a realistic dialogue exchange or a character arc to be found in these treacherous woods. Acting and writing are the kind of amateurish where you really convince yourself that these people have been kept in an attic for their entire lives without human contact and have never had a normal interaction with another human being. There's no other explanation for how bizarre this movie is. Everything is so disjointed like it was made up on the spot or like these were all a bunch of different short films that were edited together to make a feature. That said, it's one of the most hilarious movies I've ever seen in my life and I think I'll probably watch it 500 more times before I die.
    captaincracker

    Proof That Anyone Can Make a Movie

    There isn't that much to say about "Don't Go in the Woods". It is basically the most uninspired slasher film I've seen, and that's saying something from a guy who has seen every sequel, prequel, remake, and knock-off, and who in particular loves early 80's slasher gold. This is fool's gold. So what makes this movie worse than flicks like "Madman", "The Burning", "Prom Night", "The Prowler", and "Graduation Day"?

    For starters, "Don't Go in the Woods" has absolutely no originality to it. The movie is basically a complete knock-off of the previous year's "Just Before Dawn", only "Woods" has more characters and deaths but lacks the atmosphere, suspense, and twist of "Dawn". This film is absolutely amateur in its making. It has a great atmosphere to use and doesn't use it. It doesn't allow any room for character development. Rather than creating suspense it jumps right to the kill. There is simply no use of artistic film-making or creativity in this entire flick.

    Earlier in the week I finally was able to see another infamous B-movie slasher, "Graduation Day", which I thought was missing something. Compared to "Woods", "Graduation Day" looks like a masterpiece. "Graduation Day", along with "Friday the 13th", "The Burning", "Madman", "The Prowler", "Happy Birthday to Me", "Prom Night", "Halloween", "A Nightmare on Elm Street", "House on Sorority Row", "Just Before Dawn", "My Bloody Valentine", and others may follow a simple formula but it knows how to make that formula entertaining. Those movies have a rhythm. "Don't Go in the Woods" has no rhythm, but seems more like a bunch of footage of random, annoying people we don't care about or like getting killed in uneventful ways.

    Watching this movie felt like it was taking hours, even though it was only 85 minutes. So why would I continue watching "Don't Go in the Woods"? It is a movie from a time period that will never return. Movies like "Woods" will never be released again. This is a grindhouse picture - a low-budget, cheesy movie that played in limited cinemas and never went mainstream. It has earned a large cult fanbase over the past thirty years, and the title has become infamously famous for being a bad movie. For a horror fan, "Woods" is a sort of time capsule, a look back in time to when anyone could make a slasher movie as long as you had a camera. This time has come and gone, and has been forgotten about. For over twenty years, no one thought about "Woods", but the internet and DVD sales have helped bring it back.

    The cult horror film "Don't Go in the Woods" is only a popular movie because it is so bad and at one point so unpopular. As a slasher film fan, I am glad to have seen it. The acting is atrocious, the writing is wretched, the effects and laughable, and the plot is absent. But with a few cool shots of the scenery, "Don't Go in the Woods" somehow can keep the audience's minds off its lack of substance. And does this movie really need any substance? That's a debatable question.

    Definitely only a movie for hardcore slasher fans. Regular genre fans will most probably get bored and turn it off, and if you don't like horror movies or bad b-movies than steer clear and don't enter "the Woods".
    4glenmatisse

    Terrible Yet Watchable

    An awful film by every standard known to man, but there's an endearing quality about it that makes it compulsively watchable. From the random roller skater to the idiotic cops to the grotesquely unattractive couple in the van to the brain dead leads who act like they just woke up from a really long nap, Don't Go in the Woods has something for everyone. It's gory, too, even if it's in a "throw a bucket of fake blood on the actors and see what sticks" variety.

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    Related interests

    Roger Jackson in Scream (1996)
    Slasher Horror
    Mia Farrow in Rosemary's Baby (1968)
    Horror
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    Thriller

    Storyline

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    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      According to James Bryan, actor Gerry Klein, who plays the guy killed in the wheelchair, was once at a screening of the movie and couldn't quit laughing during his scenes. This annoyed a woman sitting in front of him. She turned and said to him 'that's not funny, what if that was YOU in that wheelchair?' , which only made Klein laugh more.
    • Quotes

      Craig: [tying Joanne in a sleeping bag] Now I've got you, bitch! Let's hear you say uncle! Say uncle! Say it, bag of bitch! Say it! Say it, bag of bitch! Say it! Say uncle!

    • Alternate versions
      Although fully uncut in terms of violence, the 2007 UK Film 2000 DVD is completely missing both the synthesized soundtrack and other source music. The infamous theme song (played over the closing credits) is the only music featured in the print.
    • Connections
      Featured in Don't Go in the Woods: Cast & Crew (2006)

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    FAQ18

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    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • November 20, 1981 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Don't Go in the Woods... Alone!
    • Filming locations
      • Park City, Utah, USA
    • Production company
      • JBF
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Budget
      • $20,000 (estimated)
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Tech specs

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    • Runtime
      • 1h 22m(82 min)
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Mono
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.66 : 1

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