The Woods (2006 film)

The Woods
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Lucky McKee
Written by	David Ross
Produced by	Bryan Furst Sean Furst
Starring	Agnes Bruckner Patricia Clarkson Bruce Campbell Lauren Birkell Rachel Nichols
Cinematography	John R. Leonetti
Edited by	Dan Lebental Joel Plotch
Music by	John Frizzell
Production companies	Furst Films[1] United Artists[1]
Distributed by	Sony Pictures Home Entertainment[2]
Release date	September 26, 2006 (2006-09-26) (Fantastic Fest)[3]
Running time	91 minutes[4]
Country	United States[1]
Language	English

The Woods is a 2006 American supernatural horror film directed by Lucky McKee and starring Agnes Bruckner, Patricia Clarkson, Rachel Nichols, Lauren Birkell and Bruce Campbell. Set in 1965, its plot concerns a wayward teenage girl who is sent to a New England all-girls private high school which holds an ominous secret related to the staff, history and woods surrounding the school.

In 1965, rebellious teenager Heather Fasulo is sent to the boarding school Falburn Academy, run by headmistress Ms. Traverse and located in the middle of the woods. Heather becomes close friends with Marcy Turner, while they are maltreated by their abusive classmate Samantha Wise. During the night, Heather has a nightmare about a blood-soaked student named Ann and hears voices coming from the woods; she learns the next day that Ann was institutionalized after a suicide attempt.

Heather eventually learns to adjust to the school. Ms. Traverse subjects Heather to tests to see if she is "gifted". The girls tell Heather a spooky story about the history of Falburn, which includes three young redheaded sisters who arrived at the school and turned out to be witches, killing the headmistress before leaving to the woods. Heather begins to fight back against Samantha's continued torment. Ann returns from the institution; after Heather finds her rocking in her bed one night, Ann reveals that she is afraid she will be taken by the witches. Heather climbs on a trunk to try and close an open window; a low fog rushes into the room and knocks Heather down, twisting her ankle. The next day, Heather finds Ann's bed empty, her place filled with dead leaves.

Heather witnesses the headmistress lying to the police about Ann's disappearance. She tries to talk to Marcy about her suspicions, but Marcy acts strangely; soon after, Heather finds Marcy's bed empty and covered in leaves. Later, she is confronted in the woods by Samantha, who tells her that the school is led by a coven of witches, and that her bullying was intended to drive Heather away to protect her. She also reveals that she has called Heather's father to help her escape and that the school's milk is poisoned. The girls are caught by a school mistress, who takes Samantha away; her body is later found hanging in the cafeteria. Heather tells a police officer about the missing students, but the headmistress claims they simply ran away. Another mistress leads the officer into the woods to find the girls, where he is killed by the living vines of a tree.

Heather's parents show up to take her home. On the way home, their car is mysteriously flipped and Heather is knocked unconscious, while her mother is dragged out of the car by a vine. Heather and her father Joe wake up in a hospital. Ms. Traverse has Heather dragged away, then slits her own hand and forces her black blood down Joe's throat, rendering him catatonic. Heather returns to the school, where she drinks the milk, but later vomits it back up, finding tree bark in it. At the hospital, Joe wakes up and vomits up the blood, which also has tree bark in it. He escapes and looks for Heather. That night, Heather begins to hear voices again, and when she attempts to leave, a vine captures her.

She awakens wrapped in vines in a large room next to Ann and Marcy, who are also captive. All of the teachers appear and reveal themselves to be witches. Ms. Traverse is their leader, and she explains that their spirits have been trapped in the woods all these years, and they need to inhabit the bodies of young women to escape their imprisonment, with Heather as the centerpiece of her plan since she has the strongest powers. Heather is coerced into carrying out the ritual, and the vines begin to mummify all of the girls in the school. Before the ritual is complete, Joe breaks into the room with an ax and begins to kill the witches. Heather breaks free from the vines and chops all of the witches into pieces. Heather and Joe then leave with all of the girls as the school burns in the distance behind them.

The Woods was shot in 2004^[2] at Mels Cité du Cinema in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.^[5]

The Woods had its North American premiere at the Fantasia Film Festival in Montreal in 2006.^[6] The film's distributor, United Artists, planned for a theatrical release, but it was shelved after Sony Pictures bought out United Artists' parent company, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, in 2004.^[7][8] Sony Pictures Home Entertainment released the film direct-to-DVD in the United States on October 3, 2006^[9] following festival screenings.^[2]

Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator, reports that 69% of 15 surveyed critics gave the film a positive review; the average rating is 6.10/10.^[4]

Brian Holcomb of the independent film review website Beyond Hollywood wrote: "The Woods plays like a classic Lewton film of the 1940s, where the emphasis was on telling a good yarn without much ado and wrapping it up in a tightly wound 70 minutes."^[10] Film journalist Nick Schager noted that the film "proves to be one of the most polished and inventive horror flicks of the still-ongoing year, a synthesis of classical supernatural and sexualized imagery that expands upon, rather than simply regurgitates, its celebrated predecessors," and compared it to Suspiria (1977) and Carrie (1976).^[11] DVD Talk's Scott Weinberg praised the film's performances as "uniformly excellent" and also praised the cinematography and musical score.^[12]

• The Woods at IMDb
• The Woods at Rotten Tomatoes