Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Dark Woods (2003)

Twenty years ago Camp Vernon shut it's doors after a series of murders.  Now someone has decided to reopen the camp and the counselors are working to get everything set up before the kids arrive.

When several counselors stop in town, they receive a warning.  Then a crazy vet shows up in the camp bathroom wielding a huge knife and screaming that they "won't last the night."  You'd think they'd call the cops, but Pam, the cook, knows old crazy is just a mixed up war vet from town.

But what Pam and the staff don't know is there's a killer wearing  fatigues and a hockey mask running around the woods.  The back story makes it obvious who the killer is, but the confusing part is that he appears to be twenty years younger than Pam which wouldn't work since he was in Vietnam.

Also annoying is that there is so much ambient noise and background noise that it often drowns out the dialogue. I guess in one way that's not such a big loss, but it's still annoying.

There are issues with plot conveniences, such as the boyfriend who can't get hold of his girlfriend by phone so he goes to look for her.  He spies a random SUV by the side of the road, pulls over to check it out - why?  She had accepted a ride in it, but did he pull over and check every car he saw parked on the way to the camp?  Why that one? Oh yes, convenient to the plot.

Yet another film that asks the question, why do killers target the innocent who had nothing to do with their own traumatic experiences?


No comments: