Instant Favorite.

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

I usually LOVE "a young couple in the woods" movies...but this just misses the mark over and over! A man and his dying wife go to a cabin where she can live out the rest of her life. The wife one night is assaulted by a stranger, and the local Sheriff doesn't much believe him, nothing comes of it. (At this point maybe it's time to go home...) now the next day the man goes for a run, sees the same man raping a young girl, scares he man off and takes the girl home (maybe now go home..?) at this point the man calls a doctor up who upon inspecting the girl says only, "she'll be fine"...WOW! Yeah, she was just raped but she will sleep it off!!! Also he lets the sheriff know and the sheriff has the young girl stay with him and his wife! (Is this even legal?) now I won't spoil the rest but you can guess where this might all lead, young pretty girl, dying wife, and a very horny husband...yep. The couple adopts her and they go to Wally World! I wish, that'd have been a good movie.

I had expected more from this movie, a whole lot more actually. But hey, maybe it wasn't just my type of movie.The story deals with a couple that goes into solitude as Susan (the woman) is dying, and they want to be together. Then while jogging, Henry (the man) stumbles upon a young girl in distress. He rescues Alicia and brings her into their cabin. Then from there, the story becomes one of human emotions, desires, struggles and inner turmoil. Enough said about the storyline without giving too much away.Even though the storyline had potential, I wasn't entertained by it. The movie crept forward in a very, very slow pace, and I found it to be mind-numbing. Had the story moved forward faster, with more things happening, the movie would have been all the more better. For me, the movie took way to long to get from A to B, and that killed the movie for me.The people in the movie were unfamiliar faces, to me at least. And I found the movie was carried by Tracy Coogan (playing Susan Branch) and Mary Kate Wiles (playing Alicia Larch). I didn't find John Muscarnero (playing Henry Branch) to really fully be in character. There was a single familiar face in the movie, though having only a supporting role, and that being James Russo (playing sheriff Demming). There are relatively few people in the movie, and it works well enough actually.One thing that stands out in the movie was that they managed to put together a decent enough movie with a fairly small budget. And that was cool. Always nice when smaller companies put together something out of the ordinary, just a shame that the movie was slow to get anywhere. And also the scenery and sets were nice, I especially liked the feeling of isolation in the forest.Overall, I found "Dark Woods" to be a below average movie. It is listed as a thriller, but there were hardly any thrills in the entire movie. And I think that actually was what lead me to pick up this movie, so I was expecting thrills and excitement. Having seen "Dark Woods", I can now honestly say that this movie, for me, doesn't have enough watching value for a second time.

Long-suffering and frustrated man moves to the country some place with his needy, erratic wife who has cancer as an alternative to her spending the remainder of her time in a hospital after chemotherapy. Late one evening, not long into their stay, Susan (the wife) who was resting on a sofa calls Henry (the husband) and tells him she saw someone in the window. He's doubtful but goes out to investigate with a fireplace poker. He sees no one and goes to the window to look in and let Susan know everything is okay. But as he's signaling to her with his hand pressed against the window he sees the shadow of a man enter the room. He runs around to the door where he finds the man is holding his wife and touching her. He stands there a moment and watches (Unbelievable!). Then while still standing rooted to the spot with his fireplace poker, he eventually manages to say "Get away from her!" This molester paid no attention to Henry when he came thru the door and he pays no attention to him now. He continues to grope and feel a few more seconds while Henry stands there watching (Unbelievable!). Then suddenly, the man let's go of his wife and runs off.Henry reports the incident to the local sheriff who seems unsympathetic and not too believing. But seems to know who the man might be by Henry's description. He says he'll go over to his place and have a word with him. A day or two later, Susan wakes up in good spirits. She seems to be in a romantic mood and Henry is happy to get down to business after being denied for so long. However, Susan insists she wants to shower first. So while she's in the shower, Henry leaves her alone to go jogging (Unbelievable!); something no normal man would do so soon after what happened. Anyway, as fate would have it, while on his jog, he encounters the same guy trying to rape a young girl. For some reason, Henry doesn't hesitate this time and chases the guy off. He takes the girl home, and reports the incident to the sheriff. The sheriff convinces Henry to let the girl stay with him and his wife until he gets some things sorted.The girl it turns out is not as innocent as she seemed. She's intrusive, spoiled, and somewhat possessive of Henry. Moreover, may also have a few screws that are not in tight. After about 25 minutes in, the rest of the movie is about how the relationship of Henry, his wife Susan, and the girl plays out. This movie is over 90 mins long. For the most part, it is uneventful and therefore slow. The story has merit --but it would have been more interesting and effective if it was a short feature about 40 mins long. As it is, most of the movie is padded by uninteresting talk to stretch it out over 90 mins. I found I was constantly bored waiting for something eventful to happen. The end shows Henry to be a sad, pathetic man. But I knew that when the movie started. Love, Boloxxxi.

When I first popped this is my DVD player I have to say I wasn't expecting all that much, but I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed this story. Of course like any movie it has it's flaws but there was a point about a third of the way through when it got really good. The acting is also well done for an "indie" (especially the young girl and James Russo). And the cinematography is especially outstanding. Of course, the locations seem limited because it's an indie flick, but I found that to not take away from the story too much, especially since it's shot so beautifully and a lot of it out in nature in the beautiful woods. I give this movie a solid 7 out of 10.