Coventry Based on the title, DVD-cover image, casting choices and short synopsis, "Deep in the Woods" looks like a dumb and formulaic backwoods slasher/survival horror flick. And for about 50% that is exactly the case, but for the remaining 50% it's a surprisingly stylish, experimental and unsettling Goth-horror tryout. Writer/director Lionel Delplanque does a handful of brilliant things with the cinematography and thought up a few downright and genuinely disturbing aspects (the creepy little kid!), but unfortunately he also wanted to be too "American" when it comes to the rest of the screenplay. The teenage protagonists are utmost annoying stereotypes and they do the stupidest things imaginable, like going into the woods at night after they received specific warning there's a maniac killer on the loose. The deaths/killings are rather mundane and people keep appearing and disappearing without any proper explanation, but that about concludes the bad news. "Deep in the Woods" features a strong opening sequence and the interesting idea to process the Little Red Riding Hood fairy-tale into the script. Five obnoxious wannabe actors are heading out to a mansion the middle of a desolated forest, where they are hired to perform a private theater show to the grandson of an eccentric old man. Upon their arrival, they find out the old man is a crazed wheelchair-bound psycho with oppressed homo-erotic desires, his loyal servant is a perverted taxidermist and the grandson is a silent and autistic but terrifying child with a major trauma. Soon after their (abysmal) live performance on stage, the group find themselves pursued by a lunatic killer in a leather (!) wolf costume. Delplanque manages to insert several suspense-laden moments during the cat & mouse game and the climax, although preposterous and over-the-top, is quite exhilarating. It's very strange that Lionel Delplanque wasn't offered a one-way ticket to Hollywood after this (like his colleagues Alexandre Aja, Xavier Gens and Pascal Laugier), because his competent directing is undoubtedly film's biggest trump. I guess the script was ultimately too weak for him to become noticed.

Dries Vermeulen An affectionate tribute to Continental horror movies from the '60s and '70s and a surprise box office blast in its native France, this was misleadingly hyped as a Euro answer to Wes Craven's SCREAM in a concession to the multiplex generation's limited frame of reference. It does boast an at least equally attractive young cast, headed by radiant - now married into royalty - Clotilde Corau, Danny Aiello's teen mistress in Paul Mazursky's undeservedly snubbed, quirky PICKLE, who does a wonderfully gratuitous full frontal nude scene my right hand will forever be grateful for ! Just like so many of the "gialli" it so closely seeks to emulate, the meager plot fails to hold up under close scrutiny. As a matter of fact, narrative sense is pretty much the first thing to go out of the window, so consider yourself forewarned. The story, such as it is, concerns a troupe of amateur actors touring with a private performance of their spectacularly misguided expressionist rendition of Little Red Riding Hood, with two Reds and two hunters for some reason. They wind up at the palatial mansion of an eccentric, wheelchair-bound millionaire (terrifically portrayed by the subtly menacing François Berléand) and his autistic grandson in the middle of the woods. Set-up barely completed, the expected yet exuberantly imaginative slaying commences. This is where the movie's main quality resides as nail gun, harpoon, scalding acid and some not so readily describable objects are put to spectacular use.Youthful director Lionel Delplanque was just 28 when he made this feature debut - since followed by the Albert Dupontel farce LE PRESIDENT - following a number of well received macabre shorts. He shows considerable flair for creepy atmosphere through mood lighting and effectively employed music, masking the fact that the material is really stretched rather thin to sustain the full 90 minutes. Fortunately, there are flamboyant recreations of classic scare scenes from Mario Bava's BAY OF BLOOD, Dario Argento's DEEP RED and even Jean Brismée's unabashedly gaudy DEVIL'S NIGHTMARE. The presence of such art-house alumni as Denis Lavant (the fetish actor of tragically highbrow Léos Carax) and Marie Trintignant (sadly killed daughter of respected actor Jean-Louis) may give this scrumptiously entertaining flick a sheen of Cahiers Du Cinéma respectability, but don't let that discourage you. This is one of the more warped treats to find its way into regular movie theaters.

TdSmth5 Stylish, confusing, full frontal nudity- it's got to be French. A group of teenage performers is hired to perform for a rich mysterious recluse and his son living in a castle in the middle of the woods. Things get stranger and stranger and eventually people start dying in rather violent and original ways. All of the house inhabitants are creepy characters. What is really unique about this movie and makes it worthwhile is how stylish it is. The movie looks great and there are some original shots and camera angles. While there are movies made entirely as an exercise in style, this one is not only stylish but has a story. This is not one of those gross out horror movies with people covered in dry blood and dirt. The nudity was also surprising and nice. While the story is unclear it's not one of those convoluted stories that forces you to give up looking for meaning, here you do want to find out what's going on. Highly recommended for those who are looking for a stylish and different kind of horror movie.

BillyBC (*1/2 out of *****) This goes to show that even the French put out some serious garbage in the world of film from time to time. This one, for example, is horrid. The interesting (albeit derivative) premise, the spooky setting, and the cinematography are all quite good, but, unfortunately, the whole thing falls apart real fast under its own incomprehensible pretensions.A group of attractive, young actors travel to an old mansion way out in the country to perform for an eccentric millionaire and his weird, mute son. The woods surrounding the mansion just happen to be the hunting ground for a serial rapist/killer who targets young girls. But, forget all about that, because, as soon as the good-looking group gets to the old guy's house, odd characters start popping up and bizarre things start happening -- you know, the usual David Lynch/Dario Argento kind of stuff -- except Delphlanque doesn't have an ounce of the artistic mastery or the subtlety to pull any of it off. Character motivations, most of the plotting, the dialogue (some of which, granted, could be the fault of American dubbing) -- is some of the worst I've ever encountered in a movie like this. In one scene, for example, everyone is sound asleep except for the main female star (Clotilde Courau), who is wandering through the mansion by herself. So, she enters one room and suddenly finds all of her friends dancing real slow and suggestively with each other, including her girlfriend. The scene ends and everyone acts regularly, as if nothing happened -- suddenly, they're all just wide awake and dancing to loud music! Okay, whatever, sure! And then, in the next scene -- after being warned by a (typically weird) police detective (who just happens to walk into the room) that a killer is on the loose -- they're all suddenly outside and walking around through the woods after midnight!The story tries to follow the trace of a murder mystery, but it takes way too many irritating turns into contrived Lynchian territory (in an early scene, the young boy stabs his own hand with a fork at the dinner table, and, after the father explains that he always does that, the guests are like, `Hm, well, how 'bout that -- so, when do you think we're gonna get paid?' and stuff like that.)There are some gory murders and a couple steamy sex scenes, but there are also loooong scenes of characters walking up and down stairs and through dark rooms. And, I swear to God, everyone pauses for about 30 seconds before responding to each other in this maddening mess -- I guess that helps stretch what could have been a 45-minute movie into an hour and a half. Do not be fooled by anyone who tries telling you that this movie is as good as (or, God forbid, better than) a typical Argento flick, because it is not. In spite of its professional camera work and some hints of creativity here and there in the direction, this turkey is no better than any early-'80s, American slasher flick.Lowlight: In a painfully forced attempt to misdirect our suspicions as to who the killer is, one of the actors tries to shoot Courau with a nail gun, but she somehow easily blocks it with a pipe or something, and, in the very next scene, the two of them are outside together, trying to start the car as if nothing happened. There are so many idiotic scenes like this that it just made me sick. I admit it -- I took the damn cassette out of the VCR! I didn't care how it ended! I couldn't take it anymore!