The Woods

I'm not a professional. I didn't go to movie school. I didn't get a degree in script writing. But I can tell this movie is absolutely terrible, and it amazes me that it managed to get made in the first place. How... HOW? If you gave me this script to read I would tell you 100 things wrong with it ... and that's from me, someone with absolutely zero experience in movie making, so how do these so called professionals manage to mess it up so badly. How can they not see how bad it is on paper, how bad the story is, how bad the obvious plot holes are? How how HOW? What a waste of time, money snd effott.

I can not understand why this was created, the story line is simply pointless if it even exists, a set of events which while connected it never really explains why it started. Some of the actors are appalling, I assume they have never acted before. The script is like the writer ignored script writing 101 and just wrote some events, it is entirely possible there was no script and the director just winged it. They bolted on some sort of sucide plot I assume to flesh at the run time but it adds to value and is meaningless to any actions. A movie should be about something, or add something this offers nothing, the majority of the characters add no value, the plot could be described in a sentence ... a short sentence. You have an amazing lead in this with zero anything else, it is almost criminal considering what he can do with a decent part.

I think the low reviews are based largely on the expectation levels not being met from having JK Simmons as the lead and the film not being that great. There are things badly wrong with it, but I've seen far worse that this. The premise of a psychopath/sociopath losing it and going on a killing spree, when a troubled teenaged gets away from him, so he pursues her into the forest, is fair enough, but the movie lacks thrills. There was a lack of close calls and incidental music to play-up the thriller aspect. It lacks tension therefore, but more from the view that there could have been more of it than there was. Simmons' character is explained late in the movie, when the mother of the teen identifies him online, but it still feels that it was done at an odd time and could have been the start to the movie, instead. Or his background could have been left unexplained (as with Spielberg's unseen driver in Duel). Of all the options, the one chosen doesn't feel right and seems forced or ill-considered. Simmons is the best thing in the movie, with the time he spends with some of his victims being particularly creepy, but also incongruous with the explanation behind his character, that comes after. You are left to wonder whether this was inserted later because they felt that his motivation needed clarity for the audience, but ended up stepping on what had been established already. There wasn't what I would call "horror". That's a poorly chosen description here. The step-sister is played by Olivia Simmons, who seems to have more scenes than her character should. The fact that she organises a search in the dark with her friends, knowing that a crazed gunman is on the loose, seems far fetched, even with a local police department that for some reason is missing its Sheriff and is being run by young deputies. This film could have been significantly better than it was and seems to have also suffered significantly due to nepotism. It wasn't good but not so bad that I didn't see it through to its satisfactory conclusion. It's a shame that the rest of the movie was a mess, as this could have been a far better watch than it was.

I encourage you to save yourself the time and energy to watch this aimless movie. This movie was made with little to no sense. Did the professor kill his wife and lover? Why? What was the connection of the professor to Miranda? How did Miranda Mother know who to search for on the internet? Why did he kill Miranda step- father? I mean this movie lacked continuity and flow? Why did the 2 cops appear to be 12 years old leading a criminal investigation of serial killer? What happen to the sheriff? We never saw search party of cops searching for Miranda? How did Miranda step sister go in the woods to find Miranda clues without any incident. These cops never appeared to be in charge or had the authority to ensure trust of the victims I had way too more questions after the movie than I had answered during the movie!

Not a great movie, JK Simmons is the best thing in the movie. You can tell that the script is fairly weak. It could've been a better story if it was more scary. That being said it's not really a thriller, but more of a comedy because the movie is so bad. Maybe it will restart cult status when it gets old enough. Sort of like children of the corn or microwave massacre or rocky horror picture show. I think it could've been more if you got better actors instead of like b-list actors. Someone going around and just randomly killing people is not really all that scary. It's just kinda like stupid.. this film was made because of his family and he wanted to work for his family (JK Simmons). If you can see it for free, then it's not really a waste of your money, but that being said it's kind of a waste of your time. There are so many other better movies out there.

A psychopath (J. K. Simmons) is shooting random strangers for apparently no particular reasons. Troubled teen Miranda (Isabelle Anaya) and her stepfather Eddie encounter him. Eddie is killed while Miranda escapes into the wilderness. I like me some J. K. Simmons and mass killer J. K. intrigues me. The newbie girl is fine. The counting thing is a little stupid. This is set up for a fine indie thriller. It's nothing big, two main characters and the woods. The first false note is leaving the prego mom alone at home. There is no actual reason why the sketch artist couldn't go to their house. Separating these characters really bugged me until it becomes obvious that they did it for a story reason. It makes the last act ring false. Any shock at the twist is lost by the bad construction.

Suffering from acute anxiety, young Miranda faces a new terror when a serial killer chooses her as his next target. As he chases her through the woods, she soon finds the strength she never knew she had to elude her murderous tracker...... If there was ever a film about nepotism, this is the one film that would stand out from the crowd. It's a Simmons joint, and all of the family are involved, in what otherwise is, a stalk and shoot thriller. It doesn't break any moulds, Miranda is in a car with her step father, they bump into JK Simmons, who for some reason is on a murder spree, kills her step father, and she barely escapes, but Simmons is in hot pursuit. We find out that he is a lecturer, and he snaps when one of his students berates him, and does what any nutter would do, and take it out on innocent people for no good reason. There isn't really an explanation as to why he is hell bent on catching Miranda, but it's a fun journey whilst it lasts. It's pure hokum from beginning to end, and the final act is pretty mediocre, but for a secret film, it has some good production values.