Screenwriter: Erik Bloomquist, Carson Bloomquist / Director: Erik Bloomquist / Starring: Cara Buono, Clare Foley, William Sadler, Spencer List / 101 Minutes
Review by Rob Deb. read more of Rob’s reviews here.
The Pitch: In 1987, a group of counsellors accidentally unleash a decades-old evil on the last night of summer camp.
I was 11 in 1987, and the genre world was AMAZING! As a comic book reading, Warhammer-rolling, “mum says I can watch it”, lying kid in the corner shop for Trancers or Halloween 3: Season of the witch. We lived in South London. The world was reaching a point where these interests were commercial, yet not mainstream and what was the only thing I hated when it was otherwise a world tailored to me? The Likes of Ferris Bueller. Bloomquist manages to take the settings of the past and create a sense of watching a film from that time, an undiscovered gem which manages to weave familiarity with contemporary techniques but without the wry eye roll or ‘irony’, played as some get-out of its reality. Yes, we have a Ferris Bueller-Esque entitled lead ably played by Spencer List as Peter McCallister. We have many archetypes and all the actors commit to creating a real sense of fear for ‘your’ favourite. But the film manages to incorporate modern concerns and reminds us that whilst terminology like ‘Incel Culture’ and ‘Intergenerational Trauma’ may be new, These concerns were as relevant then as now and were just never really displayed as such in our entertainment.
As the bodies pile up people attempt to save themselves and their friends like a team
The commitment to a mythos, when one could have been so hackneyed, really grips the story and makes total sense. The blood witch Agatha (my term, not Bloomquist's), her origin and paradigm, work superbly, creating a cohesive universe of supernatural threats. As the bodies pile up people understand its nature and attempt to save themselves and their friends as a team. There are twists and superb moments where, yes, you will see scenes you have seen in other movies, but that all serve the story and push the plot, without cliched asides, ensuring you're gripped for the outcome. More Sincere than ‘Scary Movie’, She came From The Woods revives the frights of ‘87 with the sensibilities of the ‘roaring ‘2020’s’. Sigh…I was young once. Like the kids in America. Get down to your local streaming service. Plug this into the back of your most low-res, CRT telly and live like the 80’s never ended.