THE VILLAGE IN THE WOODS: A Cautionary Tale To Keep You Out Of The Woods

Not many people think of horror as the educational genre. In fact, I’m sure if you asked the right type of person, you might find that some people think of horror as the genre of evil. The amoral genre. When in fact, horror is the most moral genre of all. People are punished in horror for their transgressions: the kids who spill the blood on the titular character in Stephen King‘s Carrie are surely learning their lesson as their gym burns to the ground. Get Out gives Jordan Peele the opportunity to have a conversation about race in America, and would any of us ever consider breaking and entering after watching Don’t Breathe?

“The path” is a facet of horror that threads itself through all of these examples, and it stems all the way from the Hansel and Gretel fairytale. When we stray from the path, horror arrives. When we open the closet door, when we look under the bed, we surrender ourselves to the horror. We’ve strayed from the path and will face the consequences. We must face the consequences. Rain McCormack‘s The Village in the Woods plays with these consequences, and puts his characters through small-town hell along the way.

The Scoop

The Village in the Woods introduces us to Jason (Robert Vernon) and Nicky (Beth Park) a young couple on their way to a remote village in England that contains a pub that the couple have inherited. When they arrive, they are greeted by overly-friendly neighbors Maddy (Therese Bradley) and Charles (Richard Hope). Jason and Nicky are almost immediately put off by the neighbors, who almost too-enthusiastically welcome the couple to the small village. When Nicky starts hearing voices, has a run in with the cooky old neighbor, and begins to uncover the dark truth behind the village, she wants nothing more than to leave the place forever, but the neighbors have other plans for her.

What The Village in the Woods does with remarkable success is turn itself into a suffocation of setting. We begin the film in the thick fog of the town, surrounded by trees, which allows the film to positively ebb with fairytale vibes, like we’re on the way to grandma’s house. The house that Jason and Nicky enter is dim and dusty, and the film retains a dark and muted color scheme, almost lending itself to being black and white, like this is a town lost in time.

Keep It Simple

But the successful establishing of setting isn’t enough to keep this film from stumbling along the way. The Village in the Woods seems to be sure that it must tell its story as quickly as possible, allowing for very little time to get to know our main characters. If we don’t spend enough time with characters in films, the horror will not hit as hard when it finally befalls them. There’s a side-plot of Nicky and Jason only wanting to inherit the bar for the money, and this works wonders for the film. It allows us to realize that this couple has indeed strayed from the path. But the film also has Nicky pose as someone else when they enter the town, so that the residents think that she is a long lost child returned home. Where this plot line should add tension, it simply adds confusion. (You might even be confused reading this.)

Therese Bradley is wonderful as Maddy, one of the sinister neighbors that welcome Nicky and Jason. With her hair in the style of Elizabeth Taylor in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? it hints to the audience that she has something to hide, and that she has a personality that is unhinged and ready to burst. She’s a villainous standout in the film, and I would love to see her in more horror films to come. Hear that Hollywood? This is my Official Demand for more Therese Bradley. 

The Village in the Woods is a deviant slow burn with just enough horror to satisfy you this Halloween, even if it gets a bit muddled along the way. With the leaves changing and the air getting a bit chillier, this is a good film to keep on your radar when it gets released near you.

What are your favorite horror films to watch during Halloween? Do you think you’ll add The Village in the Woods to the mix? Let me know in the comments below!

Watch The Village in the Woods