Chatter Box Film

The Woods (2006) movie – directed by Lucky McKee; follows Heather (Agnes Bruckner), a pretty girl who is kind but also a bit rebellious who gets sent to a new girls’ school.

Here in this school she makes friends with one of her classmates while dealing with bullies at the same time she knows something is off about the school.

The students are not allowed to go into the woods next to the school. Heather keeps having these dreams that feel all too real and soon she discovers that maybe the teachers are more dangerous than she first thought, especially as her classmates are going missing and the teachers want to use Heather and her power.

The Woods is a good film that pulls you into the story and the school right from the start. You’re put into Heather’s point of view immediately and I liked how you don’t really know much about her backstory at first. Instead, you’re just experiencing things as she does, and that makes it feel like you’re figuring everything out right alongside her.

The way the film makes you piece together what’s happening through her eyes kept me interested and wanting to know more. I also thought the setting of the school was effective. The School felt big, almost too big at times, which added to the sense of eeriness and mystery. It made the story feel more tense and unpredictable.

What worked best for me was how the film didn’t give away all of its secrets right away. Instead, it slowly built up the mystery, dropping hints and strange moments that made you question what was real and what wasn’t.

Heather comes across as a kind character, even though she’s rebellious at times, she always tries to stand up for what’s right. This makes her easy to warm to as a main character. She especially shows this side of herself when she defends her friend from being bullied.

I loved watching the fight scene between Heather and Samantha which made for a very exciting and unexpected moment. Unfortunately, standing up like that also makes her a target, which only adds to her struggles. Still, it gives us a tense and entertaining fight scene between her and the bully that was fun to watch and showed more of Heather’s strength.

I also loved how it was a happy ending but I wish we got a scene after as it felt like a slightly abrupt ending.

Some of the outfits are not as good, although I liked the designs of the school uniform and shoes in this film.

The Woods has some good cinematography and lighting and what I was especially impressed by is with the dark scenes; they did a good job of still lighting characters’ faces, so many films even nowadays have very bad lighting for dark scenes, where you cannot make out characters faces. I was impressed that you could see and is one of the highlights to the cinematography.

The cast is all fantastic in this film. You warm to Heather right from the very beginning, and Agnes Bruckner does a great job of making her likeable even though you don’t know a lots about her at first. She’s very natural on screen and shows she’s a talented actress with a lot of range. At times, you quietly feel for Heather, and Agnes conveys that emotion in a subtle but very effective way. At the same time, she also has a fierce, rebellious side that comes through naturally, showing the full range of her character and making her even more compelling but in a way that makes you still root for her rather than turn against her.

Bruce Campbell brings his usual charm and is really good with the comedy here, giving the film a lighter edge when it’s needed.

Rachel Nichols is also great as Samantha—she plays the cruel, mean side of the character so convincingly, but later in the film we get to see a softer, more vulnerable side to her, which makes her performance more layered and interesting.

Lauren Birkell brings out a sweet softer, side as Heather’s friend Marcy and adds a nice innocence to her performance which contributes to the group dynamic. I also felt that Marcy started to become slightly more confident after she became friends with Heather. Altogether, the cast works really well with eachother and helps make the story more engaging.

I did have a few issues with the film that made me enjoy it less and some of them were a bit frustrating because they felt like they could have been fixed easily without costing anything extra. At times, I really wished the film had used more wide shots, since that would have added more atmosphere and given us a better sense of the school and the woods, outfits and more. As I felt the movie had too many close-ups. Another thing I wanted more of was Heather’s time at school—especially her friendships and the bullying she dealt with. I felt really drawn to that side of the story, but it seemed cut short.

It would have been nice to have more scenes exploring Heather’s character, why the bully acted the way she did, and how those relationships shaped Heather. Having more interactions with the teens or for scenes to have been extended, which would have just added more to the story, and I know lots of lines had been cut from the film that would have added more to the plot and built more relationships due to extras which I will talk about later on.

Something else that bothered me a little was how many scenes ended by fading to black but I understand its a good way to save money. The final fight scene also had its problems. The muddy yellow-brown colouring, which I think was meant to reflect the trees and woods, actually made it harder to see the action. It was difficult to follow the fight clearly, which took away from the intensity, but I understand that it was a stylistic choice 

SPOILERS
I also would have liked a clearer explanation about the witches. It was a bit confusing why they were trapped in the woods and why they were trying to free certain people. The idea that their souls were stuck there wasn’t explained in much detail, and I found myself wanting more backstory to make sense of it all. That said, if you don’t overthink it and just accept that the witches want to free someone without worrying too much about the deeper logic, you can still enjoy the film for what it is. I read others found it slightly complicated aswell.

Extras bonus special features review 

The Woods features some good extras and one of the best special features I’ve ever seen on any film before, this makes it worth the purchase alone and compensates for the other extras.  I do wish we got a few more or slightly longer special features as we do not get many.

There’s an interview with Lucky McKee and storyboard artist Vanessa McKee, this was interesting and it was nice to hear they got married since the movie. 

There is also an interview with the lead actress Agnes Bruckner and it was interesting to learn about her but I wish it was a little longer.

The highlight of the extras is 10 Days on Set. This feature was incredible to watch, and I wish more films would do something like this. It’s a collection of never-before-seen behind-the-scenes footage from Lucky McKee’s personal archive. What makes it so special is that it isn’t just random clips—it’s raw b-roll with full audio, giving us an immersive, in-depth look at the filmmaking process. Watching it felt like being right there on set as part of the crew. 

We get to see everything: special effects work, fire, stunts, fight scene rehearsals, choreography, and even the cast casually interacting with Lucky and others who are filming the camera in sometimes funny and silly ways. It wasn’t originally meant to be a special feature, but because of that, it feels authentic and unfiltered, like a real window into how the movie came together. I loved every minute of it and wished there had been even more.

That said, I was left a little disappointed too—mainly because this footage revealed extended moments and scenes that never made it into the final cut. For instance, there’s a scene where the kids are scared and go outside of the woods together, wondering who will be brave enough to enter.

The behind-the-scenes version shows so much more interaction between them. Even in just a few extra seconds, it added depth to their characters that I wish had been in the actual film. Another example is a heartfelt moment at the end where Heather hugs her best friend—it appeared in the b-roll footage, but was cut from the final edit.

Overall, ’10 Days on Set’ special feature was an amazing experience, it gave us an incredibly rich and detailed look at the making, You got to see what the process of filming was like. I would have liked to have seen more footage of the cast throughout but it was nice seeing how great friends the cast were, especially seeing Rachel Nichols be kind as she plays a very mean character.

The extras gave us a glimpse of what the finished film could have been with just a little more of that character-driven material. It makes me wonder why it was all cut and not included in the deleted/ extended scenes. The Woods Bluray is worth the purchase for anyone interested in this type of story or filmmaking and the acting, especially for these fantastic 5-star special features

Overall, The Woods is an enjoyable horror-mystery film that presents a fresh and unique story and great young cast. I just wish certain plot points had been clearer and some of the characters and relationships had been fully developed without scenes being cut or shortened. I highly recommend purchasing the new Blu-ray especially for the extras!