Wake Wood is a Small Town with Filled with Questionable Magic
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Wake Wood, like so many films before it featuring secretive country folk begs the question: What is it with rural Irish villages and Witchcraft?
Written by The Horror Czar, Don Sumner
August 2, 2011
Movie Trailer
Image Gallery
Release:: July 5, 2011 (U.S. DVD)
Directed by: David Keating
Written by: David Keating and Brendan McCarthy
Starring:
Aidan Gillen as Patrick Eva Birthistle as Louise
Timothy Spall as Arthur
Ella Connolly as Alice
Ruth McCabe as Peggy O'Shea
Briain Gleeson as Martin O'Shea
Patrick (Aiden Gillen) and Louise Eva Birthistle) are animal lovers. So much so, in fact, that Patrick makes his living as a veterinarian and the couple has a tendency to rescue injured stray dogs and nurse them back to health, never accounting for the day that one of them turns on their beloved daughter Alice (Ella Connolly) and viciously kills her.
After months of struggling through their lives wracked with guilt and existing without their precious Alice, they decide to move to the country to start a new life. A small town called ‘Wake Wood’ needs a vet for the thriving cattle business and there just happens to be an available pharmacy where Louise can set up shop. But the pain of losing Alice just doesn’t go away. Just as Louise is ready to run off by herself and grieve in her own depressed-mom kind of way, they happen upon something strange. The townsfolk apparently gather at night to perform eerie rituals that just might explain why there are often disoriented and pale visitors in town from time to time. If Patrick and Louse had the chance to see young Alice one more time, however briefly, is it worth it – whatever the consequences?
Wake Wood is a dark and eerie horror thriller that boasts Hammer Film Productions as one of the production companies. Hammer has gotten involved in several films after a hiatus after 1979’s The Lady Vanishes, including the very popular Let Me In, and Wake Wood continues an attempt by the studio responsible for such titles as The Horror of Frankenstein and Dracula Has Risen from the Grave to make a resurgence in the horror genre. Gone, it seems, are the days of boundary-pushing (for the time) violence and style in favor of atmosphere and a feeling of foreboding, and on that front Wake Wood shines.
The biggest strength of Wake Wood, aside from the (albeit
‘tried and true’) story, is in the performances, and each of them are
excellent, if not a bit quirky. This story takes place in a small town
filled with
lifetime resident shut-ins, so
perhaps the quirkiness is
exactly what’s necessary to create the appropriate ambiance. Many of
the characters do stupid things unfortunately, but where would any
horror movie be without some version of a panty-clad co-ed venturing
into the woods to investigate a sound reminiscent of a child crying,
after all. Most tragic and (gleefully) bloody outcomes find their
origination in one stupid decision in horror movies, and seeing that
decision being made and acted upon while knowing all the time where it
will lead is part of the fun.
Wake Wood stumbles a bit, not in the story but in the slow pace in which it is played out. Nothing is rushed in this film, as I’m sure nothing is rushed in the town depicted, but if the moment comes when you’re looking at the DVD counter to see how much of the film remains there’s a problem with pacing. There is a long stretch in the middle of this film when nothing really transpires other than a viewing of a very sad woman lying on the floor among her dead daughters possessions. There’s only so much of that a horror freak can take.
Overall Wake Wood plays more like a slowly building thriller than a horror movie. There are some good shockers and quite disturbing visuals, but they are few and far between. Speaking as one who longs for character development in a horror landscape woefully lacking in such, I will say that there were times I was longing for something to just blow up already. This is a good film that is trying hard to be a great film, but when watching it is important to leave any hint of a short attention span at the door.
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