This film is available with English subtitles and its French title is "Promenons Nous Dans les Bois”

The French finally hop on the slasher bandwagon and it's mostly good news for us genre fans. “Deep in the Woods” is a great mix and I lapped it up like a lesbian at a sushi bar. First off, the director goes nuts with the style and I’m a sucker for that kind of stuff (loved the “through the keyhole” shots). The first hour of this film flows effortlessly with brilliant camera work that ties everything together and the images have an early “Argento”-like vibe to them. The dead on locations also help and are perfect fodder for the director’s excessive visual tendencies. The isolated castle is very eerie and brings a strong claustrophobic feel to the film. The dark woods seem endless and gave me the willies. The director has a blast with both killing grounds. 

The flick also has one of the best set ups I’ve seen in a while. I had no idea where this film was going and that’s always thrilling in itself. The opening murder sequence reminded me of “Deep Red”, the autistic kid creeped me out big time and Francois Berleand’s (Axel) delicious performance really made it happen for me. What a show! One thing that sets this film apart from its American counterparts, is its very strong sexual energy. Everybody seems like they want to f**k everybody else. There’s lots of sexual tension going around, some homosexual undertones and a scene that could have easily gotten to the “gang bang” stage.

The film’s genre influences are obvious but well used. We get a little bit of “Psycho” (the peeping thang), a pinch of “Scream” (the killer on the phone) and a dash of “Blair Witch” / “Evil Dead” (the creepy woods…the director even reproduces the famous demon POV shot from Evil Dead in his own way). Then you have the “Red Riding Hood” theme that’s constant throughout the flick. If it’s not the nursery rhymes then it’s the killer wearing the wolf costume. Once the identity of the killer is revealed the big bad wolf analogy makes lots of sense and had me grinning with delight.

The film does fail on a couple of aspects though. First off, all of the teen characters are shamefully underdeveloped. In a way that increases the suspicion level because any of these people could be the killer, but on the other hand, it doesn’t really give us anybody to root for. They all come across as very self-centered. They discard the death of a friend in the blink of an eye and cheat on their respective mates as if it was a sport. Nobody really cares about anybody here and that made it hard for me to care too.

I also didn’t dig the inclusion of the cop character. He’s in the movie for about two scenes and is only there to be a suspect or a plot device. It’s too obvious. My last pet peeve is the ending. Much like “Anatomie”, this flick feels the need to copy the US formula in its last 30 minutes instead of continuing down its somewhat original path. The even flow of the first hour is broken, the action gets kind of choppy and the directing choices become questionable. The unveiling of the killer is ok but his damn monologue to explain his over-complicated motive did baffle my pointy dumb arse. Arrow needs to brush up on his French…

Distributor: Artisan Entertainment

IMAGE: We get the option of viewing the film in Full Frame Standard 1.33-1 ratio or Widescreen anamorphic 2.35-1ratio. Since the flick is very visual, I suggest you hit the Widescreen so can you see it the way that it was intended to be seen. The image here is crisp, the colors vibrant and the grain non-existent. Good stuff!

SOUND: We get a English or French 5.0 Dolby Digital. You should watch the film in French if you understand the language, the English translation fails to reproduce the rich flavor of the French dialogue. The sound is clear and so is the dialogue. We also get a French/English subtitles option.

EXTRAS: I wasn't blown away by the extras...

Commentary: For some reason cult director Brian Yuzna ("Faust", "Return Of The Living Dead 3") gives the commentary here. I assume that's because French director Lionel Delplanque doesn't speak English. Yuzna goes by notes that Delplanque wrote down and also gives us his two cents on specific shots or his opinion of the film. Overall, it's ok but I don't get why it wasn't Delplanque talking. They could've subtitled his commentary. Kind of an odd choice to have another director do the commentary for the film.

Filmmakers filmography: We get some info on director Lionel Delplanque, Annabelle Perichon (writer) and the 2 producers of the film. It's standard and somewhat interesting. 

Cast Biographies: We get info on all of the film's unknown stars.

Theatrical Trailer: We get the English theatrical trailer. The trailer is slick but gives way too much away. Don't watch the trailer before watching the film.

Original French Trailer: The French trailer is very similar to the English one but it has nudity (those horny French people, gotta love them). This trailer also gives too much away about the flick. How about not ruining who lives and who dies in a trailer next time??

Photo Gallery: Here we get a couple of stills from the film and on-set pictures (with the director present). This extra is ok but I would've liked more pictures (we get like 5).

This flick won the Grand Prize Of European Fantasy Film (silver) at the “Catalonian International Film Festival”.