In my tenure as a reviewer for DVDTalk, I've praised distributor Lionsgate several times for finding interesting low budget horror films and giving them respectful DVD releases. I hope the company continues to do so for a long time.

Unfortunately, The Evil Woods is not an example of one of these films. This slasher film rehash commits two cardinal sins for cheap horror movies: it's derivative without a sense of humor, and it's boring.

In The Evil Woods, a group of teenagers decide to go on a little weekend getaway to the middle of absolute nowhere to do some camping, swear up a storm, down some beer, and smoke pot. Well, the blurb Lionsgate provides for this movie calls the characters "a group of teenagers," although they all look to be twenty-something college types (at best), but why quibble with a film like this?

While BS-ing around a campfire, a stranger who looks like Sean Penn shows up and tells them the story of a deranged ranger named Walter whose spirit still lurks in the evil woods. Apparently, this ranger gets really mad when young punks litter. The Sean Penn-looking guy leaves them, but after another day, someone starts killing off the characters one by one with an axe.

Who's killing these foul-mouthed kids? Is it the Sean Penn lookalike? Is it the bearded guy in overalls spying on the kids from a distance? Is it the spirit of Walter, the crazed ranger?

Trust me, after 10 minutes of this dud, the only question you'll be asking is "When will the end credits roll?"

The Evil Woods has just about every slasher film cliché in the book, and yet it still seems uninteresting. I don't necessarily fault the filmmakers per se. There are some nicely composed establishing shots, and the actors seem to be up to the task. But the script is just so boring with endless profanity for dialogue (we get it, these kids are foul-mouthed). And for the horror hounds, the kills are largely off screen with a lot of fake looking blood that sometimes looks like it might be blueberry syrup.

As much as I like a not-so-good slasher movie from time to time, this one just doesn't seem to work, not even on a Mystery Science Theater 3000-level. Just skip it.

The DVD

Video and Sound:

Even the video and sound quality of this release are disappointing.

To begin with, on the back of the DVD cover art, Lionsgate describes the video as "Letterbox 1.85:1 DVD Screen Format," which is code for nonanamorphic. The image lacks detail, and artifacts can be seen throughout the movie. This is not a nice presentation given other Lionsgate releases.

(And why are the company's logo and the main menu in anamorphic widescreen and not the movie itself?)

The audio doesn't fare much better. The sole audio track is Dolby Digital 2.0. It's very muted - I had the audio turned about twice as high as normal to clearly hear the dialogue and music. Strangely, the extra features listed below sounded fine at regular volume levels.

English and Spanish subtitles are available.

Extras:

As is typical for Lionsgate releases, trailers precede the menu. On this DVD, those trailers are for The Chair, The Entrance, Knock Knock, and TKO. There's also a commercial for FEARnet. These trailers are available collectively through an Also From Lionsgate option under the Special Features link in the main menu. In addition, a separate link provides access to a trailer for The Evil Woods.

Aside from trailers, a Making of The Evil Woods featurette provides a lot of behind the scenes footage and interviews. Finally, an Outtakes featurette provides pretty much what you'd think it would.

Final Thoughts:

Steer clear of The Evil Woods and skip it.

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