It's not exactly that "The Watcher In The Woods" let me down. I mean, I knew beforehand that it's a Walt Disney horror film, so it's safe to say that it's not aimed at die-hard horror fans. In other words, nobody dies or even gets hurt in this flick, and above all things, it's got an extremely irritating happy end that's quite the head-scratcher too. At least they didn't glue on a sappy happy epilogue where everybody is happy, smiling and sitting in the garden drinking orange-juice or something. Other than that, it's well made and adequately directed by John Hough. It's a bit hard to imagine that this is the same Hough who made "American Gothic" (1987) and "Incubus" (1981), the latter being a favorite of mine. These films are much darker and disturbing. I must say, however, that "The Watcher In The Woods" movie is pretty good in what it wants to be: a horror-flick for kids. A (girl) friend of mine even recommended it to me because it scared her stiff as a child. And I can understand this. Some scenes are downright scary, the woods look creepy and Bette Davis could scare the bee-jeebies out of every little kid just by looking at it. The plot, mildly intriguing but very unoriginal, is extremely predictable and you'll always be one step ahead of this movie. This movie might very well be a total yawn-fest for nowadays late teenagers and early twenty-somethings. But it might still be very much fun (nostalgia-wise) for young parents who saw it as a kid (and can now watch it with their own kids). It's really meant to scare children and succeeds in such a way. For that, I can only appreciate it. I think "The Watcher In The Woods" would make a very good double bill with "Lady In White" (1988). Watch them in this order, as the latter is also the better film. That one's not really aimed at kids, so it gets a bit more serious and creepier. Enjoy!
Review of The Watcher in the Woods
