What could be more terrifying for a group of teenagers this day and age than having their cellphones and tablets taken away for the weekend? Well…probably nothing. But having a couple of monstrous, murderous villains chasing chasing them through the woods has to be a close second.
The plot is pretty straight forward, if not cliché. A group of teens take a trip into the woods without the benefit of cellphones, then basically take turns getting chopped to pieces by a couple of deranged, mutated brothers. Not surprisingly, there is the final girl–the heroine–who beats the odds.
Nobody Sleeps in the Woods could be construed as your standard slasher film. Indeed, the influence of movies like Friday the 13th and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and even Scream is obvious. However, a couple of things make this one stand out just a little bit: 1) It’s Polish. What difference does that make? Well, unless you’re specifically looking for Polish horror films, you’ve probably never seen one. It’s clearly a Polish take on an American genre–the characters even repeatedly quote American films–but it’s a passionate take on the genre that has largely lost its luster in its country of origin. 2) There is minimal usage of CGI. Only in a flashback scene where the two future villains are exposed to the contents of some sort of meteorite is the use of CGI noticeable. The rest of the film is good old fashioned gore, with lots of fake blood and rubber body parts. And it’s done damn good. Especially the makeup jobs done on the two villains. Damn, that’s great!
The film definitely has a few issues. Like what’s the point of the priest with the church seemingly in the middle of the woods? It’s almost like there was another plotline that got cut at the last minute. And what happened to the kid hiding in the confessional? He appears to be caught by one of the bad guys–and presumably killed–only to then show up at the end of the movie.
But the movie’s faults don’t detract from its overall entertainment value. It’s addition to the slasher genre. Check it out on Netflix!