Hidden in the Woods tells the story of two sisters who have been raised in isolation, subjected to the torment of their abusive, drug dealing father. When they finally decide to report him to the police, he kills the two officers and is put in jail. But things go from bad to worse when the girls must answer to their Uncle Costello, a psychotic drug kingpin, who shows up looking for his missing merchandise which is hidden in the woods. From: IMDb.com
Directed by: Patricio Valladares
Starring: Michael Biehn, William Forsythe, Chris Browning and others
Yay! A low budget zombie flick! OK, scrap that yay part...
A zombie movie always sounds like some great fun, no matter how low its budget is. This movie however is anything but fun to watch! The problem? It hardly has any action or other zombie related stuff in it, which is of course an odd thing to note for a movie that advertises itself as a typical zombie and horror flick.
I really have no idea what they were thinking. How is it possible for a zombie flick to be such a totally boring one! Most of the movie consists out of a whole bunch of uninteresting people talking to each other. You can't even call this a survival flick really, since there never is a true sense of danger in this movie. As a matter of fact, it takes ages for them to finally figure out that all of the strange occurrences around them relate to a sudden zombie outbreak, even though all of the early signs were pretty obvious ones, if you would ask me.
And even once the movie turns into a more typical horror zombie flick, it's far from a great one. The one thing that's especially bad and annoying about this movie is that once it's action starts to kick in and the movie makes it seem that things are finally going to get crazy and interesting, the movie ends. I'm not exaggerating when I say that the movie doesn't become anything good or interesting to watch, until its final 10 minutes, which is basically one big tease for something that never comes. Who knows, perhaps they are aiming for a sequel but I doubt that it ever gets made.
It's probably true the film-makers were aiming for something different and more serious. A type of movie that focuses on the origins of an outbreak, rather than on the actual outbreak and mayhem. That's all fine but the problem is that the movie never becomes an interesting or original enough one to follow, with any of its themes, plot lines or characters. It basically has absolutely no idea how to handle its concept and therefore goes for the most formulaic and less daring or original approach imaginable.
So no, don't watch this movie when you expect to at least get some gory zombie, horror, fun out of it. Sure, it has Michael Madsen in it and he's always fun to watch but his presence still isn't capable of lifting this movie to greater heights.
(Review originally written at 12 September 2008) This movie works out better than Rob Zombie's previous movie "House of 1000 Corpses", of which this movie is a sequel. Seems like Rob Zombie has found this time a better balance between its style and story. The movie flows better and its storytelling works out more effective. Perhaps it also helps that the movie this time doesn't focus on a couple of teenagers. Central this time are simply the bad guys, who were already the most entertaining characters of the first movie. The movie also tries to play less homage to the horror genre and its more a movie on its own but still not without its fun and entertaining approach. The movie is also less about the 'supernatural'. "House of 1000 Corpses" had some monster like creatures in it but this movie picks a more 'realistic' approach, which always works out better for its suspense and predictability. It's also obviously the reason why the Dr. Satan scenes were cut from this movie. Basically this movie remains mostly unpredictable, since it features such unpredictable characters in it. It's more down to Earth, which also makes it easier to watch and more accessible for the mainstream public. "House of 1000 Corpses" was more of a cult-movie, while this movie also clearly had other intentions. You don't have to be worried about it though that this movie doesn't feature Rob Zombie's trademark style, there is plenty of that left. The movie feels less messy and more consistent this time and even though its not as stylish as "House of 1000 Corpses" it still is a better movie to watch. And hey, it has Danny Trejo in it! 8/10 Watch trailer
