Sean Parker
I think it’s safe to assume that anyone reading this article right now knows that I’m constantly scouring the edges of bargain bins, the corners of the internet, and the never-ending depths of streaming services to introduce readers to films outside of the mainstream that they’ve likely never been introduced to. Halloween is always a great watch, and I could watch it all thirty-one days of October, but I love hunting for hidden gems however I can find them. Variety, of course, being the spice of life and such. Recommended to me this week from an unexpected source, Beyond the Woods may not be ready to capture the same spirit as the Jamie Lee Curtis-led classic, but it is chock-full of imaginative ideas that keep the over-encumbered slasher genre a little more on the fresh side.
The 2016 film Beyond the Woods came my way through one of its ensemble stars, John Ryan Howard, who I became a fan of after his small but powerful role in Niall Owens’ Gateway, now on Shudder. His sharp humor and keen observations over various Instagram posts have had us musing on each other’s content over the past few years. Last year, Howard reteamed with Beyond the Woods writer-director Sean Breathnach for the short film Don’t Open the Box, which was my first foray into Breathnach’s filmography, and I generally loved the visual tone and atmosphere this team created in a very brief four minutes. Howard suggested I give Beyond the Woods a go, and I had a good feeling.
Beyond the Woods is a cabin-in-the-woods, supernatural slasher movie that approaches the subgenre with a bit of cosmic distillation. It begins as a slow burn, with a group of seven friends arriving at a cozy cottage in the mountains with no wi-fi and the news that an underground sulfuric fire has caused a massive sinkhole at an old mining site on the other side of the mountain and earning the nickname “The Gates of Hell.” The smell of rotten eggs permeates the fresh air, leaving the friends to settle inside the house. Meanwhile, something is clearly watching them from a distance.
Throughout the first half of the movie, Breathnach winds up the isolated characters. Emma (Claire J. Loy) and boyfriend Shane (Ross MacMahon) invite Ray (Mark Lawrence) to their bedroom, leaving Ray’s partner Lucy (Irene Kelleher) in the dark about their activities. When Ray goes missing the next morning, Marissa (Ruth Hayes) and her husband Jason (Seán McGillicuddy), who saw and heard the trio of moaning rhapsodies, feel compelled to get the others to confess. Meanwhile, Ger (Howard), who holds a torch for Lucy, seems to have difficulty incorporating himself into the same space as her while Ray’s around.
As a topic, hell is always fascinating. It means something different to each and every one of us, and Breathnach pursues the idea under the guise of a very uncomfortable weekend with friends. Hell is other people, after all. Ger’s hell is alive as the unwanted bearer of unreciprocated affections, while Lucy’s hell lies in Ray’s perceived abandonment. Each character suffers similar real-world consternation deriving from their deepest fears in a setting where they need to keep up appearances. Unable to leave due to the toxic fumes, which we hear about almost too much in order to remind us of the sense we can’t use while watching, the atmosphere in the house becomes torturous for the characters.
One of the more intriguing parts of the film sees Ger lost in the cottage’s surrounding wilderness while hiking the trail to the nearby ‘Holy Well,’ losing an absurd amount of time in a loop back to the same directional sign. The sentiment is not unlike that of Beetlejuice’s Maitland’s trying to leave their home, just without the Sandworms. The scene serves as a unique and differentiating concept in what would otherwise be standard slasher fare, yet the outcome isn’t as metaphysical as I think it could be. While it certainly induces a cosmic aura from the anxious meandering, discerning a crippling awareness of inconceivable despair to appear Backrooms-esque, Beyond the Woods doesn’t spend enough time with it to develop the madness that resonates from Ger’s experience.
While The Hole in the Ground didn’t get made until 2019, it’s possible the Lee Cronin and Steven Shields film found some inspiration from the complexity of the woodsy pit trope Breathnach created here. Though the group never travels to the chasm, Beyond the Woods focuses the story on what has crawled out and how it affects his vacationers’ realities, which isn’t unlike Cronin’s affectingly dramatic mother-son horror flick, which sees a woman go to hell and back for her boy. While that idea will undoubtedly be a stretch for some, the ideas in Breathnach’s film are compelling enough to warrant imitation, even if the result of Beyond the Woods is limited by its budget.
Hellspawn crossing the threshold into our realm is very compelling, and the way the slasher pieces are eluded to provocatively. While the camera initially makes the creature seem almost perverted in how he gazes through the branches of the property’s outskirts, perhaps granting a slightly humorous moment, but remains effective when the entity appears. I also enjoyed that morality in the film isn’t discussed in the black-and-white context of God vs. the Devil or good vs. evil. I think a lot of that is relative hyperbole anyway. The film relies on a moral impetus but never preaches itself as more than a cautionary tale of being altruistic in a den of narcissism. Alternatively put: a sheep among wolves.
The narcissistic qualities of every person in the cabin are weighed, and the order in which they meet their fates, taking into account their actions and the shame, repentance, and regrets that build up within them as the story unfolds. Character reflections in mirrors, though seemingly used for effect, address the characters’ self-images as decent people, though they suggest the act of simply masking their true selves. The end of the film revisits another trope, the sacrificial lamb, and offers additional commentary on why complete altruism isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
As an indie presentation, Beyond the Woods is an interesting watch. Not everything works in the film and an early elongated sequence where the audience is first introduced to the characters as a group drinking in the cottage can be taken as the crossroads for the viewer to choose to continue. The scene benefits the development of its characters but causes the film to become inopportunely stagnant right at the start. I think this time could have been more usefully spent in pairing characters together in smaller groups as they explored their surroundings and each other’s archetypes, which might have introduced us to locations like the windowsill where the characters smoke cigarettes, which eventually becomes an eventful location. Still, as a limited-budget thriller, Beyond the Woods stays with you with slick movie magic tricks and edits, fun kills, and some Lucio Fulci-styled supernaturalism that likely put the Beyond in Beyond the Woods.
Beyond the Woods won’t be for everyone, which is glitteringly apparent from the 4.8 IMDB score and 2.7 score on Letterboxed. But if you’re looking for a slasher movie that’s off the beaten path, free (it’s on Plex), and incorporates an abundance of ethereal ideas without getting into arguments of faith, Beyond the Woods is better than the score it’s garnered from the small number of people who’ve seen it. It pairs well with the 2024 cosmic folk horror indie Abaddon’s Pit (free on Tubi), which shares similar ideas and themes while presenting them in a more surreal space.
Beyond The Woods – 2023 Trailer
Watch the movie: APPLE TV: https://tv.apple.com/us/movie/beyond-the-woods/umc.cmc.49jzfj6h30xwop1e2qy9pgmqk TUBI: https://tubitv.com/movies/545752/beyond-the-woods AMAZON PRIME: https://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Woods-John-Ryan-Howard/dp/B09BDQK42W GOOGLE PLAY: https://play.google.com/store/movies/details/Beyond_the_Woods?gl=IE&hl=en&id=4zanupoHVKY&pli=1 SKY STORE: https://www.skystore.com/product/beyond-the-woods/75f25873-149d-4e5c-807f-1fc6e59d1d29 JUSTWATCH: https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/beyond-the-woods PLEX: https://watch.plex.tv/en-GB/movie/beyond-the-woods Beyond The Woods” is a chilling supernatural horror film that submerges audiences into a nightmarish tale of terror and seclusion.
