Based on their 2017 short film of the same name, She Came From the Woods, from the Bloomquist brothers, is another in a long line of Eighties nostalgia horror films. “Another one?” you ask yourself. Yes, exactly.
Another one.
At good old Camp Briarbrook, campers and counselors alike get ready to say goodbye to each other and to their summer. Heather McCalister (Buono) runs the camp with her father (Sadler) and her two sons. The camp has been in existence since the 1940s. Something happened involving nurse Agatha back in the day, and ever since, there’s been a legend about the nurse. The counselors, including Heather’s feckless son Peter (List) and his extremely capable girlfriend, Lauren (Foley), decide that performing a ritual revolving around the legend is the best way to close out the summer of 1987. Exactly, that old saw.
I wanted to like this one, I really did. It has a lot going for it; it’s well-made for what I’m assuming is a low budget. It’s got a good look to it, and any movie that stars Faye from Mad Men knows what’s up. (Man, I loved Faye.) Both Buono and Sadler produce as well as perform in the film. I liked them both fine here. In fact, everyone’s performance is good. The gore looks great, too.
It’s the story that lets the movie down. (The script is credited to Erik and Carson Bloomquist.) Part of the reason it fails is the setup. It’s not really there. It’s like all of a sudden, the counselors are doing a thing, and why again? It’s eventually explained but I don’t want to spend half the movie trying to figure out what is going on and why. I’m sure this made for a fantastic short film, though.
There’s just a glut of these kind of Eighties summer camp love letters to Friday the 13th. If you’re going to make one, you better have bitchin’-ass story. Otherwise, what’s the point? This is the problem with She Came From the Woods. There’s nothing new here. A jonesing for things back in the “good old days” of 1987 *cough* isn’t reason enough to add to the always-growing list of these films.
This article appears in February 10 • 2023.