Static Multimedia’s review of ‘The Wood’ likened it in some aspects to Scott Smith’s ‘The Ruins’. It wasn’t a story I’m familiar with and I still haven’t read the print version, but I have managed to get my hands on the DVD. From reading both synopses on Wikepedia the two seem to be slightly different so this review will concentrate on the film version.
(Static Multimedia’s review of ‘The Wood’ isn’t live any more, but I have a Word copy which I’ll post at some stage.)
Anyway, I can see why Static Multimedia would think ‘The Wood’ similar to ‘The Ruins’. Both feature a group of people thrown together, whose numbers are reduced as the horror picks them off one by one and both are, as the review says, tales of ‘…unbeatable odds.’
‘The Ruins’ is as much psychological as bloody, with most of the gore being less explicit than I’d expect of an 18 certificate film. That, of course, is an observation rather than a criticism, and the film has enough tension and a good enough ending to be a worthy, if somewhat routine, watch.
On the downside, the deaths are nearly all the same, with little variety. The plot has several unplugged holes and as an (ex)archaeologist I was disappointed that the Mayan setting provided nothing more than the film’s location.
Overall, this is one where the tension just about overcomes the flaws and I’d give it six out of ten.
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