2 gibbles out of 5

Director: David Keating

Wake Wood sets off okay, but as is common with *movies*, some elements present from our first few scenes creep up to cripple chunks of the movie later on.  But what really kills it is that age old horror movie problem of “let’s ditch the logic as soon as the killin’ starts.”

So guy and girl are happily together with a happy beautiful chitlin child who’s prancey prancey off to school and then she’s horrendously mauled by a large angry dog.  This opening bit introduces the reoccurring musical theme by composer Michael Convertino, which is one of the most energetic and moving aspects of the film.  It’s very propulsive and modern, and on the edge of several styles at once, which really helps as a viewer to keep you intrigued.   It overshadows some of the happy family simplicity in these first few shots and drives home the immediate turn into sad, sad family times that follow when we learn that, post little girls death at jaws o’ dog, this hubbie and wife have moved to the small town of Wake Wood, where wife runs a pharmacy and husband is a vet.

There’s a pretty brilliant scene that follows seems to show a legit cow Caesarean birth (or some incredibly effective effects) and it sets a good tone of realism and dirtiness to things, from bright colors of family joy to blood and birth – gore and slop but birth all the same.   We bounce around for a bit as the film – mostly indirectly, which is nice – pieces together what’s gone on between then and now.  And then cue the small town weirdness.

For in Wake Wood, we can bring your loved one back for three days, assuming they’ve been dead for less than a year.

Things don’t go according to plan when bringing back our couple’s little girl.

So why two gibbles?  I’m normally forgiving if atmosphere and what not do the job.  Wake Wood just never gets going at any decent pace.  As soon as it seems to be setting itself up for some kind of structure, some character will say or do some senseless thing and we remain several steps away from exploring the mythology of what this town does or fully delving into why things go wrong when they do, beyond a too-simple explanation that’s seemingly built up to be a twist even though it’s almost explicitly stated early on.  Also, personal guff with films – assuming that smiles and generic shots of people being happy around one another automatically tell us that they’re in love and everything’s perfect.  I understand that part of the art to making film can be to compress a lot into a little – a single shot, a single line – but there’s a difference between actually displaying a feeling and looking up ‘ways to show happy families’ in the film tropes manual and just shooting a montage of those scenes.  Lame.

That awesome score can only carry things forward for so long, and when it pops up again later and you realize that our filmmakers are just using that score to speed through edits to the conclusion of their 90 minute runtime, you may find yourself knocking stars off your own rating as well.

LOOOVE MEEEEEE

(or buy me)