This tepid ghost story fails to focus on either its story or its target audience.
The Watcher in the Woods (1980)
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Reviews Counted:13
Fresh:6
Rotten:7
Average Rating:4.9/10
Runtime: 1 hr 48 mins
Genre: Horror/Suspense
US Box Office: $0
Synopsis: In this spooky suspense film, an American family moves into a creepy manor house located within a wooded area in the English countryside. Before long they start to see some odd things, like mirrors... In this spooky suspense film, an American family moves into a creepy manor house located within a wooded area in the English countryside. Before long they start to see some odd things, like mirrors that don't reflect, and the ghost of blindfolded girl. The new tenants learn that 30 years ago, a teenage girl, who bears an uncanny resemblance to their daughter Jan (Lynn-Holly Johnson), disappeared nearby. Soon, the supernatural presence starts contacting both sisters. [More]
Starring: Bette Davis, Lynn-Holly Johnson, Kyle Richards, Carroll Baker
Starring: Bette Davis, Lynn-Holly Johnson, Kyle Richards, Carroll Baker, David McCallum, Benedict Taylor, Frances Cuka, Richard Pasco, Ian Bannen
Director: John Hough
Director: John Hough
Screenwriter: Brian Clemens, Rosemary Anne Sisson, Harry Spalding
Producer: Ron Miller
Composer: Stanley Myers
Reviews for The Watcher in the Woods
The acting and writing are barely professional but the art direction, especially Alan Hume's stunning camerawork, gives the pic a gloss.
When it became obvious that the film's mix of cutesy sentiment and vague scariness wasn't working, the company ordered whole sequences to be rewritten, re-shot or re-edited, then imposed a stupid ending that explains precisely nothing.
About as scary as a bagel that's been left out on the counter overnight. Okay, maybe it's a raisin bagel. I'll give you that much.
Fans of old-fashioned, atmospheric ghost tales will forgive the film’s obvious faults, but even they will have a hard time generating much enthusiasm for the movie.
A movie about how a camera presents a point of view and of how that point of view, if it's not attached to a specific identity, can become menacingly voyeuristic.
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