Review: Woodshock

(imdb.com)

Despite what can feel constant ignorance of award shows and critics, horror movies - even modern ones - often go hand-in-hand with art. Brimming with metaphors and featuring some of the best camerawork in the business, horror films can be tasteful and fantastic pieces of cinema. Movies like The Witch and most recently IT are genre films deserving of recognition, and even films like The Neon Demon are more reliant on its art than its horror. So why is it then, that when these artful indie horror movies are bad, they're incredibly bad? Well look no further than Woodshock.

Written and directed by costume designer sisters Kate and Laura Mulley, Woodshock is exactly the type of movie you'd expect from costume-designers-turned-first-time-directors. Missing a concrete plot and dosed in antiquated furniture and décor, this film follows a woman who becomes infatuated with a mind-altering drug. It stars Kirsten Dunst (The Beguiled), Joe Cole (Green Room) and Pilou Asbæk (Game of Thrones).


Kirsten Dunst who has thankfully been on an upward trend in the past years has never seemed more lost in a role. Melodramatic and one note, the troubled young woman she plays is less inspired and more stiffly automated. The emotional depth that she found in films like The Beguiled and on the television series Fargo, are gone and in its place is a woman simply going through the motions of an indie thriller with little depth.  The one brighter spot in this film comes from Asbæk who is the most understandable character throughout.


Nightmarishly bland and unnecessarily sheepish, this drearily artsy film has little substance even if it’s somewhat pleasing to the eyes and ears. In an attempt to find meaning behind the film, it's clear that the directors chose eclecticism and tack on as many spiraling, reflective objects they could find and hoped for the best. The fact is, underneath it all, this movie is distant and cold - its characters feel flat and drifting.


Woodshock will likely be forgotten and it’s probably for the best. No matter its deeper meaning, its purpose or the creators' intention, nothing feels realistic or interesting in what ends up feeling like a tossed together piece. There's obviously a vision, but it could use a revision and then maybe another. Dunst and the others deserve better than this muted kaleidoscope of a movie. So do critics and viewers. 3 out 10.