Spirit in the Woods (2014) User Reviews

2/10 because I feel generous; missed potential.

[theomere · 2/10 · 13 June 2014]

This movie certainly started out fairly promising. A nice premise and a more diverse cast than you sometimes see. Unfortunately the acting deteriorated rapidly; this may have been due to what appears to have been a lack of any real script.

Most of the film is spent on the "build up" which more or less amounts to a group of relatively annoying college students bumbling about in a rather pretty looking wood. If I had wanted to watch a school project or a youth outing, I'd have searched for one on Youtube.

"Spirit in the Wood" falls for the same traps as "The Blair Witch Project" did, except with much less grace and a severe lack of polish.

Not frightening in the slightest.

I would love to see this story revisited. With a more creative writer/director, this could have been fairly creepy. The back-story of the woods themselves was certainly disturbing.

My friend tells me that this was Kickstarted. I'm sorry to say that if I had been one of the funders I would have been quite disappointed. I am somewhat confused as to how this movie has earned such a high rating here on IMDb but, then again, I rarely seem to agree with the ratings on horror movies on this site.

Basically, don't go into this movie expecting anything and have a better one lined up for afterwards.

Absolutely horrible

[neilhoyle-08464 · 2/10 · 5 October 2023]

This is surely in the top 5 worst movies I've ever seen. The acting is atrocious and nothing happens... literally nothing. These college students walk through the woods and in the end they die, nothing interesting to it... that's it.

"Did you see that?!" Are you kidding me? We didn't see a damn thing the screen is pitch black. I knew this movie was going to be trash about a quarter of the way through but I stuck it out til' the end in hopes that something kinda cool would happen in the end... nope... nothing. They all get killed by... I don't know... I don't think anyone knows because they don't show us. This movie makes me want to go film my own found footage movie so I can send it to one of the people responsible for this and say "see?! It's not that hard!" I'm not a film maker, director, writer or anything like that but damn I could make a better film about my cat using the litter box than whatever the heck this was. Halfway through I remember thinking "it's like this movie just forgot what it was doing, forgot what it was trying to be..." Anyways, I'm rambling. Do yourself a favor and never watch this movie; if you did watch this movie, may the Lord Jesus Christ bless you and restore to you the time you wasted by doing so.

Neil out.

Correct -spectations

[tdsftdsf · 2/10 · 1 August 2016]

Well it's definitely not a horror movie ....and i didn't expect that . It appears that there were others that would disagree . I would say it was similar to Blair Witch but ...I was more disappointed by that than I was this .Blair Witch was literally all build up and no pop ? This had at least a pop- but that's all . I didn't like the way it skirts the boundaries of reality and fiction . I reads as if this occurred ....and upon searching , students did vanish in that area but not these , and not in the same place .then it shows a missing poster with local phone numbers ...which is janky . If this had been recovered footage and was exactly as it played i would say 9 . But since they say , it was recovered footage and don't play it into the script of the movie it's misleading .....and as a complete fictitious romp ....it falls flat ....as a movie that tried to trick the viewers into thinking it is recovered real footage .....boo hiss. Weak

How is this movie rated anything over a 1??

[sdevane84 · 1/10 · 23 August 2014]

Let me preface this by saying I created an account on IMDb for the sole purpose of reviewing this movie. I was so angry after finishing it, that I immediately popped over to this IMDb page just so I could get some validation and see that other viewers shared the same opinion that I did about this movie. And then I saw the 6.2 rating... So am I to assume that the entire cast and crew created IMDb accounts so they could give this piece of tripe a 10? Because really, there's no other explanation for this movie getting a 6.2. Really. I really think this is one of the worst movies I've ever seen. It was like watching a project for a high school drama class where a group had to write their own skit and film it, but none of the students were really into it and just wanted to slap something together to get a passing grade. As a previous reviewer stated, pretty much the entire first hour of the movie is comprised of 5 obnoxious college students wandering around the woods, complaining about one thing or another. Literally nothing else happens for that first hour. They wander around and whine random, poorly acted ad-libbed lines that don't have any meaning to the "plot". I can't remember the last time I was so bored watching a movie. Then we see some random figure in the woods, film gets grainy, some random blood is thrown in there, and then...we're done. Some random narrative and credits role. What did I just watch? Is this a joke? Are these real actors? Is this real life? WHO IS QUICKY VICKI? So I guess I'll conclude my first and last IMDb review by saying, please skip this piece of garbage. This poor man's Blair Witch Project knockoff is not worth your time.

Not good at all.

[Greenehome-573-803001 · 1/10 · 23 October 2014]

I knew this movie was in trouble when across the screen toward the beginning, it printed that the filmmakers did "are" best to recover the footage. "Are "instead of "our?" Really? Unfortunately, my fears were confirmed. The actors didn't really act, and didn't seem to care that they didn't care. I kept hoping during the first hour that it would somehow get better perhaps when the action picked up, but the action in the first hour didn't pick up. The acting got no better. So, the entire first hour absolutely sucked, and the final part wasn't even scary. Waste of time. I think my own teenagers could have pulled it off better. It seemed a throwaway, just get it done mishmash.

Cash Grab Blues

[jmbwithcats · 1/10 · 24 July 2014]

Objectively speaking, this movie has terrible acting, the first 55 minutes is wandering the woods, rambling, where nothing happens, the camera pans around and you think you might see something, which can be kind of cool, but so deep into the movie and nothing has happened is a stretch to even call it a movie... then when anything does happen, you see a white faced wraith like face, and that is IT. That's it. That's all you get... some shook up guys, a guy with blood on his hands and shirt, blurry camera-work, a long narrative, and that is it.

I am astonished how the producer even considered funding this movie. It's devoid of redeeming qualities, it blows my freaking' mind.

The producer actually told me he funded it just to make an easy return to fund his own projects....

Yes, that's the truth, any movie no matter how bad will make money, because you can make a very formulaic horror film for so little these days and get some kind of return, can't argue with you there, but it is dragging down the genre big time when all one is doing it for is the money.

Most Boring Movie I've Ever Seen

[china-lizard · 1/10 · 3 November 2014]

This was, by far, the absolutely most boring movie I've ever seen.

***SPOILERS***

What's more, nothing was explained. There was some quickly thrown- together exposition at the end that tries to give some reasons for why things might have happened, but in general...none of it made sense.

I don't understand why the little girl was included at the very end of the credits. She's listed as "Spirit" in the cast list here. Does that mean she was the ghost of the woods? Did she die there? Was she saying it was all someone's dream? I....I don't understand.

I'm also tired of found-footage movies claiming that "everything is so totally real!" No. No it's not. Stop telling lies, and just get on with the story.

My suspense alarm, unfortunately, kept going off, expecting jump scares or something...ANYTHING....but they never happened. In fact...I don't know what the ending was. Something about an old man? And the white girl suddenly becomes possessed I guess..?

Leaving out details doesn't make your movie more spooky, film student writers. It just leaves you with a badly-written script. :/

Low-budget doesn't have to mean "bad movie". Keep that in mind as well..

Sleeping in the Woods

[nelsonramatos · 1/10 · 13 November 2014]

This is a pretty amazing pointless movie, like the others reviewers stated, that's nothing going on for most of the time, and when it's happening something, it's like it wasn't, since it's so incredibly boring.

The acting, the script, the woods, they're beyond terrible, and the story is completely uninteresting or scary at all. There isn't any moment in the movie that scares you or make you chill.

They're supposed to be deep in the woods, but for at least for a couple of times, you can clearly listen the cars passing by in a road very close.

If you wan't a good night sleep, you shouldn't hesitate on watching this, or if you're still afraid to fall asleep because of Freddy Kruger, then this is the cure, because you will sleep safe and sound in the woods for sure.

It couldn't be more static even if it was broadcast by radio.

So, stay away from the nap! Best regards

You Guys, I Think I Think I Saw Something

[sadzombie · 1/10 · 8 September 2015]

Do you want to know how many times the characters in Spirit in the Woods say "I think I saw something", only to pan the camera over and reveal nothing except for trees and... more nothing? Just nothing. A lot of nothing. That's a rhetorical question, because I won't go back and lose another hour of my life counting. It's an adequate summary of this... I don't know what you would call this, actually. I'd like to say "movie", but things tend to happen in movies. Even if they're boring, you can walk out discussing something about it. What did or didn't work for you. Nothing - and I mean nothing - happens in this... er, sequence of moving images.

So the lowdown here is that Anthony Daniel asked himself, "Remember The Blair Witch Project? What if I did a movie like that, but like, without the tension or anything?" Then he went to Kickstarter, told people he had a good idea for a horror movie, and some of those poor, misguided people gave him money they like, actually worked and stuff for, and then he took that money, and turned it into an hour of footage of a bunch of people walking in the woods.

It's an often heard criticism that nothing happened in The Blair Witch Project. It was build up to a non-ending. The same argument is often made for other found-footage flicks, such as Paranormal Activity. People talk for an hour or so, occasionally something weird happens, and then the climax. Roll credits. The difference between those movies and Spirit in the Woods is the burn. Whether they worked for you or not, these movies spent the duration of their runtime gradually turning up the tension. Whether Blair Witch affected you or not, you could sense emotion in effect on the camera. The characters begin to panic, they argue, they despair. In Paranormal Activity, they gradually become more accepting that there is something happening in their house, and how they emotionally deal with it. In Spirit in the Woods, they talk. Much like you and your friends talk. Generally about nothing. That's it. One character may, at times, whine that they want to go home, but that's it. It was a bold choice to just make a movie devoid of energy or tension of any sort.

I mentioned the characters often saying "I think I saw something", yes? That's what we get, in place of slowly building dread, or even cheap jump scares. Not once, not twice. Repeatedly. The movie telling us something MAY be there, but it's not. I even looked hard, just to see if maybe something was hidden on screen. During it's final fifteen or so minutes, when something FINALLY happens it's out of nowhere, and earned for no other reason than the movie is almost over and the money is almost out, and we still don't see anything. The camera freezes, or the footage gets shoddy, muddling our view. Imagination, in a horror movie, can be very effective. Minimalism works because the human mind will fill in the blanks, often more effectively than you could by telling them the answer. It worked in a movie like Blair Witch because we knew damn well that whatever was off screen when they screamed "What the f*** is that?!" was sure as hell there. The movie provided just enough along the way for our mind to fill in the rest. Spirit in the Woods gives us a few rambling ideas of what it's mythology could have been after the fact, and nothing along the way to make us afraid of what may be around the corner.

Like The Blair Witch Project, Spirit in the Woods is, I gather, based on some existing folklore and ghost stories. Do yourself a favor, and don't watch this movie. If you want to watch this movie, go watch The Blair Witch Project instead. It's literally the same thing, but with pacing and tension and all those things that make a movie interesting. If you STILL want to go watch Spirit in the Woods, then do me a favor, and keep a running tally of how many times they say "I thought I just saw something", because I'm honestly curious how many times they blatantly admitted there was nothing on screen.

What?!

[jmbovan-47-160173 · 1/10 · 25 July 2020]

So... college kids are on a biology assignment. If they go to Spirit Woods the get an extra 50 points (but only if they are a C+ or better--as if that matters). And they get lost. And something happens. But I'm not certain at all what happens. And they decide to sleep.in a tent they randomly find by a fire pit. And something else happens. And then the movie ends. No clue as to what occurred. But somehow they determine that something occurs. But it's not seen. Or explained. And yeah college kids, cameras, woods. That about sums it up.

My only complaint is....

[donaldwaynestephens · 6/10 · 16 June 2023]

The only thing I haven't like about this film was fact that you can tell it is scripted. Most all the kids and even the teach when they are speaking they do not seem genuine and they don't appear to put any feeling behind what they are saying that is why it is best to do improvisation when doing found footage because it helps put the mind set and the emotion behind the scene and situations that they are to face. A lot of the dialogue it decent but there are some points that you can completely tell that it is scripted so when watching this be aware that there are some points that you can tell it is scripted but other then this I did enjoy the film but I am not sure if I would watch a part 2 or not as of this moment.

This movie is complete garbage.

[lucindablackdragons · 1/10 · 3 August 2015]

Right from the trailer, I knew I was being subjected to garbage. This movie is complete bilge. I have seen YouTube videos made by teenagers and college students that were less amateur than this movie. The acting is terrible, it looks like it was edited on iMovie by an 8 year old and it looks like it was shot on a freaking cellphone camera. I'd be less than surprised if Anthony Daniel just pocketed the money, got a few people who were willing to work for free, shot it on an iPhone and edited it half-assedly on Windows Movie Maker, because the funding I know for a fact that he secured should have at least paid for a good camera and good editing software if he was using it right. That amber alert poster looks like it was made on Paint. The improv is so unnatural that it makes me want to set myself on fire. The pacing is god awful. Nothing happens until the very freaking end and even still, I don't know what in god's name I'm looking at.

There's really not much else to say. The movie is garbage and that's all there is to it.

Simply terrible

[sam_hunt · 1/10 · 12 May 2015]

This movie actually made my head and body hurt because of how bad it was. The script is terrible the acting is awful, and I'm pretty sure in some early scenes some of the actors were laughing.... I'm assuming because they themselves couldn't believe they agreed to this. The bet part of the movie was the trail they were on in the beginning. It's pretty. Reportedly the budget for the film was 6k, and in my opinion you can make something much better than this. The Blair Witch Project had a very low budget as well and to this day is still one of the greatest "found footage" films recorded. I am a huge fan of found footage films and wish more were being made, however if they are all like this from now on, the genre is doomed.

Not as bad as some people say...

[cjrmnf · 5/10 · 20 April 2016]

I think the acting was meant to represent real college students, not actors. If you watch it as if it were real, you'd see it in a different light.

The actors looked like real people, not models...that was a plus. It also didn't contain a lot of CGI "stuff" that other people try to use to scare you. The only problem I had with it was it wasn't creepy enough though it did keep you guessing about when and where the bad guy/girl would jump out.

Was the acting stellar? No but it wasn't nearly as bad as advertised. I watched "The Apparition" with Ashley Green (Alice from Twilight) and she was absolute TRASH in it...you EXPECT stellar acting from her, not these guys.

I'm not claiming it's great but it's not bad...decent for such a low budget and worth a look if you like found footage films.

The Blair crap Project.

[Krackoon · 1/10 · 15 August 2015]

When it comes to 'The Blair witch Project,' you either love it or you hate it - there's no middle ground, even if you claim 'it was okay.' You're lying.

Personally, I love the film, and I'll go as far as calling it one of my favorite horror films - unfortunately, Anthony Daniel more than likely agrees with me. Unlike Anthony Daniel, I don't feel the need to 'cash in' on the whole found footage trend that's been going around for quite a while now, by tossing out complete and utter garbage like 'Spirit in the Woods.' As I've said many times, the whole found footage deal is a bad director's wet dream. 'Spirit in the Woods' follows the Blair Witch pattern by using the actors real names, for, you know, realism. The lead actress, and I use this term as loosely as possible - Kinsley Funari, spends her time, much like the Heather character in 'Blair Witch' whining and complaining throughout the film, at many levels of annoyance, since the sound is just one of many reasons this film stinks. The difference is, Heather had some decent, and funny characters around her, to keep her annoyance in check. Well, the characters in 'Spirit in the Woods,' are just as worthless as the lead. I did, however, get a chuckle when one of the characters tossed something into the small lake (Hmm, Blair Witch, anyone?) Long story short, this film is just a cash in, and the only compliment I can give any person connected to this trash is - nothing I just saw was done in a serious manner (If it was, God have mercy on your souls.)

Random Ramblings of a Madman: 'Spirit in the Woods' is literally one full hour of a group of people wandering through the woods, trying to look lost - and when the climax finally arrives, not only won't you care, but you'll probably have to do a quick rewind, to see what the hell even happened. I'm not even sure a script was involved, since the dialogue is so bad, the actors mess up numerous lines, such as my favorite: 'He probably has no time on his hands,' in a situation where 'He probably has too much time on his hands,' would have made more sense. The film is just all around badly made, with some of the most useless ''actors'' ever put on film. I did follow Kinsley Funari on twitter - maybe she won't read this review?

A horrible waste of time

[vieno-87182 · 1/10 · 31 August 2016]

This is, quite possibly, the worst movie I have ever seen. I watched it to the end which was nothing short of excruciating. I wanted to make sure I didn't actually miss anything - good. I didn't. Not a single scene had ONE redeeming quality. The acting, by everyone involved, was terrible. I don't mind a slow burn of a movie, hand held camera work, etc. But this movie is painfully boring, pointless, aimless and ridiculous. I saw some people comparing it to "The Blair Witch Project." but let's be fair. That movie was creepy and good and unique (for its time). Comparing "Spirit in the Woods" to it is like comparing a perfect apple to a rotten orange. Skip it.

Is this a joke?

[stollensecret · 1/10 · 7 October 2018]

Okay, I rarely review but this was so bad I am mad I wasted my time watching it. The acting was worse than our 5th grade talent show. Why is this even on Vudu or any other site to buy is beyond me. Barf bad.

Audio

[karl-e-geib · 1/10 · 24 March 2020]

This is one of the most horrible audio sound jobs ever. I was less audio on two projects and that was in film school. How this ever got green lit I will never forget or forget...

I went to bed

[petenwmass · 1/10 · 13 June 2021]

I endured the first half-hour but I saved myself from lowering my IQ but shutting it off and going to bad. In a word: MORONIC!

Devoid of any merit

[ekwetherington · 1/10 · 23 June 2021]

There are very few movies that I think are actually deserving of a single star, but this one earns it without question. It is actually so bad that it made me question some of the other 1 star ratings I've handed out in the past. I know it's hyperbolic and people say this about tons of movies, but this may be the worst movie I've ever seen.

Everything about this movie is awful. The early scenes aren't properly mic'd and we get tons of background noise polluting the scenes. There are frequent camera effects that make it impossible to see what's actually going on in the movie. The budget for effects is essentially nonexistent. The adlibbed dialogue is atrocious to the point where the actors mess up and then just say what they meant and it gets left in for some reason.

The fact that this is labeled as a horror movie is a travesty in of itself. The only horror I felt watching this is when my app crashed and it started the movie over from the beginning. Other than that, the "horror" comes from clunky exposition, blurred out visuals, and people saying "I think I saw something." Spirit in the Woods has the classic problem of telling rather than showing. The characters constantly state their fear and anxiety, yet we're never shown a reason as to why that is. The group manages to freak themselves out within 5 minutes of arriving at the woods, despite there being absolutely no reason to be scared. The ending horror sequence features off screen deaths, random screaming, random running, bloody shirts, and obligatory possessions. The thin lore isn't explained or expanded on at any point to give the ending any semblance of meaning.

I watch a lot of found footage movies, so I generally know what I'm in for with the cast of characters that are bound to show up. Here we have the smart girl, stand in for the audience guy, athlete, prissy girl, and friend the no one likes. Usually the friend the no one likes is the most obnoxious character, but this movie does break from tradition by making Kinsley, the smart girl, the worst character. While the other 4 struggle to leave any sort of impression, Kinsley dominates this movie with CONSTANT whining and complaining. By the midway point of the movie, her voice was beginning to make me want to die in the woods somewhere. Also, she's posed as the smart member of the group, as we're so often told, but her behavior and dialogue make her come across as a dimwit and the dumbest of the bunch. She seems baffled, confused, and terrified by literally everything that happens in the movie. I guess it's good at least someone was scared.

I found out on here that this movie was Kickstarted, which would infuriate me if I put money into this. I understand that this movie had next to no budget, but that's no excuse for the complete lack of effort and thought put into this movie. I have seen some people defend this movie by saying "oh, at least they made it" and "they did the best with what they had," but I don't buy it at all. Nigel Bach managed to spit out a way better movie in Bad Ben for $300 and the budget for Spirit in the Woods was FIVE TIMES more than that. This movie was had an incredibly weak premise, no money, and no talent on screen. I get making a cheap movie to see what you can do with it, but when you have literally nothing positive going for you, maybe don't make the movie.

Also, what kind of high school class project is going out and filming yourself picking up rocks and leaves? I would have loved to have seen that syllabus.

In the end, this movie is terrible on every level and fails to even suck in a fun way. The fact that it even exists on major streaming services perplexes me. DO NOT WATCH.

I want my time back

[mattmombbackup · 1/10 · 11 June 2023]

So let me say that I am a more fan of the "found footage" horror. To me low budget horror, with smaller budgets, have to rely on more psychological scares instead of effects and are by far supreme. So I always give found footage a chance and my god this was torture. They stretched out a bunch of nonsense for 2 hours with 2 minutes of anything resembling a "scare." Their version of horror is people saying "what's that" and there being nothing. The build up is pathetic, the story of the woods is laughable, the "interviews" are entirely too long and full of stuff you already know. The long drawn out scenes are torture. The acting in my daughters 4th grade play was more believable. This movie was free On Demand and I still feel like I got ripped off. I had high hopes for this movie and boy did they fail. Do not waste your time.

Boring, boring, boring.

[zamboni-36633 · 1/10 · 29 December 2021]

Five college kids go into the woods to film a biology project. They end up lost, walking in circles and they die. I couldn't even tell you how they die because we don't see any of it. What you do see is these kids walking around, talking about walking around, talking about being lost for 9/10 of the movie and then some quick jerky flashes of a supposed white figure aaannnddd we're done. Skip this mess.