Wake Wood Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		3.0

Wake Wood Blu-ray Movie Review

Witness the resurrection of Hammer Horror.

Reviewed by Casey Broadwater July 8, 2011

For a brief span between the mid 1950s and ‘60s, U.K. studio Hammer Film Productions ruled the horror scene, churning out new takes on the classic movie monsters of the 1930s—Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy—and making icons out of actors Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. When the genre shifted quite drastically in the late 1960s, however, thanks to films like Night of the Living Dead and Rosemary’s Baby, Hammer Films fell out of favor with audiences who were demanding movies that were both more visceral and sophisticated. The Gothic style of their earlier films suddenly seemed kitschy and unfashionable, and after several goofy attempts at resetting Dracula in London during the 1970s, the studio basically retreated to its coffin and went into a deep, dark sleep, emerging only periodically to produce TV series for British and U.S. television. But now, Hammer Horror is back. Purchased by Dutch producer John De Mol, the revived label had its first big hit in 2010 with Let Me In, the U.S. remake of Swedish vampire drama Let the Right One In. Their first feature under new management, though, was Wake Wood, a sleepy occultic chiller that was shot in 2008 but is only now seeing the light of day. Fittingly, the film is about resurrection and rebirth.

Grieving parents...

The general critical consensus is that Wake Wood is “Pet Sematary meets The Wicker Man,” and that description isn’t far off the mark, as the film definitely channels both the “family horror” of Stephen King’s work and the rustic Celtic paganism of Robin Hardy’s cult classic. The Wire’s Aidan Gillen and Irish actress Eva Birthistle star as Patrick and Louise, a married couple who are devastated when their young daughter, Alice (Ella Connolly), is savagely mauled and killed by a German Shepherd. Doubling their loss is the fact that Louise, who had a rough pregnancy with Alice, is incapable of having another child. A year later, looking for a fresh start, they relocate to the rural hamlet of Wake Wood, where Louise opens a pharmacy and Patrick quickly earns the tight-knit community’s respect as a skilled veterinarian. (In a bit of grisly foreshadowing, his first day on the job we see him delivering a calf by C-section, a bloody, unnatural-looking procedure.)

There are, naturally, hints that all is not normal in this drowsy pastoral town, key among them the strange rebirth ritual Louise stumbles across at the farm of the village leader, Arthur (Timothy Spall), a figure who is both genial and vaguely threatening. Soon after, Louise assists a woman whose odd-acting niece needs a prescription refilled on her inhaler. The script expired a year ago, however, and days later Louise sees this raven-haired girl being led out of town behind a procession of black-attired villagers grimly rattling sticks together. As she passes, the girl turns to Louise and mutters, “Alice has a lovely voice.” How could she know that?

It’s no spoiler to reveal that the town’s secret is a centuries-old ceremony that allows the dead to be brought back to life for three days so that their loved ones can say a proper goodbye. Sensing that Patrick and Louise aren’t happy in Wake Wood, Arthur offers to resurrect their daughter, providing she’s been in the ground for less than a year. This dark necromancy is a fickle art, and any deviation from the rules can apparently have disastrous consequences, but the couple is so anxious to see Alice—who’s been dead for thirteen months—that they agree to lie about when she died. Bad idea. Really bad idea. Wake Wood invokes the two-part moral of that old W.W. Jacobs story, “The Monkey’s Paw”—1.) be careful what you wish for, and 2.) those who interfere with fate are asking for trouble—and I’ll leave it at that. Suffice it to say, Alice’s return isn’t the happy reunion Louise and Patrick were expecting.

The first half of the film is slow, moody, and more gloomy than creepy, building its story out of the pain of the couple’s loss and their resulting marital troubles. Unlike most horror movies, the tone is initially very mature, and it reminded me a bit of another recent Irish film about the dearly departed, The Eclipse, which injects what is essentially a sad romantic drama with occasional moments of sheer terror. Wake Wood eventually feels the pull to become a more conventional genre picture, however, and the violent, horrific elements of the plot are ultimately what keep it from being great. Instead of maintaining the focus on Louise and Patrick’s grief—and what horror is greater than losing a child?—the film ultimately overindulges in an all-too-typical horror movie trope: the possessed little girl, a sweet child gone bad who embarks on a murderous rampage. I don’t really understand the horror industry’s obsession with demonic kindergarteners; yes, there’s something potent about corrupted innocence, but it’s been done so often lately that it’s lost any power it once had.

Still, director David Keating is good at generating atmosphere, and the whole film feels damp with some supernatural mist. He almost personifies the landscape; the lush, tangled woods are ominous, and modern windmills loom at the outskirts of town, a palpable border reminding that Wake Wood is isolated and anachronistic, a place wary of outsiders. A great touch is the primitive homemade abacus that Arthur uses to do his shamanic calculations in preparation for the ritual. It looks like a tool that’s been passed down through the generations. It’s a shame Keating feels obligated to dole out the gory, over-the-top, throat-puncturing, spine-severing sequences, as many other scenes show evidence of a deft directorial hand. The most striking image in the film comes when Patrick prepares to put a bullet through the skull of an injured bull. Instead of showing the gunshot, Keating cuts to the reaction of the other cows in the barn, who jolt in unison and cower backwards into their stalls. It’s a scene that shows the terror of violence without ever showing violence itself, but as the film moves toward its final act, Keating relies more and more on the usual bloodletting and jump scares. And while a particularly devilish twist awaits those who make it to the end, the suckerpunch is softened by the exploitation of a gaping and rather inexplicable plot hole.

Wake Wood Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

After a limited release in U.K. theaters, Wake Wood is resurrected on Blu-ray in the U.S., where Dark Sky Films has granted it a solid but not quite perfect 1080p/AVC-encoded transfer. Shot digitally, the picture is generally crisp and detailed, with a thin layer of noise that gives the image some warmth and does a decent job approximating the look of film grain. Noise reduction, edge enhancement, and other post-production tweaks never crop up here, but you will notice some occasional digital anomalies. There's slight, barely perceptible banding in one or two scenes, and during the ritual sequence I spotted some horizontal lines that look like combing, as if the scene was shot in 1080i and then improperly de-interlaced. Not sure what that's all about. These aren't major distractions, by any means, but they're there if you're looking for them. Otherwise, this is a strong high definition presentation. A few soft-ish shots aside, clarity is almost always excellent, revealing fine textures in the actors' faces, clothing, and hair. Color is satisfyingly dense too—see grass greens and blood reds—although black levels can seem a bit hazy during darker scenes. Considering this is a fairly low- budged horror movie, Wake Wood looks great in high definition.

Wake Wood Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Things definitely go bump in the night in Wake Wood—in the day, too—and the film's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track is there to bring all those skittering, unsettling sounds to life. It does a great job of it. This is a suitably spooky mix, heavy on immersive atmospherics, from realistic ambience—heavy rain, wind in the trees, the mournful lowing of a bull—to more stylized, impressionistic swooshes and thuds. The track doesn't overdo the rear channel output, but the surrounds are definitely used well, making the woods and the film's other locales that much more menacing. Dynamics are strong as well, with throbbing LFE output during key moments of tension and clarity throughout the range. Michael Convertino's score complements the movie's air of suspense, and the music sounds great—full and rich and given plenty of room to spread out in the mix. My sole complaint—a small one—is that dialogue sometimes sounds just a hair low, although it never gets to the point of unintelligibility. A 2.0 PCM mixdown is also included, along with optional English SDH and Spanish subtitles in easy-to-read lettering.

Wake Wood Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Deleted Scenes (SD, 13:57): There are several short deleted shots and whole scenes here, one of which features a Bratz doll that cries blood. No kidding.
• Trailer (1080p, 2:00)
• Also from Dark Sky Films (SD, 7:53)

Wake Wood Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Wake Wood begins as a moody, mysterious, and atmospheric experience, but as it progresses it becomes increasingly dependent on the usual horror movie clichés. That said, I think it's still worth watching for anyone looking for a fright film that's more mature than your average slasher. It's never particularly scary, but it is eerie and occasionally unsettling, especially when it comes to the particulars of the town's age-old ritual. I'd suggest a rental.