WOODS OF TERROR *** U.K. 2009 Dir: Jason Impey 74 mins
British independent director Jason Impey has over 100 films under his belt ranging from various genres but he has a certain knack for the horror genre. WOODS OF TERROR is a double bill of terror featuring two films around the half hour mark each, ‘Nightmare In The Woods’ and ‘Zombie Village’.
After a brief opening scene of a man losing his dog and becoming the first victim of this horror we are introduced to three youths in ‘Nightmare In The Woods’. These three are sitting idly in the field drinking moonshine, smoking marijuana and telling stories you would expect to be told around a camp fire, except this is the middle of the day. As each of these youths tell their stories ranging from a killer on the loose in the first tale, the next features a girl being stalked by a demon and the best of the three stories the SHOGUN ASSASSIN -esque samurai killer they are more and more spooked. As you would expect they hear noises in the woods near them and one by one go to investigate until the group is no more. This was a great opening film to this double bill with some great storytelling and ideas you would normally see in an American horror but brought to the countryside of England. Though the acting isn’t great, it does feature some well choreographed fight scenes and a little bit of gore in the style of underground horror. Next up is the second and final film in this double bill ‘Zombie Village’ again written, directed and everything in between by Jason Impey. This film is told in 9 chapters starting with a man breaking into a building to steal some kind of chemical which falls out of the back of his van into the local water supply. As you would have already gathered this chemical starts to turn people in the village into zombies. The man who stole the chemical and accidentally started the zombie apocalypse tries to outrun the undead horde along with a scottish man who is an ex-army man. Though he use to be in the army he is a terrible shot and rarely kills the zombies. As the horde grows it takes over the village and those who are currently surviving will have to fight the undead off before they to become a zombie. This was a nice zombie film which is more in the style of NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD with slow zombies but every now again adding in zombies who enjoy doing parkour. Sure the story has been done to death (no pun intended) but Jason Impey has made this one his own and even has a bit of comedy thrown in. Overall this double bill of short films brought together in one film was refreshing to watch and proves that with just a little money and a good group of friends you can make something that can entertain the masses.
Review by Peter ‘Witchfinder‘ Hopkins