Blu-Ray Review: Don’t Go Into The Woods

By Brad Henderson

My mom and I watched horror films consistently all through the years of my youth. My mom wasn’t a horror buff, but was really into slashers, so naturally I was as well because I soaked up whatever she would show me. Almost every night we would go to my room and watch at least one film and I would stay up late to make it a double feature. (To this day she will come over to my place and we will either watch a classic or I will show her something new I’ve discovered.)

After renting everything we could at our local video stores, I started scouring the depths of eBay for some films that I’ve been wanting to see, inspired by the trailers on the tapes we’d watch or the synopses from from my All Movie Guide 1995. I soon realized the key words to finding great things were “VHS box lots”. After typing those three words into the search bar, it was over.

I realized that I could get these tapes from 25 cents to a dollar a pop so I would buy the huge horror lots and get a barrage of tapes. After getting boxes and boxes of tapes, we would sift through them and pick out the ones we wanted to watch first. Among these massive amounts of tapes was a copy of Don’t Go Into The Woods. (Yeah, I didn’t add …Alone because I’ve known it as the other title for as long as I can remember and I refuse to call it that.)

Our first screening of Don’t Go Into The Woods went differently than I expected. My mother had implemented a no talking rule during movies and I follow that still, but when we watched Don’t Go Into The Woods it quickly became Mystery Science Theater 3000. My mom started poking fun at it and it had me giggling uncontrollably. Never had this happened while watching a film before with my mother—especially a horror film—but it was like this for Don’t Go Into The Woods.

Don’t Go Into The Woods is a very straightforward slasher but it is goofy as hell with ridiculous ADR and just plain ole’ silly sequences. It also turned me on to to the phrase “bag of bitch” which has stuck with me since that night I watched it with my mom. She would repeat some of the lines and just laugh at what was happening. I was probably around 10 or 11 at the time and had never experienced anything like that before. I’ve cherished that night for a long time. That may sound silly to some, but for me this was an experience that I remember whenever I hear anyone even snicker or laugh during a film.

Vinegar Syndrome has put together quite the package for such a silly slasher but it shows that whatever they touch, they will do their best in making it the most definitive release for the film. Loaded with features, this release includes a commentary track with James Bryan, another commentary track with some of the cast and crew, and still another commentary track from The Hysteria Continues, plus interviews and much more. A lot of respect goes to Vinegar Syndrome for this release not only because of the time they take with movies such as this, but also because they brought back a film to me that reminds me of those fun times watching movies with my mother.

Don’t Go Into The Woods was released by Vinegar Syndrome on March 10.