Horror movies are cheap and popular, and everyone is always looking for ways to make them even cheaper. The found footage of The Blair Witch Project wasn’t enough for horror filmmakers looking to generate scares on a budget, so we got the static tripod composition of Paranormal Activity. Not cheap enough? How about just having the whole movie take place on a laptop screen (blessedly, the screen horror movie has yet to become an insufferable trend)? Or maybe we’ll just dump a bunch of first-time filmmakers in a bucket and put out an endless variations on the horror anthology?
Now that found footage has become the default for low-budget horror, with seemingly all innovation drained from the medium, is it possible for one of horror’s most promising duos to show us something new?
Director Adam Wingard has teamed up with Simon Barrett for The Woods, their third feature-length collaboration after You’re Next and The Guest. Here’s the teaser trailer:
‘The Woods’ Horror Movie Trailer
Yes, it looks exactly like every other found footage horror movie. Still, Barrett and Wingard are a team-up worth your attention. You’re Next renovated the home invasion movie, making the team’s debut one of the best horror movies of 2011. Their follow-up, The Guest, took it to the next level. Starring Dan Stevens as a veteran returned from war with mysterious motivations, The Guest is one of the best thrillers of the decade, radiating John Carpenter vibes and a wrist-snapping pace.
Horror site Bloody Disgusting said, “ It’s terrifying. It’s rattling. It’s next level,” writing, “every few years a genre movie comes along that changes everything. Only, we’ve been waiting for that game-changer since the 2009 release of Paranormal Activity.”
While calling Paranormal Activity a game-changer in a good way deserves some sidelong glances, their excitement is infectious.
Hopefully The Woods lives up to Wingard and Barrett’s talents and the hype building for it. The Woods is out Sept. 16.
