The Watcher in the Woods

Tagline : Scared of going into the woods? You should be ...

Runtime : 83 mins

Genre : Fantasy Horror Thriller

Vote Rating : 6/10

Budget : 9 million $ USD

Revenue : 5 million $ USD

Plot : After an American family moves to an old country manor in rural England, one of the daughters is tormented by the spirit of the owner's long lost daughter, who mysteriously disappeared 30 years ago during a solar eclipse.

Cast Members

Reviews

Oh so very boring. 'The Watcher in the Woods' isn't necessarily a terrible film, but wow did I feel completely uninterested from (almost) start-to-finish. Dully told plot with a plain cast list. I couldn't, unfortunately, tell you anything I actually found good about this. Lynn-Holly Johnson (Jan), a year prior to her appearance in James Bond, is the standout, but that's only down to a process of elimination to be honest; I found the rest yawnful. They aren't helped by the writing which fails to captivate how supposedly heavy the premise is, it's all basically as it seems - obvious. I should've cared for Mrs. Aylwood (Bette Davis) but I simply didn't feel attached one bit. It is a weird one due to it not, as noted, doing anything massively negative, it's just the fact that the (short) run time is such a chore to get through. Not one I'd recommend.

_**This ain’t no conventional Disney flick; it’s genuinely eerie**_ An American family moves into an English country manor for the summer while the mysterious owner, Mrs. Aylwood (Bette Davis), lives in the guest house. The teen daughter, Jan (Lynn-Holly Johnson), discerns something weird is going on, which is linked to Mrs. Aylwood's missing daughter, Karen (Katharine Levy), from decades earlier. Jan investigates the mystery with the aid of a neighbor (Benedict Taylor) and her younger sister (Kyle Richards). Carroll Baker & David McCallum play the girls' parents. "The Watcher in the Woods" (1980-81) is a mystery thick with haunting ambiance, augmented by an unnerving score. DON'T expect typical Disney kiddie fare. Despite inexplicable criticism, winsome Lynn-Holly Johnson shines as the protagonist and carries the film with Davis superlative as the curmudgeonly crone. Baker is still attractive as the mother. The original ending of the movie wasn't finished in time so important expositional scenes were cut, which left the story nonsensical. Negative critical response to a test run in spring, 1980, resulted in the movie being pulled from theaters and, after reshoots, a more subdued ending was inserted for its official release in fall, 1981, which is the "official" ending. The original ending included a cool a skeletal-insectoid alien as the Watcher, who eerily floats in thin air, which also appeared in the 1980 test run, minus an explanatory "other world" sequence (which was the part that wasn't completed in time). While the 1980 ending fails to properly explain events, I thought it was quite effective for the time period and for this type of movie. Not everything's tied up, but that's okay because it's a haunting mystery movie anyway. The longer version with the "other world" sequence goes overkill with the gobbledygook. For a more low-key version with an intelligible and more interesting (but less entertaining) climax, which happens to be more faithful to the book, see the 2017 TV movie by Melissa Joan Hart. The film runs 1 hour, 24 minutes (theatrical version), and was shot in Warwickshire, Buckinghamshire & Pinewood Studios, England, with further studio work and reshoots (directed by Vincent McEveety) done in Burbank, California. GRADE: B

Similar Movies to The Watcher in the Woods

Fallen

Homicide detective John Hobbes witnesses the execution of serial killer Edgar Reese. Soon after the execution the killings start again, and they are very similar to Reese's style.
Movie Star Rating : 6.8  Read More

The Crow: Salvation

Alex Corvis returns to the world of the living to avenge the murder of his girlfriend, who he was wrongly accused of killing. But first he must uncover the truth about who really killed her.
Movie Star Rating : 5.4  Read More

The Crow

Exactly one year after young rock guitarist Eric Draven and his fiancée are brutally killed by a ruthless gang of criminals, Draven—watched over by a hypnotic crow—returns from the grave to exact revenge.
Movie Star Rating : 7.5  Read More

A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master

Dream demon Freddy Krueger is resurrected from his apparent demise, and rapidly tracks down and kills the remainder of the Elm Street kids. However, Kristen, who can draw others into her dreams, wills her special ability to her friend Alice. Alice soon realizes that Freddy is taking advantage of that unknown power to pull a new group of children into his foul domain.
Movie Star Rating : 5.8  Read More

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

This time around Edmund and Lucy Pevensie, along with their pesky cousin Eustace Scrubb find themselves swallowed into a painting and on to a fantastic Narnian ship headed for the very edges of the world.
Movie Star Rating : 6.4  Read More

A Nightmare on Elm Street: The Dream Child

Alice, having survived the previous installment of the Nightmare series, finds the deadly dreams of Freddy Krueger starting once again. This time, the taunting murderer is striking through the sleeping mind of Alice's unborn child. His intention is to be "born again" into the real world. The only one who can stop Freddy is his dead mother, but can Alice free her spirit in time to save her own son?
Movie Star Rating : 5.4  Read More

A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddys Revenge

Jesse Walsh moves with his family into the home of the lone survivor from a series of attacks by dream-stalking monster Freddy Krueger. There, Jesse is bedeviled by nightmares and inexplicably violent impulses. It turns out Freddy needs a host body to carry out his gruesome vendetta against the youth of Springwood, Ohio. While Freddy gains influence, Jesse and his girlfriend, Lisa race against the clock trying to figure out what's going on.
Movie Star Rating : 5.8  Read More

The Amityville Horror

George Lutz and his wife Kathleen move into their Long Island dream house with their children only for their lives to be turned into a hellish nightmare. The legacy of a murder committed in the house gradually affects the family and a priest is brought in to try and exorcise the demonic presence from their home.
Movie Star Rating : 6.1  Read More

A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors

During a hallucinatory incident, young Kristen Parker has her wrists slashed by dream-stalking monster Freddy Krueger. Her mother, mistaking the wounds for a suicide attempt, sends Kristen to a psychiatric ward, where she joins a group of similarly troubled teens. One of the doctors there is Nancy Thompson, who had battled Freddy some years before. Nancy senses a potential in Kristen to rid the world of Freddy once and for all.
Movie Star Rating : 6.7  Read More

Blood and Chocolate

A young teenage werewolf is torn between honoring her family's secret and her love for a man.
Movie Star Rating : 5.4  Read More

Revenge of the Necromancer

Jimmy is an outsider at his school. He is interested in the occult. He doesn't socialize much, but instead he tries to get in touch with his dead mother through ancient rituals, but without success. But one day a new boy starts at the school and he quickly befriends Jimmy. Suddenly the spirits awaken and become a real threat, so Jimmy and Amir have to join forces with the schools two most popular girls to fight the evil.
Movie Star Rating : 4.8  Read More

Disclaimer - This is a news site. All the information listed here is to be found on the web elsewhere. We do not host, upload or link to any video, films, media file, live streams etc. Kodiapps is not responsible for the accuracy, compliance, copyright, legality, decency, or any other aspect of the content streamed to/from your device. We are not connected to or in any other way affiliated with Kodi, Team Kodi, or the XBMC Foundation. We provide no support for third party add-ons installed on your devices, as they do not belong to us. It is your responsibility to ensure that you comply with all your regional legalities and personal access rights regarding any streams to be found on the web. If in doubt, do not use.
DMCA Policy
- Privacy Policy
Kodiapps app v7.0 - Available for Android. You can now add latest scene releases to your collection with Add to Trakt. More features and updates coming to this app real soon.
Tip : Add https://kodiapps.com/rss to your RSS Ticker in System/Appearance/Skin settings to get the very latest Movie & TV Show release info delivered direct to your Kodi Home Screen. Builders are free to use it for their builds too.
You can get all the latest TV Shows & Movies release news direct to your Twitter. Never miss your fave TV Shows & Movies again. Send a follower request via the social media link.