It's the three year anniversary today (as of time of writing) since my mother sadly passed away, so I figured for my blog I would pick something easy, and at random chose one of the many horror films I own but have not yet watched. The David Keating (Cherry Tree) directed and co-written horror, Wake Wood turned out to be a coincidentally relevant choice as it is all about bringing a loved one back from the dead for one last goodbye.
After their daughter, Alice (Ella Connolly - Don't Go) is mauled to death by a rabid dog, her grieving parents, veterinarian Patrick (Aidan Gillen - Game of Thrones TV series) and pharmacist Louise (Eva Birthistle - Here With Me) move to the rural town of Wakewood for a new start. With their relationship on the rocks, Louise is set to leave the place, but a chance encounter with a strange ritual leads to Wakewood's de facto leader, Arthur (Timothy Spall - The Harry Potter film series) offering the couple a strange gift. In return for them promising never to leave the town, he states he is able to bring their daughter Alice back to life, for her to be able to spend three final days with them, the only stipulation being that she must have died less than a year ago, and that she mustn't travel beyond the town's borders. Desperate to see their daughter, the couple agree, the ritual is a success and they are delighted to have her back. Something however isn't quite right, and as the three days pass, Alice begins to exhibit disturbing behaviour...
Wake Wood was apparently the first Hammer Horror film to have a theatrical release in thirty years, and it does have some trappings of that iconic film company. This falls neatly into folk horror territory, and the old customs and rituals the village folk follow are represented well on screen, with some memorable moments, such as when a group of people parade through the town beating strange roughly made wooden instruments. This felt almost like an inverse to The Wicker Man, in that rather than be outsiders to the strange goings on, Arthur is keen to sincerely bring the couple into the fold, despite the protestations of some of the other locals. The protagonists were decent enough characters, but there wasn't too much to them, I think I may have slightly preferred Patrick to Louise, but there wasn't much in it. Spall stole the show in his understated performance, and while he wasn't in the movie all the time, he was still in it a lot more than I expected. I also, surprisingly, found Connolly to have an effective performance as Alice, creepy kids can often come across as irritating rather than scary, but the death stares the child brings to the role and the scenes she appears in led to some great moments.
The film doesn't shy away from violence, and doesn't even restrict it to adults, Alice's mauling by a dog in the prologue sees the child covered in blood and bodily damage, even if nifty use of editing implies this by focusing on close-up shots. Along with quite a few animal corpses, there are a few cool looking deaths scenes that play out on camera, such as someone crushed to death by a bull, and someone who gets a poker straight through their throat. All of these include plenty of blood, and warrant the movie having an eighteen rating. The only dodgy looking moment comes from one shot that used CG effects, but other than that it was all good.
The film tells a decent cautionary tale about getting what you most wish for. I did find the plot got a bit meandering and melodramatic at times, especially in the final act which began to drag, as well as got a bit farcical with all that was going on. One thing I can say for Arthur, he certainly had a lot of patience with the protagonists, who constantly acted like they thought they were the most important people in the whole village.
I wasn't sure that I would enjoy Wake Wood, it got off to a bit of a limp start, but once Alice is resurrected things began to pick up. While it began to unravel a bit towards the end, it all comes together nicely, with some little twists and turns along the way. The film at least made me realise that as it has been over a year since my mother died, I probably should leave this particular resurrection ritual well enough alone.
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