A group of actors heads 'deep in the woods' to put on a play (of Little Red Riding Hood) for a mysterious rich man at his estate to celebrate the birthday of the rich man's grandson, who was traumatised after witnessing his mother's death. The actors hear a police bulletin stating that a serial killer (who dresses like a wolf, coincidentally) has been raping and killing women in the area of the estate and, even after a few more murders, the group decides the safest thing to do is stay in the castle. . . was it the smart move? Or did they deliver themselves right into the killer's hands? Despite the fake reviews posted all over the place about this film (one of which compared Delpanque's vision to Argento's), I tried to go in with a totally open mind, without any real expectations. While Delpanque certainly is a talented director, he can't match Argento's visuals (which is the only thing I find remarkable about Argento's work). The film itself, however, leaves a lot to be desired. While it is visually splendid and the acting isn't too bad, the script is stale, even with a good and interesting 'fairy tale'-type story. The deaths were good enough, and the killer's Wolf costume was actually pretty creepy. But, the killer. . . well, it's strange: The 'twist' of the killer is so ridiculously obvious, I actually found myself questioning whether I was just caught in a huge red herring, so I got to the point where I started guessing at the others thinking the script couldn't be that boringly unsurprising. But, the film seemed to take itself too seriously and that's usually a pretty damaging blow to a mediocre film like this.

This "film" should be presented at all levels of film courses especially the scripting ones because it has so many flaws in plot and lacks so many parts of a feature film that one can hardly imagine better tool for explaining what should the story for the movie be like.I don't understand that high ranking it got and some comments about other levels of depths of the story made me laughing loud.After first 20 minutes I was angry at myself because I picked the film for my friends but then I was enjoying every illogical turn of the plot, dialogue and acting of characters under given circumstances just for fun.I have no doubt that had Monty Python been still in action they wouldn't let this one pass unnoticed-one of the most absurd charcters was the policeman/detective -when he first appeared on screen -just what was this? At the end one of my friends added "and now there will be a shot on a raven and finish" and after it happened just that we laughed through the credits maybe trying to forget how dull and boring this french "masterpiece" was.

I can't believe all the low ratings for the French film Deep in the Woods. There are incredible young actors, notably Clément Sibony, and an especially hot Vincent Lecoeur. There is explicit lesbianism. It includes a very tense, satisfying Old man/young hunk(Lecoeur) bedroom scene. There is pot smoking and a rather unusual party scene. While the nudity is minimum, this is a French retelling of a familiar childhood tale. The film may seem overall simplistic but a deeper viewing will show it operates on several levels. I enjoyed listening to the french dialog while using the english subtitles. The film commentary was fair. The musical score is good. The budget on the film was small. This is incredible when there are many comments that the film is more style, than substance. (Perhaps I'd give more credence to Decoteau's constant poor mouthing if he created stylistic touches similar to Lionel Delplanque.) The film is not fast paced. It can be considered slow, with a pace similar to The Talented Mr. Ripley, but I think it's a masterpiece... but perhaps I was just mesmerized by Lecoeur!

(*1/2 out of *****) This goes to show that even the French put out some serious garbage in the world of film from time to time. This one, for example, is horrid. The interesting (albeit derivative) premise, the spooky setting, and the cinematography are all quite good, but, unfortunately, the whole thing falls apart real fast under its own incomprehensible pretensions.A group of attractive, young actors travel to an old mansion way out in the country to perform for an eccentric millionaire and his weird, mute son. The woods surrounding the mansion just happen to be the hunting ground for a serial rapist/killer who targets young girls. But, forget all about that, because, as soon as the good-looking group gets to the old guy's house, odd characters start popping up and bizarre things start happening -- you know, the usual David Lynch/Dario Argento kind of stuff -- except Delphlanque doesn't have an ounce of the artistic mastery or the subtlety to pull any of it off. Character motivations, most of the plotting, the dialogue (some of which, granted, could be the fault of American dubbing) -- is some of the worst I've ever encountered in a movie like this. In one scene, for example, everyone is sound asleep except for the main female star (Clotilde Courau), who is wandering through the mansion by herself. So, she enters one room and suddenly finds all of her friends dancing real slow and suggestively with each other, including her girlfriend. The scene ends and everyone acts regularly, as if nothing happened -- suddenly, they're all just wide awake and dancing to loud music! Okay, whatever, sure! And then, in the next scene -- after being warned by a (typically weird) police detective (who just happens to walk into the room) that a killer is on the loose -- they're all suddenly outside and walking around through the woods after midnight!The story tries to follow the trace of a murder mystery, but it takes way too many irritating turns into contrived Lynchian territory (in an early scene, the young boy stabs his own hand with a fork at the dinner table, and, after the father explains that he always does that, the guests are like, `Hm, well, how 'bout that -- so, when do you think we're gonna get paid?' and stuff like that.)There are some gory murders and a couple steamy sex scenes, but there are also loooong scenes of characters walking up and down stairs and through dark rooms. And, I swear to God, everyone pauses for about 30 seconds before responding to each other in this maddening mess -- I guess that helps stretch what could have been a 45-minute movie into an hour and a half. Do not be fooled by anyone who tries telling you that this movie is as good as (or, God forbid, better than) a typical Argento flick, because it is not. In spite of its professional camera work and some hints of creativity here and there in the direction, this turkey is no better than any early-'80s, American slasher flick.Lowlight: In a painfully forced attempt to misdirect our suspicions as to who the killer is, one of the actors tries to shoot Courau with a nail gun, but she somehow easily blocks it with a pipe or something, and, in the very next scene, the two of them are outside together, trying to start the car as if nothing happened. There are so many idiotic scenes like this that it just made me sick. I admit it -- I took the damn cassette out of the VCR! I didn't care how it ended! I couldn't take it anymore!