Rootwood Movie Review

“Rootwood” appears to be a revised version of the old Creepy Classic – “The Blair Witch Project”. But this one is updated into the millennial generation, so would that make it “The Blair Witch Podcast”? Actually the two main characters begin with a podcast that explores the supernatural realm, so that is what this little independent movie is going for. But, if people remember that the original “Project” was a lot of suspense and moody atmosphere that resulted into not much of anything — then is that the best thing you can base your new project on?

Will (Tyler Gallant) and Jess (Elissa Dowling) are the co-hosts of a podcast called “The Spooky Hour”. They have conversions about supernatural things that happen in the night, and sometimes in the daylight. Will announces that he and Jess have been selected by Laura Benott (Felissa Rose), who is a big Hollywood producer, to create a new Documentary. It will be about a nearby woods that has a local legend – the legend of “The Curse of the Wooden Devil”. Will and Jess meet with Laura, and they agree to film their adventures into the woods.

Laura has supplied an RV camper, digital cameras and equipment, and even a small drone. Jess gets her friend Erin (Sarah French) to also go with them, so she can also film the scary woods. The three of them head into the area that is supposed to be haunted. They make a camp and begin to explore. But after a day or two, they have not made much progress. Erin keeps hinting to Will that they need to hook up. But that is not going to happen. Jess is keeping an eye on both of them, but she would not care either way.  They want to leave, but then they find a large water tank covered with graffiti. But all of the names on the tank wall are of people who have gone missing in these woods…

They find a hidden noose, and then later find another one. Then there is another noose found inside the camper. What is going on here? Erin freaks out and leaves to walk home. But she does not get far when something horrible happens. Jess and Will are alone and frightened. It is night time, and there are sounds outside the camper. What a great time to go outside and explore! There is darkness – confusion – shrieks in the night – loud spooky sounds — AND THEN…

And then there is a twisty wrap-up that makes no sense. Followed by another, different conclusion that disregards the first one. So – yes it does have a final ending similar to “The Blair Witch Project”. Nothing gets answered or tied up, and there are more questions than answers. But the movie has got some good points. Even with a low budget, it gets a creepy mood setup and going. But it takes a really long time before that happens. Plus the characters are not very interesting, and they behave in some dumb ways. There is no ‘core’ of the movie that drives the plot forward, just a group of scenes that give some set-up and then it drifts on…

“Rootwood” has a promising set-up, but then it slows down into the boredom of walking around aimlessly. The final ‘resolution’ is such a slap in the face to everything that happened beforehand – it might be from a different script. The acting is OK, but there is nothing memorable about the characters. The design is low-key and realistic, and the sound production is good. But if they had removed the ‘Rot’ from the ‘Rootwood’, it could have been much better.

Compare and contrast a small independent movie like this to the movie called “The Endless”. In that movie, a couple of brothers go back a ‘cult’ where they were raised, and it is deep in the woods. But in that movie – everything builds up to wonderful off-the-wall climax that takes every scene that came before it and gives it a new meaning.

“Rootwood” is available on DVD and on Video-on-Demand (as of April 7)