Wake Wood
| Wake Wood | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical poster | |
| Directed by | David Keating |
| Produced by |
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| Written by |
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| Starring |
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| Music by | Michael Convertino |
| Cinematography | Chris Maris |
| Editing by | Tim Murrell |
| Distributed by |
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| Country |
Ireland United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
Wake Wood is a 2011 horror film. A UK and Irish co-production by Hammer Film Productions,[1] Wake Wood is directed by Ireland's David Keating.[2] It stars Timothy Spall, Eva Birthistle, Ella Connolly and Aidan Gillen.[3]
Plot
The movie starts on little Alice's birthday. Her adoring parents, Patrick and Louise, shower her with love and gifts, including a necklace, and send her to school. Patrick is a veterinarian and there is a vicious dog penned in the back yard. Alice peels apart her lunch and tries to feed it to the dog, but it mauls and kills her.
Within a few months, the couple moves from the city to a small town called Wake Wood where Louise remodels and runs a pharmacy and Patrick becomes the town's resident vet. The couple clearly have relationship trouble, with Patrick coping with the death of their only child by returning to his work, and Louise falling apart and trying to leave Patrick.
He finally agrees to let Louise go, but their car breaks down. They walk to the nearest house, which belongs to the town leader, Arthur. There, Louise witnesses a strange and bloody pagan ritual, but refuses to say anything to Patrick, she merely asks to go home.
Other strange things happen in town, parades of people in black with strange musical instruments, and a queer woman, Mary, doting upon her strange niece. Louise discovers that Mary and her niece are not as they appear, and that something unnatural is going on in town. Louise reveals that she cannot have another child, and wants Alice back more than anything.
Soon after, a farmer is killed in a brutal accident involving a bull. Horrified, Louise and Patrick plan to leave, but Arthur convinces them to stay by explaining that he has a ritual that brings back the dead – but only for three days, just enough time to give a proper goodbye, as long as the dead have been in the ground less than a year. The couple agree to remain in town, excited to see their only child again.
The ritual requires a piece of the person to be resurrected, and the couple goes grave-robbing to obtain a piece of the girl and retrieve her birthday necklace. They also need a corpse, and after some hesitation, the farmer's wife, Peggy, agrees to let them use the dead man's body. They attend the ritual – a gruesome affair – and are given their little girl. They are told she manifests as completely alive (though she has the farmer's brown eyes instead of her green ones), but they must not allow her to leave town.
It becomes clear that the dead age normally, and after a shower and a hair cut, the couple rejoice in their reunited family. They play games, find a dead bird, and stitch up a dog Patrick hit with the car and go for a pony ride with Peggy. However, this ride was merely a ruse to assess Alice, and Peggy is clearly distressed by the girl.
That night Patrick and Louise find their house invaded by the townsfolk, led by Peggy and Arthur. They must take Alice back early, they say, because there is something wrong with her. Patrick and Louise refuse, insisting that they get their full three days, and the town residents grumpily agree.
But as the movie progresses, it becomes clear that there is something wrong with Alice. She moves unnaturally, she has premonitions, and several animals in town are found brutalised with evidence – including her necklace – to suggest it was done by the girl. The family attempts to leave town, but it results in Alice's death in the same grisly way she originally died. She is healed upon re-entry into the city limits.
Mary arrives on the third day with a special choker, a necklace to contain the girl when it is time for her to go. Louise is horrified, and the couple plans to hide their daughter from the townspeople. Louise discovers she is pregnant, and Alice goes on a killing spree, murdering the people most intent on taking her back.
Patrick and Louise frantically try to find the girl, but instead discover the murdered townsfolk. It is discovered that Alice had been dead longer than a year, and they find her among a gruesome pile of dead crows. Along with Mary, they bring the girl back to the woods, with some Alice-induced trouble. She murders Mary by removing her heart out of her chest, and attacks her parents, but her mother tricks her into leaving the city limits and Alice dies again. Louise helps to put her body back to rest, but Alice drags her mother down with her – the consequence of an improper resurrection.
The last scenes are of Patrick resurrecting a heavily pregnant Louise, then a panning shot over a tray of scalpels and other medical instruments.
Cast
- Aidan Gillen as Patrick Daley
- Eva Birthistle as Louise Daley
- Timothy Spall as Arthur
- Ella Connolly as Alice Daley
- Ruth McCabe as Peggy O'Shea
- Amelia Crowley as Mary Brogan
- Brian Gleeson as Martin O'Shea
- Dan Gordon as Mick O'Shea
- Aoife Meagher as Deidre
- Tommy McArdle as Tommy
- John McArdle as Ben
Production
Wake Wood was filmed in County Donegal, Ireland, and in Österlen, Scania, Sweden.[4] The selection of Sweden as a shooting location was because of David Keating's love for the Swedish horror film Frostbite. Keating wished to work with the people behind the film, and he hired Chris Maris (the cinematographer on Frostbite) to shoot Wake Wood and Magnus Paulsson (Frostbite's producer) as co-producer.[5] It was the first theatrical release from genre production company Hammer Films in thirty years.[citation needed] The film premiered at the 2009 Lund International Fantastic Film Festival in Sweden.[6] It was released theatrically in UK cinemas on 25 March 2011 and it was released three days later on DVD in the UK on 28 March.[7]
Release
The film received a limited domestic release opening at 4 cinemas grossing £1,251 for the weekend of 25–27 March 2011.[8]
Home media
Momentum Pictures produced the Region 2 DVD[9] that came out in March 2011. Dark Sky Films released the Region 1 DVD[10] and Blu-ray Disc[11] in June 2011.
Reception
The film has received positive acclaim, with Rotten Tomatoes giving the film an 80% rating.[12]
Peter Bradshaw reviewed the film for The Guardian and gives it 4 stars out of five, suggesting the film is "in the tradition of Don't Look Now, The Wicker Man and the communal nightmares of Ira Levin; it's a low-budget film that entertainingly takes its audience to the brink of pure absurdity. But it also riffs nastily and effectively on ideas of taboo, on our perennial yearning for ceremony and ritual to alleviate the sadness of life, and on Larkin's idea that what's truly scary is not dying but being dead."[13]
Tony Vilgotsky of Russian horror webzine Darker gave this movie 4,5 stars out of 5. He mentioned that, by his opinion, Wake Wood includes some references to Lucio Fulci's film City of the Living Dead.[14]
Novelization
A novelisation of the film was written by K.A. John and published by Hammer Books in association with the Random House Group in 2011, ISBN 978-0-09-955618-3.
References
- ↑ "First Batch of Stills From Hammer Films' 'Wake Wood'". Bloody Disgusting.
- ↑ "New Stills From Hammer's Wake Wood". Dread Central.
- ↑ "Wake Wood: Hammer Films Returns!". Penny Blood.
- ↑ "HAMMER FILMS BACK IN PRODUCTION BUSINESS WITH "THE WAKE WOOD"".
- ↑ http://www.ystadsallehanda.se/tomelilla/article758313/Blodisande-samproduktion.html
- ↑ "Archive of the Fantastic Film Festival".
- ↑ "Hammer Films' movie description".
- ↑ "UK Box Office: 25–27 March 2011". UK Film Council.
- ↑ "Wake Wood". Momentum Pictures.
- ↑ "Wake Wood (Blu-ray)". Dark Sky Films.
- ↑ "Wake Wood R1 Blu-Ray". Dark Sky Films.
- ↑ "Wake Wood". Rotten Tomatoes.
- ↑ Bradshaw, Peter (24 March 2011). "Wake Wood – review". The Guardian.
- ↑ Vilgotsky, Tony (15 July 2011). "Hammer Studios Present". Darker.