Alex Magaña's Weekly Tales of Terror: Lost in the Woods Movie Review

Alex Magaña wants you to know that the woods are not a safe place to be even in the brightest daylight. To that effect, he takes you to a stretch of frankly idyllic wilderness and forces you to try and believe your eyes when the Shapeshifter (Rory Ross) shows how dangerous it is to get Lost in the Woods.

The film utilizes every second of the roughly two and a half minutes wisely, giving you a creature that’s clearly supernatural and not to be trifled with a face that’s as banal as can be…until he smiles a bit. It’s a solid moment that gives punch to the ending and creates a creature with story possibilities to be mined. With a little more time fleshing out a backstory, the Shapeshifter could be a hell of a villain.

The archetypal setting of the American wilderness combined with the classic pretty young joggers give Lost in the Woods an aesthetic that’s more Friday the 13th, but that plays to the advantage of the story. The Shapeshifter creature can easily operate like a slasher while being much more of a legitimate supernatural force; it’s a blend that’s capable of driving a feature-length film.

Lost in the Woods is a strong template for a future work that would be worth developing and investing in. Alex Magaña shows his usual eye for making a clean-looking little flick. Now we need to see that look get dirtied up a little bit. I’m ready for it.