The proliferation of the independent web series is
everywhere and there are both those that are good and those that are not so
good, those with good production values and those that don’t even know a
production value is, those with good acting and those with their friends and
family members as the actors and depending upon the type and style of the
series this can be a good or bad thing.
This being said the Matt Nielsen created web series “Into the Woods”
lies somewhere in the middle.
At just 10
episodes each about 2 minutes long (making the entire series a little over 20
minutes in length) there is a lot that is in store for the series’ audience but
there is also something left to be desired.
The story is about four strangers who wake up one day in the
middle of the woods with no recollection of how they got there or how they can
get out. The series opens with Mark
Jorden (Richard Peterson) who wakes up alone in the woods thinking that he had
partied too much the day before and can’t remember much of what happened. He’s not too particularly concerned since
from his own words he’s a good old boy from North Georgia who just thinks he
wondered into the woods. It isn’t until
the third episode that Mark meets Adam Kane (Gary Babiarz) a mysterious
backpacker and camper who has food, fire, and can provide Mark with shelter. It’s not until episode five that we meet the
other two parts of our quartet Helena Frae (Angie Harrel) and Baz (Adam
Mauldin), a lawyer with basic knowledge of faunae and a video gamer/college
student, respectfully. Both Helena and
Baz have been traveling on the same road for three days when they encounter
Mark and Kane. The story doesn’t really
jump into gear until Mark begins to suspect Kane of something nefarious (episode
7) at which point for some odd reason he thinks it’s better that he and Baz
split from the group to go out on their own despite the fact that Kane has the
food, fire, and means of shelter. Away
from Kane and Helena, Mark starts to go little nuts before he and Baz have an
altercation at which point the two helpless guys once again run into Kane and
Helena and a huge mystery is finally solved just as the series ends opening up
for season 2.
Nielsen wrote and directed the entire web series and
immediately by the end you’ll pick up on the fact that he was heavily
influenced by the film Predators (2010) which is both a good and bad
thing. The bad thing is that the setup
is something we’ve seen before in countless horror films and that’s exactly
what you would expect from this story except it’s less a horror story and more
a sci-fi story only it never fully commits to being a sci-fi story. There is very little setup for what will
ultimately be a sci-fi story, in fact, the first three episodes make it seem
like it will be some type of mystery drama but the biggest problem there is
that Mark is not a pro-active character and he just meanders through the first
five episodes until he decides to run away from Kane instead of confronting him
head on. A mystery only works if there
is a character actively trying to solve the mystery.
There is nothing for Helena or Baz to do in the series other
than play follow the leader and since they are absent from many episodes you
never really get a sense of what drives them if anything. None of the characters seem to be in a hurry
to get anywhere or do anything to drive the story forward. Kane is one of the more interesting
characters but he isn’t utilized to the best of the story’s capabilities
especially since he is at the heart of the big reveal at the end of the first
season. The story does have a group of
what could be interesting characters if they had been given something to drive
them and to make them want to get out of the woods as soon as possible.
Another thing to take into consideration is the lack of a
compelling setup for the sci-fi elements of the story. After three episodes of straight drama what
little sci-fi we get seems to come out of left field (episode 4) until the series’
final reveal (episode 10). Whether they are
incorporated into story or visual there needs to be adequate setup for these
sci-fi conventions in order for them to be convincing to the audience and to
help drive the narrative.
Now the good. I loved
the hand held aesthetic of the series.
It puts you right into the story of the people lost in the woods. I would even say that the film makers could
have gone even further because the story lends itself to some immediacy. Also I was impressed with the music and
editing which for an indie web series is hard to come by. The film makers obliviously are trying to
present a web series with high production values on a small budget. With the exception of the episode that takes
place all at night everything looked good (that episode had some minor lighting
issues but I wasn’t sure if this was because of camera issues or transfer to condensed
file size). There was only minor sound
issues with wind noise in the final episode but this did not take away from the
series as a whole. All the cast did a
pretty good job although I would have liked to see more quirkiness from the
lawyer who has a love of nature fetish and Kane who could have been taken
farther with his other worldliness. I
believe this is a tough decision for and writer or director when dealing with
material of this sort – how serious or quirky should the tone and mood be? Babiarz does a great job as Kane and I’m
looking forward to seeing where they take this character in season two.
Speaking of season two, season one does a pretty good job of
setting of the world of the series, which I believe was the intended goal. At only 2 minutes per episode and maybe a
combined 25 minutes of running time this web series is an extended trailer for
a much bigger film. If the film makers
wanted to craft a trailer for a bigger project or feature film (in order to
raise money for this bigger project) then they succeeded but on its own it’s
just a mediocre first season. Despite
the first 2 episodes being dull and boring the later episodes do pick up steam
and you can tell there is life within the web series if it’s given time to develop
all of its ideas and at only 2 minutes each episode goes by extremely fast. My advice to the film makers would be to
develop the characters motivations and drive for the series (and make Baz an
even bigger video game geek as he has some of the best lines in this season),
create a mystery that will drive the characters and plot forward, and don’t be
afraid to pull out those sci-fi touches because the last thing you want
audiences thinking is that “Lost in the Woods” is just another one of those low
budget horror films about a bunch of stupid people doing stupid things in the
woods (or a cabin, take your pick).
