At this point it’s probably easier counting the number of movies about friends heading into the woods who don’t wind up slaughtered, as the premise has quickly become the go-to setup for far too many horror films these days. That’s not to say some of them don’t turn out well with fun thrills, memorable kills, and satisfying endings, but most entries in the sub-genre unfortunately go the opposite route. Witches in the Woods, if nothing else, at least ends on a high note.
A group of college “friends” head into the snowy woods with plans for snowboarding, drinking, and relaxing by the fireplace, but when one insists they take a sketchy detour the gang quickly finds themselves stranded with a broken SUV, decreasing temperatures, and a whole lot of antagonistic tension between them. The situation is bad enough, but with dicks, bitches, cheaters, and a fragile young woman named Alison (Sasha Clements) — she recently accused some classmates of sexual assault and is still dealing with judgement and fallout — among them, it might not be the inclement weather that gets the best of them.
Director Jordan Barker and writer Christopher Borrelli open their film with a quote from Robert Oxton Bolton — “Belief is not merely an idea that the mind possesses; it is an idea that possesses the mind.” It’s as close to a theme as the film attempts, and while it doesn’t quite congeal with the narrative until the final frames it remains an ambitious idea for a “cabin in the woods” scenario.