Bette Davis

Lynn-Holly Johnson

Kyle Richards

Carroll Baker

David McCallum

Benedict Taylor

Frances Cuka

Richard Pasco

Ian Bannen

Katharine Levy

Eleanor Summerfield

Georgina Hale

Dominic Guard

Derek Lyons

Ina Clare

John Hough

Brian Clemens

Stanley Myers

Gerry Day

Geoffrey Foot

Harry Spalding

Emma Porteous

Jill Carpenter

Florence Engel Randall

John Richardson

Rosemary Anne Sisson

Alan Hume

Ernest Gasser

Maude Spector

Ian Whittaker

Hugh Attwooll

Ron Miller

Tom Leetch

Alan Cassie

Vic Armstrong

Elliot Scott

Fantasy

Horror

Thriller

The Watcher in the Woods

Walt Disney Productions

United Kingdom

United States of America

English

Oh so very boring.

<em>'The Watcher in the Woods'</em> isn't necessarily a terrible film, but wow did I feel completely uninterested from (almost) start-to-finish. Dully told plot with a plain cast list. I couldn't, unfortunately, tell you anything I actually found good about this.

Lynn-Holly Johnson (Jan), a year prior to her appearance in James Bond, is the standout, but that's only down to a process of elimination to be honest; I found the rest yawnful. They aren't helped by the writing which fails to captivate how supposedly heavy the premise is, it's all basically as it seems - obvious. I should've cared for Mrs. Aylwood (Bette Davis) but I simply didn't feel attached one bit.

It is a weird one due to it not, as noted, doing anything massively negative, it's just the fact that the (short) run time is such a chore to get through. Not one I'd recommend.

_**This ain’t no conventional Disney flick; it’s genuinely eerie**_

An American family moves into an English country manor for the summer while the mysterious owner, Mrs. Aylwood (Bette Davis), lives in the guest house. The teen daughter, Jan (Lynn-Holly Johnson), discerns something weird is going on, which is linked to Mrs. Aylwood's missing daughter, Karen (Katharine Levy), from decades earlier. Jan investigates the mystery with the aid of a neighbor (Benedict Taylor) and her younger sister (Kyle Richards). Carroll Baker & David McCallum play the girls' parents. 

"The Watcher in the Woods" (1980-81) is a mystery thick with haunting ambiance, augmented by an unnerving score. DON'T expect typical Disney kiddie fare. Despite inexplicable criticism, winsome Lynn-Holly Johnson shines as the protagonist and carries the film with Davis superlative as the curmudgeonly crone. Baker is still attractive as the mother.

The original ending of the movie wasn't finished in time so important expositional scenes were cut, which left the story nonsensical. Negative critical response to a test run in spring, 1980, resulted in the movie being pulled from theaters and, after reshoots, a more subdued ending was inserted for its official release in fall, 1981, which is the "official" ending. 

The original ending included a cool a skeletal-insectoid alien as the Watcher, who eerily floats in thin air, which also appeared in the 1980 test run, minus an explanatory "other world" sequence (which was the part that wasn't completed in time). While the 1980 ending fails to properly explain events, I thought it was quite effective for the time period and for this type of movie. Not everything's tied up, but that's okay because it's a haunting mystery movie anyway. The longer version with the "other world" sequence goes overkill with the gobbledygook. 

For a more low-key version with an intelligible and more interesting (but less entertaining) climax, which happens to be more faithful to the book, see the 2017 TV movie by Melissa Joan Hart. 

The film runs 1 hour, 24 minutes (theatrical version), and was shot in Warwickshire, Buckinghamshire & Pinewood Studios, England, with further studio work and reshoots (directed by Vincent McEveety) done in Burbank, California. 

GRADE: B

The Watcher in the Woods (1980) - Trailer

The Watcher in the Woods

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