User reviews

A group of friends & family gather at a remote holiday home in rural Ireland, but they're off-put by the sulfuric stench of a newly opened sinkhole a couple of miles away. The stench will be the least of their cares when a bit o' hell breaks loose.

"Beyond the Woods" (2018) is an Irish horror Indie that's mostly mundane drama at the holiday home where the dudes & dudettes hang around drinking & smoking or maybe walking the yard/woods. If you can handle that, things turn horrific in the last act with pretty good infernal f/x, especially for a spare-change Indie. Personally, I enjoyed the lens into everyday social life in Ireland, but others may understandably find it tedious.

The film runs 1 hour, 23 minutes, and was shot in Cullen (the holiday home & surrounding woods) & Crosshaven (creature nightmare scene), County Cork, Ireland.

GRADE: C

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed most of this movie. Good character development and chemistry between the actors; with the acting being rather impressive, and likely best thing going for Beyond the Woods.

If this film were just a straight up drama about some old friends dealing with becoming different people in the interim time from when they last got together until this trip, it would have been rock solid. Even some of the creepiness was at first very well conceived, and could be explained away in the story by the drug/alcohol use and human anxieties they cycle through during their time secluded in the wilderness. It really would have been just fine if left at that. Unfortunately, it was originally developed as a horror flick and so the filmmaker ruined a 7 star indie drama by eventually forcing it into becoming a cliched supernatural slasher. I feel like that's a pretty big shame because the final twenty minutes was just super cheesy and so jarring when compared to the bulk of the story. Things just escalated too fast and it felt out of place. 5/10

There was an actual story which I didn't expect, and it's not terrible. The issue is it takes up the first two thirds of the movie and it's more soap opera than horror. When the horror kicks in it's a bit predictable. Overall, it's worth a watch, but don't expect quality cinema.

So the cast did a good job of being a believable group of friends. The acting is great. You can really believe that these are friends who've not seen each other in a long time and are awkwardly trying to enjoy a weekend together.

Sadly, that's about all the movie has going for it. There is no real horror. There's a badly done "creature" with an axe, that makes a couple of appearances but mostly just hangs around off screen making odd noises. The creature has completely undefined powers, and seems to be all powerful one moment and just a regular mortal with an axe at others. There's no sense to it.

The end of the movie just falls apart completely. All in all, a very poor showing.

If you enjoy loads of mindless chatter then this is the movie for you. Kept waiting for something...anything interesting to happen. Never did and after a long and gruelling 58 minutes and 14 seconds I had to mercifully switch it off. Someone describes this as character-driven Irish horror, to me it was more like endless cackling hens. Another said it was top quality Irish horror film. God save me from ever watching another character-driven, top quality Irish horror film. Like another reviewer has mentioned I also believe that some if not all the glowing reviews might be from people affiliated with this horrorble Irish film.

Very impressed with this flick. Not at all what I expected given the slasher cover and a bad trailer with worrying font. A-list worthy acting talent on show here first off. The director delivers quite a unique blend of horror and drama which builds in tension perfectly. Amazing location. Will be interested to see what he does next.

I dont no what the other reviewers are seeing 10/10. Have a day off people. Its a 2 at best. Shame really hoped it was better . Potential was there Untill the hooded demon axe swinger in my nans dressing gown appeared

Sorry guys

Came across this movie on Sky and ended up buying it in HD. I wasn't sure what to expect because most of the critical reviews were great but there were some over the top bad user reviews. After having watched it I can only assume those people auditioned for the movie and didn't get the job! The acting is top notch first off. I was really impressed with the standard of acting in this. Overall production values/special effects are great. It feels like a modern take on a classic cabin in the woods horror film. Not enough blood and gore in the film unfortunately and I would have loved more scenes out in the woods during the day. More on screen kills and woods scenes and I'd probably rate this higher but none the less it's a must see for real horror fans. An unexpected gem.

Don't waste your time, absolutely diabolical, unbelievably shocking acting, Sky Tv had it down as 5/5, they need poking in the bloody eye

Appalling acting with actors who are devoid of any chemistry together,a script that is so bad that it has a bunch of actors sitting around just yapping at each other,dull filmography that fails to take in a beautiful area,disgustingly bad cgi ghoulie,you have "Beyond the Woods" in a nutshell.It is so bad they had someone involved with the film post no less than five fake reviews and ratings a month apart.seriously it's so bad I can't be bothered with this review anymore,just don't subject yourself to this tripe.

The film came up on one of our movie subscriptions and had a rating of 7.8.........film has just finished and we are wondering how anyone can honestly give it more than a 1.

Making me question any ratings on films now.

It is a very poor movie and there is no story. Its a shame to call this a horror movie.

Seriously, I've seen fourteen year olds make better acted and more technically proficient youtube videos. Don't waste your time it's baaaad...(not even in a good way)

Characters barely acting and just talking all throughout the movie. The killer is just a big man in rags who carries an axe..turns black out when kills then that's it lol a waste of time

I've seen Beyond the Woods only the one time at the Super Geek film festival in Florida. Originally from Ireland I went out of my way while I was spending a month in Fort Lauderdale. I really didn't know what to expect at all. I'm a big horror/sci-fi fan so saw this advertised for the Friday night and went along. I was hooked in the opening few minutes. The location presented in the movie is iconic. It is a world of it's own. I felt like I wanted more shots around the site where it was filmed because it's gorgeous in a horror film way that is! 5 minutes into the film I realised the actors are great which is always necessary to pull you into a movie. Very clearly defined characters portrayed by really great actors. I found myself relating to the Ger character quite soon as he's almost a social misfit but more because his long term girlfriend has left him not like me who feels that way in social situations all the time. But having said that Ger played beautifully by John Ryan Howard is clearly written as the outside character - he doesn't want to be there.

The other characters are much more up for partying and escaping to isolation. Brilliantly played by a great ensemble cast. Ray played by Mark Griffin is very believable as the inconsiderate corporate asshole who doesn't deserve his girlfriend. Director Sean Breathnach builds the story in a way that makes the audience root for Ger(John Ryan Howard)and Lucy(Irene Kelleher)to get together and for Lucy to just leave Ray altogether. It reminded me much of a Ross and Rachel situation from Friends almost but done in a much more efficient and effective time frame within the confines of a relatively short feature film.

There is a good portion of the movie used for set-up purposes but it does so blissfully. Extremely naturalistic performances and dialogue with stimulating cinematography all skillfully edited together make for an early Christmas present. It took me about 15 minutes into Sean Breathnach's debut before I made my mind up to buy this movie on DVD or blu-ray whenever it's properly released. I could feel the tension in the pit of my stomach building gradually in what felt like an expertly designed suspense arch created by director Sean Breathnach. The third act in the movie unleashes hell so to speak. Special effects had nothing low budget whatsoever looking about them, every bit as good as the special effects in any Hollywood heavyweight horror film I've ever seen.

Director Sean Breathnach is clearly one of our brightest hopes for the future of horror movies. Beyond the Woods became my favourite horror film of the year and maybe my favourite of the past 5 years. The performances in the movie are outstanding and all the actors very easy to watch. My favourite actors in the movie would have to be Ger(John Ryan Howard) and Ray(Mark Griffin) though. Amazing debut feature from Sean Breathnach. Can't wait to own this movie on DVD and sincerely looking forward to director Sean Breathnach's second feature offering.

Avoid this like the plague. Worst film I've ever seen.

I first saw Beyond The Woods at the superb Unrestricted View Horror Film festival in London where it won best international picture. I loved every bit of this film. I was wary of what standard to expect as you get a mix at certain film festivals. I needn't have worried. I was pleasantly surprised to see a superbly put together feature. The acting is superbly subtle/natural particularly from the 2 lead roles Ger and Lucy. Having said that the rest of the actors were also really great. I loved the setting the location is a star of the movie, isolated house in a massive forest - creepy as hell! The edit is very fast which adds to the suspenseful feel of the movie and the character development for a horror movie is second to none. I've recommended it to all my horror buddies it's my favourite horror of the year can't wait for the DVD release. 10 our of 10 for me! Can't wait to see what director Sean Breathnach does next.

I was almost instantly impressed with the acting in the opening few minutes of this movie. 7 friends gather in a farm house to reminisce about old times. The actors seem like genuine people and real friends, there is some great character work by the actors and all seem very real. One may seem a little OTT , but that's down to him being written as a typical jerk. The premise is good. These friends more or less trapped in this farm house with a mysterious sink ( or should I say stink ) hole opened up two miles away, that maybe spewing up more than nasty smells. Once the friends start to get menaced by a mysterious presence it starts to go down hill. It feels like the writer, who also directs, doesn't seem to know where the story and this antagonistic force is going. It's powers seem undefined , and seems to be able to do what ever the plot demands and has seemingly Omnipotent abilities . Yet we have a dude dressed as Skeletor walking round with an axe. Lot's of questions are raised but very few are answered. It's light on actual horror and gore aswell. The character work is great and cinematography, lighting etc all looks to a good standard . The movie does have a somewhat cheap feel to it too. The man behind this has talent as a director but maybe should work of someone else's script . The cast are top notch and does make you care about the characters . Overall good potential, but lack of experience behind the camera shows

Well there's been four reviews on this movie, and every single one of them are glowing! I've just had a peek and all four accounts have only been on IMDb for a-couple of months.. 3 months at the most! And this is the only movie they have reviewed! "Surprise..surprise" I smell bulls$#*!! Well that's another movie I've been put off watching!

Here we go again for another round of fake reviews (the perfect tens have only reviewed this movie as usual). I don't need to explain why that is, it's pretty obvious. So here is a review from somebody that reviews every movie he watches. Beyond The Woods fails as a horror movie because the horror is just not present. Or they must have thought that those mediocre 'horror' scenes counted as scary. It all looks very amateuristic. The acting is just average, nothing really bad, nothing really good. The story is poorly written, really nothing interesting, a plot that is underdeveloped, it's basically waiting for answers you will never get. It doesn't matter that it is a low budget (it shows though) as I've seen a lot of good low budget movies but this one isn't one of them.

Unfortunately, this is a very poor, very badly directed film with practically no story line. Its a shame as some of the acting is good in parts. I realise the limitations of what is clearly an extremely low budget film, but both the direction, editing and Audio are so poor that it removes any chance of getting immersed into the movie. The early reviews are clearly friends or employees of the film.. its just not good at all!

Had to sign up to IMDB just to put it out there how bad this is!! Wow it's truly awful!! AVOID