The Watcher in the Woods (1980)

Directors: John Hough, Vincent McEveety

Starring: Bette Davis, Lynn-Holly Johnson, Kyle Richards

When a family moves to a country home, the young girls experience strange happenings that have a link to an occult event years past.

‘The Watcher in the Woods’ is a confusing story that doesn’t make sense, and one I’m definitely going to forget.

The Curtis family movies into a big, secluded mansion, owned by the somewhat mysterious Mrs Aylward (Bette Davis). On the first day, their teenage daughter Jan, senses something not right in the woods. She notices a strange blue light in the woods, and get the feeling she is being watched.

Mrs Aylward lives in a cottage on the premises. Story goes, her daughter Karen disappeared years ago. Now Jan keeps getting visions of a blindfolded Karen, and she is convinced she is still alive. What could have been a suspenseful mystery thriller, ends up being ridiculous due to weird twists. There so much here that doesn’t make sense.

As we discover, Karen disappeared during an initiation by a secret society, but very little is actually explained or revealed in this regard. Why is the younger daughter Ellie speaking in different tongues? Why is she also sensing things? Is she possessed? And only when it is required for the script to work (well, it still doesn’t!).

The more they try to explain everything, the more confusing the film became. The Dad, Paul Curtis (David McCullum) exits the movie around the halfway mark. I would have preferred the family to stick together during Jan’s ordeal. Even the Mother, Helen (Carroll Baker) was pretty much on the background for most of the movie. And what the hell actually happened during the ending?? With way too many issues, ‘The Watcher in the Woods’ therefore is a film I can’t recommend.

‘The Watcher in the Woods’ flopped at the box office, only earning $5 million on a $9 million budget.

Would I watch it again? No.