Still grieving the death of their only child, Alice, a young couple relocate to the remote town of Wake Wood where they stumble on a group of villagers practising Pagan rituals. They soon learn that this ritual has the power to bring back the dead, and would allow them three days with their beloved daughter.
Reviews
The Guardian
Peter Bradshaw
“This macabre, black-comic horror, set in rural Ireland, is in the tradition of Don't Look Now, The Wicker Man and the communal nightmares of Ira Levin; it's a low-budget film that entertainingly takes its audience to the brink of pure absurdity. But it also riffs nastily and effectively on ideas of taboo, on our perennial yearning for ceremony and ritual to alleviate the sadness of life, and on Larkin's idea that what's truly scary is not dying but being dead.”
24/03/2011
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Total Film
Matt Glasby
“Creepy enough to get in your bones and convincing enough to stay there, David Keating’s film juxtaposes the grim minutiae of death with the ravages of grief. The biggest surprise is not that it’s hair-raising, but that it’s heart-rending too.”
14/03/2011
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The Observer
Philip French
“The film cleverly brings together WW Jacobs's celebrated short story The Monkey's Paw with The Wicker Man, and it's both touching and scary.”
27/03/2011
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The Daily Telegraph
Tim Robey
“The plot has vague similarities to Hammer efforts of yore and very specific ones to Pet Sematary, the Stephen King novel filmed by Mary Lambert in 1989. What holds it back from being as scary or memorable as it should be is the flat, slack, bog-standard aesthetic.”
25/03/2011
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Time Out
Nigel Floyd
“True, there’s little new here, but the performances are convincing, the cinematography by Chris Maris (‘Frostbite’) is suitably sludgy and atmospheric, and make-up designer Kaj Grönberg’s visceral re-birthing scenes are somehow both disgusting and moving.”
24/03/2011
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The Times
Wendy Ide
“A superior cast featuring Aidan Gillen, Eva Birthistle and Timothy Spall elevates Wake Wood from a somewhat clunky small-town horror movie to an enjoyably old school Wicker Man-style tale of rustic cult weirdness.”
25/03/2011
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The Sunday Times
Edward Porter
“The nasty events that arise from this unnatural meddling aren’t original, but there is a nice grisly punch line, and the film certainly appreciates the proper ambience of bucolic horror, with dead animals and related gore all over the place, and Timothy Spall well cast as the village’s genial yet sinister squire. ”
27/03/2011
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Empire Magazine
Kim Newman
“This low-key, gritty entry from the revived Hammer Films follows Stephen King’s Pet Sematary in offering a gruesome gloss on the theme of being careful what you wish for, but also fits into a persistent strain of British horror about Pagan communities and unwary incomers. Well-played, especially by Ella Connolly as the creepy resurrected daughter, and nicely murky, this is familiar but likable.”
27/03/2011
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Variety
Leslie Felperin
“Pic's early reels build up the atmosphere effectively enough, thanks largely to an effective creepy score by Michael Convertino and poignant perfs from Gillen and Birthistle”
25/03/2011
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The Independent on Sunday
Nicholas Barber
“Timothy Spall twinkles in the Christopher Lee role of the village squire. Only the cheapo-looking camerawork spoils things – although that, too, is true to its Hammer heritage.”
27/03/2011
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The Financial Times
Nigel Andrews
“It is bad enough knowing it goes on here, under smiling squire Timothy Spall, though our horror is reduced by a sneaking awareness that the film is making up its grand guignol ground rules as it goes along.”
24/03/2011
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The Independent
Anthony Quinn
“The enveloping creepiness of the village setting scores points, which the film proceeds to squander in careless plotting, imprecise effects and a denouement of arrant silliness – including a steal from a horror standard even more famous than the other two.”
25/03/2011
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