Movie Review: Greywood’s Plot – Horror in the woods.

Comedy and horror seem to be the go-to place for most indie film makers. Besides, it doesn’t seem these genres require much to make a good film when you have a good enough story. What matters most if keeping a fine balance between the two with which ever story you choose to tell. Finding that balance however can be the toughest challenge for the filmmaker. How comedic can you go and how horrific should it be?

Dominic (played by Josh Stifter) lives in his mother’s basement. His obsession with cryptozoology has him constantly making YouTube videos all to get some attention. He and his only friend Miles (Keith Radichel) have a web series where they talk about sightings of stage creatures. They themselves sometimes fake these sightings. But that doesn’t seem to be going so great for them.

After a strange tape of that appears to be a monster appears in the mail for them, the two friends decide to journey into the woods to uncover what they saw in the video. A journey that is bound to change their lives.

Right from the start of the film, you notice the obvious choice of making this film in black and white. Clearly, it is not a period piece judging from the costuming and everything else around so why black and white? You are forced to constantly ask yourself this. But it is a B movie maybe a C even depending on how you look at it.

Greywood’s Plot

It is not a complex story with a tall cast list or an overly impressive narration or acting. You might even be tempted to call it bland for a horror film if you don’t have the patience to sit through it. What it lacks in nuances of the genre it makes up in the choice of style used in telling this story.  You can tell that it is trying to be unique in its own ways whilst trying to pay homage to the fundamentals of the genre. Like many horror films from the past, there is a protagonist who embarks on a somewhat senseless journey looking for something they certainly aren’t ready to encounter.

When Dom and Miles set off into the woods, the first encounter Aaron (played by Aaron McKenna). He seems to know more about that they are looking for and how to find it. The three and their journey into the woods becomes the focus of the story now

Josh Stifter not only stars in this, he co-wrote and is credited as the director for this film. His work here doesn’t feel like that of a novice at all. I just appear he knows exactly what to do but he just doesn’t have all that he needs to make it work.

Majority of the film feels like a comedy but there are few moments where the viewer is forced to feel unsettled. It doesn’t however pass for being scary enough for any hard-core fans of the genre.

The film seems to save the actual horror for the final minutes of the film. Right through from the start you are hit with the subtle comic elements. The film just feels like a cheesy comic horror. But in the final moments of the film, you get the gore and scare that you might have been expecting. The few sequences seem to try to make up for age

Only except that this is all toned down by the choice of making this film in black and white. A choice that seemed like an awkward one at the start of the film feels more like a clever choice at the point. The contrast and balance of the black and white shots all seems to add to how mild the gore is and also manages to hide some of the flaws in the clearly low budget vfx and sfx work done on this film.

Greywood’s Plot isn’t your perfect horror film. It is far from that but it is also far from being a disaster. I will score it 5/10. For all that it lacks it makes up with creativity leaving with you enough to imagine what more it can be.