REVIEW: THE CHILDREN OF THE WOODS

Okay, I can't lie, found footage films have never been my go-to. However, I have to admit the THE CHILDREN OF THE WOODS really came out swinging! Director TJ Robinson has crafted a purported documentary that feels partly like a true crime film and partly like a BLAIR WITCH homage.

The opening is sufficiently creepy with detective Dave Lincoln (Niki Parks) finding a running camera in the woods while searching for Blair Watson (Sarah Mae Robinson) a wannabe reporter that has gone missing while searching for five people that previously went missing in 1999, their disappearance attributed to the mysterious cult of the Children of the Woods.

We go from that opening into the documentary proper, with current-day filmmaker Jake Robinson (in a compelling performance by Christaan Voldstad) picking up where Blair left off, and more fully setting up the story of missing persons and the mysterious cult.

What follows is a pretty engaging story, mixing in interviews and found footage from the five ill-fated 1999 campers. The "1990's" footage was well done and believable, and the story kept you enthralled pretty much up until the end. There were a couple of lag spots in some of the interviews that ran a tad long, and some of the "walking around in the woods" found footage could definitely have used a tighter edit. The found footage was supposed to look rough, and it does, but not in a terribly distracting way. Overall quality of the film from a technical standpoint was solid, and while the cast gave an acceptably good performance, Angel Nichole Bradford as Chloe Colman was a real standout.

I would recommend THE CHILDREN OF THE WOODS to anyone who is a fan of mystery, creepy, low-key horror, and the found footage genre of films.