MovieChat Forums > The Watcher in the Woods (1981) Discussion > Here's a quality fan edit using all dele...

Here's a quality fan edit using all deleted scenes...

posted 7 months ago by Wuchak (8732)
5 replies | jump to latest

...including the sequence near the end featuring the cool skeletal-insectoid alien as the Watcher, who eerily floats in thin air (the movie should've never been released without this great scene):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFYl2g2h3I4

EDIT: Youtube unfortunately removed the video since I originally posted, but search the internet and see if you can find a version of the film with the skeletal-insectoid alien. It's the only way to see it!

[–] PrimeMinisterX (8707) a month ago

Looks like your link no longer works, unfortunately.

I watched the film tonight for the first time. I thought it was interesting but the sci-fi twist didn't really work for me. If you're going to do horror, do horror. Don't hit me with dimensional travel.

[–] Wuchak (8732) a month ago

Did you see the version with the skeletal-insectoid alien as the Watcher in the climax? Without that great 'payoff,' the movie ends in an unsatisfying way (speaking as one who has seen both versions).

[–] PrimeMinisterX (8707) a month ago

I've seen both endings. Honestly I don't think either are great. While I enjoy twists and unexpected surprises, this film felt kind of like a bait-and-switch. It was sold to me in the first two acts as a tale of the supernatural and then became a sci-fi story in the climax. It just didn't work for me.

I've been going through some of the films from Disney's "dark era" in the late 70s and early 80s and last night I watched Something Wicked This Way Comes. I thought that, overall, that was a much more satisfying movie.

[–] Wuchak (8732) a month ago

Sometimes the line between supernatural and science fiction is thin. For me, the other-dimensional explanation didn’t take away from the mysteriousness and haunting ambiance of the proceedings, which were augmented by the unnerving score and the outstanding skeletal-insectoid alien sequence of the original version. Sure, the tone awkwardly changes with the quick tie-everything-together happy ending, but that's expected with Disney. Meanwhile winsome Lynn-Holly Johnson shines as the protagonist and carries the film, despite inexplicable criticisms, and Bette Davis is superlative as the curmudgeonly crone; not to mention, Carroll Baker as the mother.

I'm not saying it's great, but it worked enough for me to give it a solid grade of B.

[–] PrimeMinisterX (8707) a month ago

I didn't have a problem with the tone of the film or the happy ending. That was fine and frankly I'd rather the ending be a happy one than an unhappy one.

I also agree that Lynn-Holly Johnson did a fine job in the film. I enjoyed watching her and thought she was a good pick as the lead.

But jumping from "it's a ghost" to "it's an alien" just didn't work for me. A movie about aliens wasn't the film that I sat down to watch or what the film sold itself as in the first two acts. And again, I don't mind twists, but in order for me to be happy with a twist I have to actually like it and think it's effective. This one, I didn't. The alien twist is not the ending's only problem though. It also leaves a lot of questions unanswered and just overall feels opaque and messy. That is, even if one can accept the sudden extraterrestrial invasion into the storyline, the ending still doesn't really work.

And lastly, while I agree regarding the "mysteriousness and haunting ambience of the proceedings," the first two acts are slow. Even at a very brisk 85 minutes the film felt rather long simply becuase of how slowly it moves in its first two-thirds. This could've been excusable if it had really stuck the landing with the ending, but while the film does pick up in the third act, things go awry in the climax and it fails to satisfy.

So while I won't say that the film is an outright failure, because it does have its good points and has some things going for it, I also can't really call it a success either. It exists in that weird region that lies between victory and defeat.