The Woods (film)

Infobox Film
name = The Woods


caption = A promotional poster for the film
director = Lucky McKee
producer = Bryan Furst & Sean Furst
writer = David Ross
starring = Agnes Bruckner
Patricia Clarkson
Lauren Birkell
Rachel Nichols
Bruce Campbell
music = John Frizzell Jaye Barnes Luckett
distributor = United Artists (direct-to-video through Sony Pictures Home Entertainment)
released = October 3, 2006 (USA DVD release)
runtime = 86 min.
language = English
website = http://www.mgm.com/ua/thewoods/
amg_id = 1:292778
imdb_id = 0380066
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"The Woods" is a film directed by Lucky McKee. A psychological horror story set in 1965, the plot is about an all-girls private school which deals with the mysterious incident in the woods that surround the school.

Plot

After setting fire to a tree at her home, Heather Fasulo is sent to an all girls private school known as the Falburn Academy. She despises it immediately upon arriving. At her first lunch she meets a nice but shy girl named Marcy. While getting to know each other a blond and seemingly vicious girl named Samantha approaches the table and begins to pick on Marcy and proceeds to do so to Heather calling her "fire crotch" (because of her red hair) and knocking over her glass of milk. The teachers are extremely strict and hard on her even though it`s only her first day and she is sent to see the headmistress Miss Traverse. Miss Traverse gives Heather a test and tells her it is to see if she is "gifted". Upon finishing the test Heather gets a paper cut and her blood drips onto the test.

Later that night Heather sneaks out of bed and goes into the woods near the school. There she hears creepy whispers and appears to be being chased. Leaving the woods she realizes that she was not alone and that the teachers were in there with her. Taken back to the dormitory, Heather goes to sleep and wakes up some time later in the night to the sound of a girl crying. She approaches the girl's bed and is startled when the girl says in a deep voice, "This is my bed." The girl screams and appears to kill Heather with an axe. It is revealed in the morning that this was some sort of bizarre dream. Heather asks Marcy about the now vacant bed and Marcy tells her that the girl tried to kill herself shortly before she arrived and is in the hospital. When Heather goes to use the restroom, Samantha holds the stall door shut and tells Heather that she won't let her out unless she admits to being a fire crotch. Heather insults her and Samantha opens the door, punches her in the gut, and warns her to watch herself. Miss Traverse calls Heather to her office and begins to ask her if she can hear voices. Heather stops rocking in her chair startled by the question and balances it on its hind legs. Miss Traverse appears intrigued and Heather rushes out of the room, alarmed. Sam is waiting for her outside and tells her that she is "dumber than a fucking tree stump." Miss Traverse enters and reprimands Samantha's cruelty.

Later that night the girls warn Heather about not going into the woods and tell her a story about a girl who entered the woods and returned with an axe, murdering their teacher. It was said that the girl was a witch and allowed herself to be possessed by the spirit of the woods. Heather dares one of the girls to go into the woods and the girl complies but doesn't get the chance to enter because the teachers are once again in the woods and catch them out of bed. Heather becomes suspicious of the teachers after hearing the myth about the woods and notices that Marcy is frequently being taken from class to practice singing. The girl from Heather's dream, Anne, returns to the school. At lunch, Samantha once again approaches Heather and accuses her of talking behind her back. Heather insults her and Samantha takes her milk and dumps it on Marcy. Heather punches her in the face and proceeds to pummel her before being intervened by one of the teachers. She is then taken to Miss Traverse's office and tells her that she wants to call her parents to tell them to take her home. Miss Traverse allows her to use the phone. Heather's mother answers and tells her to stop being such a weakling and hangs up.

At night Heather attempts to talk with Anne, who tells her that she is special, too, like Marcy and herself before going into a trance-like state. Heather gives up and returns to her bed. In the morning Anne's bed is filled with leaves but the girl is missing. An emergency meeting is called and Miss Traverse informs the student body that the police have been notified and that they are doing everything they can to find Anne. Heather later notices the door to Miss Traverse's office is ajar and eavesdrops. A cop is talking with her and apparently has dropped some of Anne's things off from the hospital. He asks Miss Traverse how she is to which she replies, "quiet", revealing what they were told at the assembly to be a lie. Heather now believes everything she's heard about the myth and what Anne has told her that Miss Traverse is the witch and that she had a hand in the girls' disappearances.

Heather tries to talk with Marcy about her suspicions involving Traverse and the other teachers, but Marcy gives her the cold shoulder and calls her a fire crotch before going to another one of her singing lessons. Furious, Heather returns to the dormitory and smashes Marcy's radio which she told Heather was the only thing that got her through the day. Upon discovering the radio, Marcy cries herself to sleep. In the morning she too is missing with her bed also filled with leaves similar to Anne's. Samantha reveals herself to have only treated Heather like dirt because she knew the truth behind the school and wanted to get Heather kicked out to keep her safe. She tells Heather that because this didn't work she has phoned Mr. Fasulo and told him to come pick his daughter up because she has gone insane. Miss Traverse is looking on suspiciously of their conversation and tells Sam to come with her. Samantha's last words to Heather are "Don't drink the milk".

Later as Heather is in class a scream is heard. The entire class rushes out into the cafeteria to discover Samantha's hanged body. While the police are questioning Miss Traverse on Sam's death Heather interrupts and asks how the search for Anne and Marcy is going. The cops look questioningly at Traverse who once again lies stating that they went missing after Samantha hanged herself. Miss Traverse points in a direction and says that they were both seen heading that way. One of the cops drives in that direction calling out Anne and Marcy's names when a tree suddenly animates and impales him through the chest. Heather goes to Traverse's office and accuses her of killing Samantha, which she denies. She somehow convinces Heather to balance some small stones on her desk. They are interrupted by a knock on the door. It is Heather's parents ready to take her home. Heather flips off Miss Traverse before leaving the school. During the drive her parents get into an argument distracting her father from driving and they run off road but safely come to a stop. Some roots come to life and pull the car onto its side. Heather's mother attempts to help Heather but is plucked from the car by a branch and is slammed down onto the hood, breaking her neck. Heather's last sight before losing consciousness is of her mother's limp body.

Heather awakens in the hospital and leaves her room to find her father. She is successful but is pulled screaming from the room by the doctors. As she is being dragged away, she sees Miss Traverse entering his room. She screams, "Stop her! She'll Kill him! She's a witch!" before being sedated. Traverse slices her hand with a scalpel and force feeds the sap that comes out of her hand to Mr. Fasulo causing him to go into a vegetative state. Heather is returned to the school since her father can't speak against it and her mother is dead. On her first night back she is attacked by tree branches that bust through the windows and chase her into the restroom where she is knocked out. She awakens strapped to a chair next to Marcy and Anne and Miss Traverse tells Heather to balance some large ceremonial looking stones which she does reluctantly. It is revealed that the teachers are planning on using the girls' powers to cast a spell that causes the rest of the students to be possessed by the souls of the woods that are currently in the old bodies of the teachers.

Meanwhile, in the hospital Heather's dad comes to and rushes off to save Heather. He finds an axe in a tool shed and finds the girls in the middle of the woods. He sticks the axe in one of the teacher's shoulder before being cocooned in branches. Heather breaks free of her restraints, grabs the axe and cuts all the teachers, including Miss Traverse, to pieces. The last shot of the movie is of smoke rising in the background and Heather, Mr.Fasulo, Anne, Marcy, and the rest of the students walking away from it. It then states that in 1965 the Falburn Academy burned to the ground but mysteriously the woods surrounding it were not touched by the fire.