THE WATCHER IN THE WOODS: Blu-ray (The Walt Disney Co., 1980) Disney Club Exclusive
Bette Davis once said “not
everything I do is quality, but I choose from the best that I am being offered”
– words to perfectly typify Ms. Davis’ appearance in directors’ John Hough
and Vincent McEveety’s The Watcher in the Woods (1980) – one of the Walt
Disney Company’s utterly grotesque attempts to ‘mature’ their brand beyond the
family friendly fanfare of Walt’s generation. Davis, looking haggard and frail
beyond her years, is Mrs. Aylwood, a lonely spinster sequestered in the woods
adjacent an old English country house where a newly arrived American family has
taken refuge for their summer holidays. But what ought to be a pleasant retreat
in the country quickly turns into a darkly purposed excursion, steeped in
witchcraft and the occult, thanks to the mysterious – and never entirely to be
explained away – supernatural occurrences.
When it was released, The Watcher in the Woods performed so
poorly at the box office it was yanked from general distribution barely a week
later, and thereafter, resurfaced only occasionally as ‘late night’ TV
fodder. In the interim, the powers that
be at Disney tried to shore up the picture’s reputation by pasting a new ending
and lopping off the opening act, decisions akin to applying lipstick on the
proverbial ‘pig’ – hoping to transform it into a Cinderella sweetheart’s deal
of a midnight horror flick. Nothing helped. Davis, to her credit, gave the only
credible performance in the picture which also starred Lynn-Holly Johnson as
Jan Curtis, then riding the crest of fame from her Golden Globe-nominated
performance in 1978’s Ice Castles, and soon to make even a bigger splash
as the precocious sex-kitten, Bibi Dahl in the James Bond actioner, For Your
Eyes Only (1981). The Watcher in the Woods did nothing for Johnson’s
rising star, nor did it prove memorable for the other notables in the cast,
Carroll Baker as Jan’s mum, Helen, David McCallum as dad, Paul, and Ian Bannen
as the crusty, but benign John Keller. It’s hard to justify The Watcher in
the Woods as anything better than a badly bungled ‘made for TV’ fiasco that
somehow received the budget of a major motion picture but precious little
inspiration besides to make it even remotely watchable. Apart from Alan Hume’s
moodily lit sets, to chronically be filtered through an atmospheric cloud of
diffused dust and/or fog, and, spookily saturated cinematography, The
Watcher in the Woods is a woefully undernourished ghost story.
Despite being based on Florence
Engel Randall’s best seller of the same name, the screenplay cobbled together
by Brian Clemens, Harry Spalding and Rosemary Anne Sisson preyed more upon
abject tedium of the thoroughly conventional ‘dark old house’ ilk than
renewable fears of a darkly enchanted thrill ride, occasionally to offer the
sort of ‘bus’ scares for which RKO’s sultan of shudders, Val Lewton was better
known in the 40’s, but otherwise to completely miss its mark as high points in
an otherwise lumbering narrative. On
occasion, one can forgive a terror movie for not being ‘terrific’ if, it offers
something else in lieu of surprises, like character development or a plot that
doesn’t leave audiences utterly confused. Yet, at every turn, The Watcher in
the Woods seems, deliberately, to be obfuscating the finer details, not in
service of some greater mystery or suspense, but rather, merely to clutter an
already overwrought landscape of hanging plot points with needless narrative
bric-a-brac, going in circles or worse – standing completely still as these
characters struggle to come to terms with the strange goings on in and around
their summer abode. So too, was it impossible to comprehend Disney Inc.’s
shortsightedness in creating a finale that, having led the audience all the way
to the well, quite simply refused to allow them to drink of the ‘big reveal’
every horror movie needs to succeed. Instead, what emerged was a bizarre and
contradictory conclusion: shafts of light and a primitive-looking creature,
vaguely to resemble a badly battered parade float, offering few chills and even
less credibility to make the fright of seeing it anything more or better than
an obscene rip-off. The biggest hurdle for the movie to overcome is its sci-fi
finale. Nothing to precede it even hints of this alien abduction scenario. So,
it just feels like a complete cheat and easy way to explain away all of the
other supernatural haunting in the woods. While some critics of the day felt it
admirable for the Walt Disney Co. to break out of its hermetically sealed
reputation as the purveyors of warm and fuzzy ‘feel good’ entertainments, the
general consensus among critics and audiences was Disney should have stuck to
what it did best before ditching the wonderful world of fun family fantasy for
this shaggy mutt of a horrific dog and pony show.
With all but a few scenes bound to
rather transparent sets built at Pinewood Studios and exteriors shot in
Buckinghamshire, England, The Watcher in the Woods’ initial bomb was followed by studio-sanctioned revisions directed by
Vincent McEveety without Hough's involvement – a bitter end to a project begun
in earnest, after producer, Tom Leetch pitched the idea to Ron Miller as ‘another
Exorcist’. What Walt would have thought of having the devil and Mickey
Mouse share his backlot is highly questionable. But Miller liked the idea,
enough to assign Brian Clemens to adapt the novel. From this inauspicious
beginning, a power struggle emerged, with Disney alumni and execs weary of
aligning the brand to a moody and full-fledged horror movie. So, Clemens’
adaptation, judged as too threatening, was handed over to Rosemary Anne Sisson
who softened the rougher edges before another writer, Gerry Day was brought in
to further obscure the more sinister aspects. Implied horror, so it was
suggested, was far more effective. And while a director like John Carpenter
would have likely agreed with this assessment, he also would have been more in
tune with the apocalyptic nature of the beast and how best to convey it to an
audience without exposing it entirely. When The Watcher in the Woods was
all but laughed off the screen, the panicked reset on the project at Disney
Inc. brought in some stalwart talent, steeped in the precepts and conventions
of the traditional supernatural sci-fi drama, and, helmed by some fairly heavy-hitting
writers of their day. But perhaps the biggest mystery of all remained, that
while each of these were paid handsomely for contributing to the revised
milieu, offering a rumored 152 alternates, virtually none of their work ever
made it to the screen.
Even in preparing the movie, John
Hough began to have misgivings about the character of Mrs. Alywood as several
flashbacks would be required, showing a much younger incarnation of the
character. Bette Davis, then 72-yrs.-young, insisted on playing both the younger
and elderly Alywood herself. She had, in fact, similarly gotten away with this
ruse in Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte (1964), though even then, the clever
casting of shadows across her face was necessary to obscure most of her prematurely
ravaged facial features. Hough obliged
his star, at considerable expense, bringing in a crew of expert make-up and
hair specialists, capable of turning back the hands of time. Feverish work was
done to knock off approximately 30 years for the screen tests. Alas, nothing
could mask Davis’ years. Walking on eggshells, Hough quietly turned to Davis
after both had screened the results. “Bette,” Hough gingerly suggested, “I
don't think you've made it.” And Davis, again to her credit, seceded,
adding, “You're goddamn right!” So, British actress, Georgina Hale, who
bore not even a passing resemblance to Davis, was nevertheless hired to play
the younger Mrs. Aylwood.
The Watcher in
the Woods opens with the arrival of the Curtis’ – Helen, Paul and their
daughters, teenage, Jan and prepubescent, Ellie (Kyle Richards) to an English
manor nestled in the woods. The original owner, Mrs. Aylwood, is renting the
home, having moved into the nearby guest house. Almost immediately, Alywood
acknowledges the uncanny physical resemblance between Jan and her own daughter,
Karen, who vanished inside an abandoned chapel 30 years earlier. Jan too is made
uneasy by their initial meeting, later to experience queer blue-glowing
manifestations in the forest. She also bears witness to the creepy apparition
of a blindfolded girl, trapped inside a mirror. Ellie is given a puppy she
inexplicably names ‘Nerak’ – Karen spelled backwards. Meanwhile, Jan is given
the Coles Notes’ version of Karen’s disappearance by Mike Fleming (Benedict
Taylor), the teenage son of a local woman, Mary (Frances Cuka). From here, the
plot stalls. Nerak runs into woods, pursued by Ellie and Jan who, blinded by a blue
circle of light, falls into the lake and is nearly drowned until Mrs. Aylwood rescues
her. Now, the old crone takes the frightened girls to her cottage where she
recounts details about the night Karen vanished.
Meanwhile, Mike learns Mary was
with Karen the night she disappeared. Alas, his mother – still terrorized by
these events, refuses to answer any of his questions. Jan, endeavoring to be an
amateur Miss Marple, attempts to coax information from John Keller, the crusty
aristocrat who also witnessed Karen’s abduction. But he too refuses to reveal
the truth. Frustrated, Jan cuts through the woods, where she encounters the
hermit, Tom Colley (Richard Pasco), who admits he was there the night Karen
evaporated into thin air – the result of a crude seance-like initiation
ceremony conducted by him, John and Mary during the lunar eclipse. Tom feels
deeply responsible for Karen’s demise. Armed with this knowledge, Jan decides
to hold a similar ceremony during the upcoming solar eclipse, eventually
convincing Tom, John and Mary to partake. Inexplicably, Ellie, observing the
eclipse in the front yard, becomes bewitched by it and is compelled to enter
the woods. Inside the chapel, a powerful wind shatters the windows. Ellie
suddenly appears and, in an otherworldly voice, explains the accidental ‘switch’
– Karen having been traded with an alien presence from an alternate dimension. Hence,
the Watcher has been searching the woods for its offspring while Karen remained
its prisoner, suspended in time. The Watcher departs Ellie’s body, manifesting
itself as a pillar of light, lifting Jan into the air. Only now, Mike intervenes,
rescuing Jan while Karen, still the age she was on the night of her
disappearance, miraculously appears before them. Removing her blindfold, Karen
is reunited with her tearful mother.
Allocated a budget of $7 million, The
Watcher of the Woods made primary use of the now defunct, St. Hubert's
Manor, near Iver Heath, and Ettington Park in Warwickshire, previously seen in Robert
Wise's The Haunting (1963). Alas, shooting the picture proved a minor
ordeal for Hough as producer, Ron Miller was chronic and malevolent in his interventions
to alter/soften the tone of the scenes being shot, resulting in several heated ‘discussions’
on the set and, ultimately, compromises not to Hough’s artistic liking. Disney
spent considerable time hand-crafting visual effects a la Harrison Ellenshaw,
most left on the cutting room floor. Ellenshaw’s notable contributions on Star
Wars (1977) and Disney’s own, The Black Hole (1979) had earned him
the honor to partake here, while Art Cruickshank and Bob Broughton oversaw the
completion of miniature photography for the alien manifestation. Regrettably, the
creature’s stilted movement left Hough flat. In the original planned ending, the
‘watcher’ - an emaciated and insect-like creature whisks Jan from the chapel back
to its crippled spacecraft where we discover Alywood’s daughter, Karen – still youthful
(because apparently time has stood still in this inner space purgatory these
many years), trapped within a prism. Inexplicably, Karen’s disappearance
imbalances this alien craft, causing it to crash. However, when Jan arrives and
embraces Karen, this decade’s long spell is broken and both girls are magically
teleported back into the chapel, allowing for Aylwood’s reunion with her
daughter. Setting aside the nonsensical explanation given by Jan - the watcher
and Karen accidentally switched during the eclipse – the visual effects here
are rushed and severely paired down to meet the picture’s deadline marking Bette
Davis’ 50th anniversary in the biz.
What emerged instead was a finale minus
the outer space portion, replaced by Helen's interrogation of Tom, Mary, and
John in the chapel, after Jan disappears during their séance. The creature, now
only briefly glimpsed, still steals away with Jan, but only moments later, deposits
her and Karen in the chapel via an ominous beam of dusty white light. Truncated
and unintelligible, this ending also cut Mrs. Alywood’s condemnation, for recreating
the séance, as she believed it to be a form of witchcraft. After the picture’s
disastrous premiere, The Watcher in the Woods was yanked from
distribution. An actors’ strike prevented Davis’ return to England for
reshoots, and thus her added scenes were shot in California. New footage directed
by Vincent McEveety created a different opening sequence too, with McEveety not
receiving any screen credit for this work. The original opener featured a young
girl playing in the woods where she encounters ‘the watcher’ who incinerates
her doll with a blue beam of light.
The Watcher in
the Woods’ disastrous premiere at New York City's Ziegfeld Theater resulted in an eighteen-month
delay of its general release and a complete marketing overhaul of its PR, plugging
it as a thriller geared at mature audiences. Grossing only $40,000 its opening
weekend, the movie’s final haul was a paltry $5 million – an epic misfire by
any barometer. In the age of VHS, Disney did market the picture on home
video, albeit with little fanfare and even more anemic results. It farmed out
the DVD rights to Anchor Bay in 1999. Curiously, however, the DVD did not come
out until 2002, featuring an audio commentary from Hough, trailers, and
workprints of both botched finales, one running 14-mins., the other – barely,
6-mins. The Disney Blu-ray, a ‘club
exclusive’, affords us only a few of these carried over. More on this in a
moment. While the master here is of a more recent ilk, certainly better than
similarly vintaged hi-def releases of Something Wicked This Way Comes
and Return to Oz, Disney Inc. has still made short-shrift of their
efforts, avoiding basic clean-up, resulting in an image that, while sharp, and
sporting impressive colors, nevertheless is riddled in age-related damage. Grain
appears indigenous to its source. Again, doing the bare minimum, we get a 5.1
Dolby Digital track – no DTS. It’s competently rendered and, truthfully, I am
not at all certain a DTS remaster would have added anything of sonic merit
here. Odd for a Disney Club ‘exclusive’ – we get extras. No audio commentary or
trailers, but both alternate endings are present, as well as the unseen main
titles. Shocker! Bottom line: The Watcher in the Woods was never a great
film. I would argue, it’s not even an altogether ‘good one’. As a sucker for
Bette Davis in anything, this movie meets that ‘base criteria’ with Davis giving
us her all. She turns in an empathetic performance. Worth your coin? Hmmmm. The
Blu-ray, while solid, is not perfect. Judge and buy accordingly.
FILM RATING (out
of 5 – 5 being the best)
2
VIDEO/AUDIO
3.5
EXTRAS
1
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