The new supernatural horror film is about a newly hired back-country ranger, Lennon, traversing the dangerous wilderness by herself hoping to discover the truth behind a childhood tragedy that has never stopped haunting her. Let’s be real, wood this flick be able to live up to its namesake?

Written and directed by Teresa Sutherland, it was filmed in Portugal. It starts with impressive wide shots of a forest with slow creeping camera movements that zoom and rotate until completely flipped upside down. It’s a surreal sequence. I love when movies set the tone this way, by showing, not telling. Full of surreal imagery, the woods become a character in itself. I like the cinematography too, it looks slick with a golden-yellow motif. Sutherland knows how to use unique camera angles at the right time for maximum effect. She has a unique vision. I love the lighting too. There are scenes at night in the woods lit primarily with a flashlight. Just enough is visible for chilling results.

The impeccable sound design is a large factor in the scary atmospheric tone. Some scenes use sound to intensify suspense rather than using a traditional score. For example, those sequences involved jump scares with a walkie-talkie randomly going off instead of a swell of orchestral music. Other times, the film uses sheer silence to its advantage making scenes increasingly unnerving. This flick is so suspenseful because of that.

The slow-burn story effectively establishes the scenario of a missing woman named Sara Greenberg. The script is written in a way that plays with reality. It’s hard to tell if what Lennon is experiencing is in her mind or actually if it’s happening to her. By the final act, it’s clearly explained without an overwhelming abundance of exposition. It makes sense and it cleverly subverts expectations because of what it establishes earlier without going into detail. I didn’t know where the story was going, even though it was subtly set up beforehand. It makes you question what you watched. That’s the kind of masterful, mind-bending storytelling that’s been missing in modern cinema.

Georgina Campbell plays Lennon. She’s excellent in Barbarian (2022) and she’s even better here. Most of the film is her alone in the woods so her standout performance is full of subtle nuances to depict the mental anguish she’s going through. Nick Blood plays Jackson, a fellow Park Ranger. He performs well as the by-the-book coworker with likable qualities and flaws. Wai Ching Ho plays Zhang, their superior. She’s magnificent, as always, with her commanding presence. Moreover, she displays humanity in serendipitous ways. She creates a fully fleshed-out character because of her acting.

Overall, this nightmare-inciting supernatural horror flick wood live up to its namesake. It’s Lovely, Dark, and Deep, indeed, because it’s imaginatively filmed, cleverly written, and phenomenally acted. I like the unpredictability of it. It’s so refreshing to see an original story that pulls the rug out from underneath me without reverting to cheap jump scares, illogical plot twists, and bad CGI. It doesn’t even show the evil force behind the sinister activity which adds to the eerie aesthetic. It’s frightening on multiple levels full of disturbing images that challenge the audience rather than spoon-feed them the answers. More importantly, it treats the viewer like an intelligent figure but adds heartfelt messages by how it touches on themes of man vs nature, facing your inner demons, and redemption. It reminds me of The Last Shift (2014), Grave Encounters (2011), and As Above, So Below (2014). I highly recommend this if you like those. And remember, you act real nuts to catch a squirrel but is the squirrel real?

Grade: 9/10