"THE WATCHER IN THE WOODS"

(1980)

Starring: Bette Davis, Carroll Baker, David McCallum, Lynn-Holly Johnson and Kyle Richards.

Directed By: John Hough.

SOMETHING IS WATCHING... SOMETHING UNKNOWN..

DVD Information
Anchor Bay Home Entertainment - 16x9 Enhanced 1:85.1 - Dolby Digital 5.1 - DTS 5.1 - Audio Commentary with John Hough - 2 Alternate Endings - Theatrical Trailer - T.V. Spot - 20 Page booklet

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Get Your DVD copy of The Watcher in the Woods Here!
What began as an innocent game, concluded with the disappearance of a young girl. Now, 30 years later Mrs.Aylwood sits in her home waiting for her daughters return. When an American family decides to rent the home from Mrs.Aylwood, she instantly takes a liking to the family, especially the teenage daughter Jan (Johnson), who resembles her own daughter who had disappeared. She agrees to rent the beautiful English countryside home to them and the family moves in. Once settles in the house jan begins seeing things which include mirrors without reflections, triangle cracks in her window, and blue circles of light.

Meanwhile the younger daughter Ellie (Richards) begins to hear voices calling her from the woods. They are telling her secrets...secrets that may unlock the mystery behind Karen s disappearance. Now together with Mrs.Aylwood, they must unravel the puzzle and discover who is THE WATCHER IN THE WOODS. This movie was made during a dark period by Disney. In the early 80's Disney had gone onto a more adult oriented theme including such films as, "Return to Oz", "Tron", "The Black Hole" and of course, "The Watcher in the Woods". To me it seemed that these films really didn't sit well with a commercial mainstream audience. They were too scary for children and too cheesy for adults. Though, "The Watcher in the Woods" is considered a horror film it was lacking in blood and fright. These movies in my opinion were made for teens and I hear many people talking about how this movie had scared them when they were a child and now that they are adults they find it boring and campy. One of the reasons why I wanted to see this film again was because of it's star, Bette Davis. Davis, one of the biggest stars, who in her late career went on to do horror films such as, "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane", "Hush, Hush Sweet Charolette", "Burt Offerings"(A fav. of mine), "Return to Witch Mountain" and "Watcher in the Woods".

The Following Contains a Spoiler to the original Ending
Now on DVD for the first time by Anchor Bay Home Entertainment, they are calling it "As You've Never Seen Before". When "Watcher" was in previews before it's inital theatrical release in 1980, the running time clocked at 1 hour and 48 minutes, but due to unfavorable reviews by critics, it was pulled and re-cut down to 83 minutes. The version on this DVD is that of the 83 minute edited version. Anchor Bay has included 2 alternate endings of the film one 6 minutes and the other 14 minutes.
In a way i was disapointed that the original complete version wasn't included in this DVD rendering and surprised that it wasn't since this was but together from Anchor Bay, It could have had something to do with Disney themselves and what print that they would only license to them. I will admit that i haven't gotten arownd to hearing the complete commentary by director John Hough yet, so they may be an answer there. I will make an update soon if anything is mentioned about it.
The original ending of the film is much better then what plays in the re-edited version. In this ending the watcher is shown and closure is giving to the key characters.
Seeing "Watcher" in it's edited version leaves a huge let down. After checking out the alternate endings i saw a different and much better conclusion that i wish had been put back into the film. The Alien that appears in the final minutes looks a slight cheesy but fits in perfect with the look of the whole film.

As for the picture quality, Anchor Bay delivers the goods with this THX transfer. The colors and black level are just about perfect. There is also two re-mastered 5.1 surround choices, Dolby Digital and DTS EX . The one I had listened to was the Dolby track. The sound was very good considering the films age. Though i didn't detect too much happening in the back speakers, the sound was crisp and clear.
Thanks to Anchor Bay for getting this lost Disney film out on DVD, Though I can't see why the alien monster was cut from the re-edited version of the film, it is a nice addition to have a chance to see it as an extra on the disc.

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