Nobody Sleeps in the Woods Tonight-- My take on the movie with spoilers!

PLOT SUMMARY: A group of teenagers are sent to camp where they come face to face with evil lurking in the woods. 

Nobody Sleeps in the Woods Tonight.

But some people do, don't they? Animals, I suppose, do sleep in the woods even if it is a horror movie.

If there is anything we've learned from horror movies is that going to camp in the woods is always a bad idea. Teenagers especially need to be careful, especially if a camp is held on Friday the 13th and there is a lake nearby.

Yet, teenagers absolutely love hiking in the woods and in case there is an urban legend attached to the place, well time to summon the ghost/demon.

And then there is those monster who lurks in the woods who are actually victims of unknown scientific deformities. If they aren't mutated, they've turned into cannibals.

There's so much always going on and hiding in the woods that you wonder why teenagers, of all the people, plan their activities there.

In the case of Nobody Sleeps in the Woods tonight, it is the parents of the teenagers who send off their kids to the woods. It's probably summertime and they just want to relax at home while the kids are out of the house. It doesn't matter where they are; as long as they aren't inside the house.

So they send off their kids to a camp without bothering to check whether the camp has a good record of keeping kids safe or that the woods that their kids will be sent to, hasn't recorded any bizarre incidents.

But no, the parents want to rid themselves of the kids and to make sure they don't even call them on their time off, send their teenagers to a camp where their phones will be taken.

NOBODY SLEEPS IN THE WOODS TONIGHT Movie Plot 

Nobody Sleeps in the woods tonight starts with a postman coming to see a woman who lives in a house deep in the woods. He hears a sound coming from the basement and thinks someone may be getting tortured there. He inspects the noise and even lets out a few words of sympathy. But whoever it is doesn't want kind words but something to eat. The postman is dragged in and we hear screams of horror.

In the next scene, we see a lot of teenagers sent to the camp and having their phones taken away. It is now a couple of years after the incident when the postman decided he wanted to be a snooper.

The people on the movie poster are the ones who are grouped together because of a number system and their hiking leader is Iza.

The group consists of Zosia, Julek, Daniel, Bartek and Aniela. Zosia is the quiet one and wears unassuming clothes. She's clearly the final girl. She has a backstory that isn't revealed until the end but we are given glimpses of her tragic past like the handkerchief to hide the cuts on her wrist or when the counsellor tries to get everyone to talk but stops when she reads Zosia's file and seems nervous.

Aniela is the hot girl that walks in slow motion and plays with her hair a lot. Daniel tries to impress her and instead gets into a fight with Bartek and pushes him.

Iza comes to reprimand Daniel while Julek goes off to pee on a dead deer, unintentionally of course. He freaks out when he sees the deer which is kind of right next to him but he doesn't notice for some reason.

Iza comes to inspect and her expressions suggest she doesn't think an animal got the deer but something far dangerous. But Iza is one for adventure and continues on rather than report an odd sighting or take precautions.

Meanwhile, a woman is seen dragging an animal into the cellar only for her to trip downstairs. Whoever is below attacks the woman.

Aniela is bored at night and while the movie title suggests nobody sleeps in the woods tonight, everyone apparently is. She goes off and flirts with Daniel and they end up taking it further right near the lake.

Afterwards, Aniela leaves and Daniel is promptly attacked by a monstrous man with boils all over his body. Daniel is wrapped in his sleeping bag and whacked against a tree.

The next morning, the group searches for Daniel but can't find him. Julek sees blood on a tree but Iza dismisses his reservations. She finds out what Aniela was doing at night instead of sleeping and still doesn't think it's a good idea to report anything to anyone else.

The group is the only one who experiences this horror. They certainly were lucky to have picked the very spot where the killer is on the loose. The hundreds of other teenagers roaming about the woods are not shown again and clearly do not come across the mutated monster.

Iza suggests everyone split up to search for Daniel. She doesn't ask for help from the other counsellors. There is some talk about this being a bad idea because splitting up never works in horror movies but Iza is pretty sure she's in a family adventure movie and not a horror one so she disregards the suggestion to stay together.

While she and Zosia and Julek go wandering about, Aniela and Bartek sit by the lake and are relaxing. Bartek reveals his secret about his sexuality just so that Aniela would know not to hit on him. He's delivering an emotional speech when he realizes Aniela isn't saying anything. He turns around and finds the reason why. Apparently, she's been stabbed right through the mouth with a metal rod. Bartek freaks out when he sees the monster and runs away. He finds a church and seeks help from the priest who instead ties him up because of his conservative beliefs.

The monster comes to pick up the priest and pass him through a wood chipper. Bartek manages to free himself and hide in the confession box. But the killer enters the church and the scene cuts to the next.

Zosia, Julek and Iza enter a house and upon inspection find Daniel's body in the basement. They think he might still be hiding a mobile phone because he never followed rules but before they can search for him, the monster comes and the kids make a run for it while Iza tries to be brave, only to be decapitated. Her hair colour apparently changes when she's thrown out.

Zosia tells Julek they need to get back to retrieve Daniel's phone but Julek isn't too keen to steal from the dead and thinks it's a better idea to look for the backstory of the monsters instead.

So they head out into the woods and come upon an old man living in a cabin. He's more than happy to receive visitors he can gossip about his neighbours with.

He tells them the story of two boys who lived with their mother. One night when an asteroid-like-thing fell from the sky, the mother didn't bother to check if her twins were in bed or not. The twins headed outside and thought it was a good idea to bring a smoky rock inside the house and keep it under their bed. Later that night, the rock oozes black goo and corrupts the boys who immediately want to go on a killing and eating spree. The only snack they can find is their dog.

The next morning the mother is horrified to find her sons feasting on the dog. Rather than doing anything else about it, like finding a cure or something, she indulges her new monster sons by bringing them animal meat. Of course she's already become the main course now but the old man hasn't gotten that update yet.

Zosia wants to revisit her plan to go and get Daniel's phone and Julek is trying to impress her even though he knows he doesn't have much of a chance with her. He hopes she will change her mind if he puts his life at risk for her.

Zosia's backstory is revealed where she was in the car with her little sister and parents. Her father was a fan of some soldier type character that he hung from the rearview mirror. The father is too busy flirting with his wife than keeping his eyes on the road and so crashes the car.

For some reason, Zosia is thrown out alone even though she was hugging her sister. She is saved but her family not so much. The car is upturned and on fire while the father tries to crawl out but is aflame himself. He locks eyes with his daughter before he dies to traumatize her.

Back to the present, Zosia has reached the basement, now fully aware that there are two monsters to deal with. Julek distracts one monster while Zosia tries to steal the phone. The monster attacks Julek and cuts off his tongue just as Julek manages to stab the monster.

NOBODY SLEEPS IN THE WOODS TONIGHT Ending Explained with Spoilers!

Zosia is then knocked out by the monster and chained up because she's the final girl. The others are instantly killed but not her. She awakens to find Julek barely alive. He doesn't get any romantic gestures from Zosia but a knife in his gut as he pleads with Zosia to kill him and end his suffering.

Zosia uses the knife to get rid of her shackles then finds a machete to kill the snoring monster upstairs. She thinks she's killed him and runs out to find help.

Meanwhile, the old man at the cabin hears a knock on his door and thinks it is a monster. He doesn't ask questions not checks to make sure if it is the monster or not. He shoots and opens the door later to find not a dead monster but a dead teenager. It is Bartek whom the monster had spared for some reason. Or maybe the monster wasn't hungry when he saw Bartek and let him go?

Anyway, Zosia is now the final girl who finds a police car and is able to convince the cop to save her. He obliges only to stop in the middle of the road because he thinks he hit someone. The monster comes over to kill the cop even as Zosia tries unsuccessfully to warn the cop. She easily manages to break the window and get in the driver seat. She runs over the monster a couple of times and thinks she killed him.

She escaped but the monsters aren't ordinary. They've been granted special powers by the rock and are now immortal.

In the last scene as two drunks walk alone on the road praising Poland, they encounter the monster who was a hit and run victim. He awakens just as the twin in the house does. Twin telepathy?

The movie has some fun moments but some plot holes, especially where the other campers are concerned makes you question why were the groups taken so far apart from each other that they couldn't contact each other if a problem arises. 

Scare scale: 2.5/5

 

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