Although it wasn’t a big commercial hit, Adam Wingard’s The Guest—a favorite here at The A.V. Club—opened up some interesting possibilities for the horror director. Rumor has it that Wingard and his longtime creative partner, screenwriter Simon Barrett, are working on a remake of the South Korean serial-killer shocker I Saw The Devil, and Netflix has officially hired Wingard (solo this time) to direct a live-action adaptation of the popular Death Note manga series. But first, Wingard and Barrett decided to get back to their roots by filming a quick and dirty horror tale. And now the teaser trailer for that film, The Woods, has arrived.
Wingard has always had a flair for pop soundtracks—try not thinking of the masked killers in You’re Next the next time Dwight Twilley Band comes on the radio. And this trailer is no different, as an atmospheric cover of “I’ll Be Watching You” plays over sweeping helicopter shots and fuzzy hand-held footage (it doesn’t appear to be all found footage, thank God) of some hip young people getting ready for a fun weekend of camping in the woods. Things take a sinister turn almost immediately, though, with quick shots of creatures running through the woods and The Descent-style panicked closeups that hopefully foretell a unique twist on the typical backwoods horror flick.
The Woods hits theaters on September 16.