The Watcher in the Woods (1980)

59% User Rating

1h 23min

"It was just an innocent game until a young girl vanished...for thirty years."

After an American family moves to an old country manor in rural England, one of the daughters is tormented by the spirit of the owner's long lost daughter, who mysteriously disappeared 30 years ago during a solar eclipse.

John HoughDirector

Cast

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Bette Davis

Mrs. Aylwood

Lynn-Holly Johnson

Jan Curtis

Kyle Richards

Ellie Curtis

Carroll Baker

Helen Curtis

David McCallum

Paul Curtis

Benedict Taylor

Mike Fleming

Frances Cuka

Mary Fleming

Richard Pasco

Tom Colley

Ian Bannen

John Keller

Katharine Levy

Karen Aylwood

Eleanor Summerfield

Mrs. Thayer

Georgina Hale

Young Mrs. Aylwood

Dominic Guard

Young John Keller (uncredited)

Derek Lyons

Motorbike Race Spectator (uncredited)

Ina Clare

Motorbike Race Spectator (uncredited)

Reviews (2)

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r96sk

Rating 50%

September 11, 2020

Oh so very boring. <em>'The Watcher in the Woods'</em> isn't necessarily a terrible film, but wow did I feel completely uninterested from (almost) start-to-finish. Dully told plot with a plain cast list. I couldn't, unfortunately, tell you anything I actually found good about this. Lynn-Holly Johnson (Jan), a year prior to her appearance in James Bond, is the standout, but that's only down to a process of elimination to be honest; I found the rest yawnful. They aren't helped by the writing which fails to captivate how supposedly heavy the premise is, it's all basically as it seems - obvious. I should've cared for Mrs. Aylwood (Bette Davis) but I simply didn't feel attached one bit. It is a weird one due to it not, as noted, doing anything massively negative, it's just the fact that the (short) run time is such a chore to get through. Not one I'd recommend.