For It Is Man's Number: bartosz m. kowalski

Showing posts with label bartosz m. kowalski. Show all posts

Sunday, 26 October 2025

Netflix And Chill: Nobody Sleeps In The Woods Tonight Part 2 (2021)

When I mentioned lining this up for a viewing after only recently seeing the movie that precedes it I was informed by at least one person that it was . . . something. And it sure is. Nobody Sleeps In The Woods Tonight Part 2 is a really strange progression from the first film, but it also doesn't feel as if it's working against anything that was already put in place.

Zosia (Julia Wieniawa) is in police custody after the events of the first film. As are a pair of mutated killers. Sergeant Waldek (Andrzej Grabowski) takes her back to one of the main locations of interest to further investigate the killing spree, which is the start of everything going quite horribly wrong. There's a meteorite chunk that still holds the power to change those that come into contact with it, and it's not long until we have a new mutant killer for our main characters to deal with. Those main characters are now a young police officer named Adam (Mateusz Wieclawek) and his work partner, Wanessa (Zofia Wichlacz), as well as two hunters (Mariusz and Slawek, played by Sebastian Stankiewicz and Robert Wabich, respectively) and a frightened prostitute named Janeczka (Izabela Dabrowska).

With Bartosz M. Kowalski back in the director's chair, joined by one returning writer (Mirella Zaradkiewicz) to help him with the screenplay, this is a wild and fun ride that I have to consider superior to the first film. While some may dislike the sharp turn that this takes, it at least tries hard to reframe the standard slasher movie antics and get viewers onside with some characters who would usually be left under-developed and used in very different ways. Seeing this film has made me much more eager to check out other films by Kowalski, who I now know can work with both the familiar and the enjoyably unexpected.

Every one of the main cast members does well, even when buried under make up that is used to transform them. Wieniawa carries the baggage of her survival of the first film, allowing viewers to keep hoping for the best as it looks like everything is about to go from bad to worse for her, and Wieclawek is suitably vulnerable and unprepared for everything that ends up happening around, and to, him. Others onscreen are often shown to be less capable than they like to make out, with darkly comedic results sometimes, but they're all given just enough time and focus to make you hope that at least some of them make it to the end credits.

Managing to balance things between fun gore gags and some unexpectedly bleak exploration of identity, loneliness, and how morality is seen very differently by people looking at it from diametrically opposed viewpoints, Nobody Sleeps In The Woods Tonight Part 2 is an impressively unique work. It doesn't get absolutely everything right, and the pacing is the main area where things could have been improved, but it's well worth a watch.

7/10

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Sunday, 19 October 2025

Netflix And Chill: Nobody Sleeps In The Woods Tonight (2020)

A Polish slasher movie that has more than a hint of the Wrong Turns about it, Nobody Sleeps In The Woods Tonight is another one of those films that I had thought I'd already watched. Once I double-checked my lengthy viewing history, I realised that it would be new to me. So this seemed like a good time to make time for it.

A group of teens are placed in the middle of some woods without their phones, it's a tech-detox kind of camp deal, and that's all the prep required for this horror. Different groups head off in different directions, and our main characters soon start to feel uneasy about their surroundings, a feeling that worsens when some lumbering killer starts to kill them off.

Directed by Bartosz M. Kowalski, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Jan Kwiecinski and Mirella Zaradkiewicz, this is a strange film to evaluate. It's decent enough, especially when it comes to the pacing and the main death scenes, but just lacks that certain something to make it a bit more memorable. I think the problem lies with the lack of character development, but I'm willing to acknowledge that most slasher movies aren't exactly known for that aspect. Maybe it's easier to note as a major flaw when nobody feels like a lead though, and that's the case here. One person becomes a lead, by default, as the very end of the movie plays out, but that stems from their ongoing survival, as opposed to them having any more presence or backstory, or depth, than anyone else onscreen.

The main cast members are Julia Wieniawa, Michał Lupa, Wiktoria Gąsiewska, Stanisław Cywka, Sebastian Dela, Gabriela Muskała, Michał Zbroja, Mirosław Zbrojewicz, and Piotr Cyrwus, and I won't single any of them out here because, well, the film barely singles any of them out as they all wander around the woods and seem equally primed to be bumped off. Nobody is bad, and I didn't mind spending time with the group, but nobody is given any real opportunity to shine.

It's easy to overlook weak writing or thin characterisations when the kills are good enough though, which is what slasher movies are all about, and Nobody Sleeps In The Woods Tonight just about does enough to keep horror movie fans happy. It's just a shame that the pacing couldn't have been a bit better, with some of the 102-minute runtime feeling as if too much time is wasted with connections and backstory that aren't worth the time given over to them, but the third act at least delivers some moments to reward your patience.

While not even close to being up there with the best of them, nor even something I would label an underseen gem, Nobody Sleeps In The Woods Tonight just about did enough for me to get me interested in seeing the sequel that was made one year later. And I'll hopefully share my views on that film in about a week.

6/10