By Terry Sherwood
When a series is filmed near your own hometown, curiosity often comes before critique., I have never watched a frame of The Last of Us television series as I am weary of the ‘post apocalyptic’ story. Eyes in the Woods, the new OUTtv channel original from Calgary Alberta Canadas Numera Films was shot partly in and around Sundre from the District Museum to the wooded trails near Schott’s Lake and along the Red Deer River. The result is a small-scale, queer mystery series that blends local scenery with supernatural suggestion. Unfortunately, the execution leaves more ghosts in the editing room than in the forest itself.
The premise is wonderful on paper: two sisters and one partner act as amateur sleuths, stumbling upon a trail of strange happenings in this case glowing eyes, half-buried clues, and relationships tested in the wilderness. The Hardy Boys with a sapphic twist yet honestly you would never know the difference which is the strongest suit. Each episode runs about fifteen minutes, and the short format could have given it a rhythm. Instead, the pacing meanders; scenes linger without payoff, dialogue evaporates into the woods even with the floating effects, and characters mumble their way through mysteries that feel as foggy as early morning Mountain air
The most persistent for me and I had to use headphones is sound of the actors. Much of the cast seems to speak with what in my Theatre days was described “lazy mouth” diction meaning words trail off, lines are breathed through, and whole sentences blur together. It’s particularly bad in the first episode, where entire exchanges are swallowed by this which can easily be foxed with subtitles which my version did not have. You speak like you are on film, naturalism in fine to a point as one of my teachers once said “Since when does a paying audience watch you at your sink. You want to be heard so sound like its theatre.” The exception and easily the most engaging presence is the forest ranger who lets the family into the cabin grounds He provides a rare moment of professional crispness in a show otherwise sunk by its own subdued enunciation.
Beyond the sound, the editing and continuity wobble. Odd bits appear and vanish without explanation. A character suddenly has a pedal bike, another lives in a cabin and runs into supernatural trouble. only for it to disappear in the next shot. It’s the same kind of missing-prop glitch that once haunted Dracula Has Risen from the Grave, where a bike in one frame is gone in the next. Perhaps the missing character was hinted at in the dialogue that I missed .
The production quality varies dramatically: video glitches, soundtrack dropouts, and even what seems to be a premature flash frame title saying end credits in the third episode is seen. These are not stylistic quirks in the French New Wave but signs of a post-production process or the poor files that I was furnished with. It’s a shame, because the natural setting which i am somewhat familiar off those stretches of evergreen and riverbank familiar to anyone from Sundre Alberta Canada in various films large and small deserves better visual treatment.
The Sundre and District Museum looks warmly authentic, its rustic interiors lending texture to the mystery. The forests around Schott’s Lake are genuinely atmospheric, with their dappled light and sense of isolation.. There’s an unpolished beauty to the backdrop, a real sense of small-town Alberta lending its bones to a queer
The ambition here to tell a queer paranormal mystery grounded in local geography — is admirable. The problem is that Eyes in the Woods seems more comfortable setting a mood than telling a story.
Narratively, the series never quite finds its compass. The mysteries feel underdeveloped: glowing eyes appear but carry little meaning; relationships are hinted at but lack emotional through-lines. Each fifteen-minute installment ends before tension can accumulate. What could have been a clever small series so far of eerie vignettes instead feels like fragments of a longer story chopped into uneven pieces.
The slow pacing might have worked had the atmosphere been stronger or the dialogue more intelligible. Instead, we get jumbled moments and a creeping sense that the show is sleepwalking hung up more on the fact that it mandate is a ‘Queer Hardy Boys “than in telling an actual story.. The editing rarely helps transitions are abrupt, sometimes dropping us mid moment or having some go off into the woods and camp in the rain for no reason.
And yet, beneath the technical flaws, one can glimpse potential. The idea of an adventure set in the Canadian wilderness has genuine charm. If the creators tighten the writing, improve sound recording, and invest in continuity and post-production polish it would help. Genuinely the actors seem committed which is a shame because lot of what they do get missed in chewy dialogue and random moments without focus not eh story of something in the woods. This is not to say one must have CGI which is present, ‘reinvent the wheel’ in story and situation or have lots of blood with jump scares etc. you need a sense of dread, atmosphere and purpose. To prime examples of this and my favourite whipping posts are the onscreen mess of Skinamarink and the video game that calls itself a film, the abominable In a Violent Nature. A television series has time to recover to get up to speed and find its way.
At its best, Eyes in the Woods evokes a kind of grassroots spirit — an independent team trying to make something personal against the odds. At its worst, it feels like a rehearsal for a better series yet to come. For now, it’s a curiosity: a project worth noting.
Bloody Flicks 