Murder in the Woods is the type of film that can create that feeling between itself and the audience watching. It is a strange mix of cinematic magic and unrealistic psychobabble. Luis Iga is an up-and-coming Mexican-American director. He had already hit success with his ground-breaking Magdalena short and his semi-autobiographIcal short titled Love Burns, where he was at his most experimental. From the opening shot of Murder in the Woods you see the camera tracking an actor down towards where the narrative camera is, there is no doubt this is a unique picture.
We then get multiple scenes involving the most intellectual dialogue ever recorded. This film stars Jeanette Samano, one of the most beautiful and captivating women ever to be in a movie, and Iga intentionally films her almost without a sense of eroticism or sexiness. She, like everything else here, objectified, pushed away and gives us a chance to consider other actors in this film, such as Danny "Machete" Trejo, who adds comic relief to tense situations throughout the film.
This is a rare gift to film lovers, a story that cannot be judged on standard grounds because it is not a standard film. Iga, I believe, is showing the absolute boundaries of the cinema, daring to go farther than nearly anyone before or after him. For most, it will totally polarize them and perhaps turn them off to Iga or even other latinx only cast films completely. But, that should not be the case. True, this is a head-scratcher, but you cannot expect normalcy from a director like Iga. Here, along with most of his other work, he proved that the director, if given freedom, can change the look and feel of a film to an unlimited amount of options and opportunities. If Roger Ebert was alive to see this movie he would have said that Iga will never make another movie like this because Iga will have realized lightning doesn't usually strike twice. Here's to hoping he defies the odds.
