Nerdly » ‘Greywood’s Plot’ VOD Review

22nd Feb2023

‘Greywood’s Plot’ VOD Review

by Phil Wheat

Stars: Daniel Degnan, Kim Fagan, Samantha Kirchoff, Aaron McKenna, Keith Radichel, Josh Stifter, Max Stifter, Nathan Strauss | Written by Daniel Degnan, Josh Stifter | Directed by Josh Stifter

I was convinced I had seen Greywood’s Plot when I went to start watching it. It was featured at Frightfest in London but I didn’t see it there, when I read the plot it sounded very familiar but typing the title into my Letterboxd and nothing came up. I put it down to following the director on Twitter and seemingly knowing all about the movie through those posts. Whatever the real answer, I was glad to actually sit down and view it.

Two friends and YouTubers, discover a tape of what appears to be a monster in a nearby woods. Desperate to discover the real thing, and praying it isn’t a hoax, they go off to camp out and hopefully film what their Youtube channel desperately needs.

Greywood’s Plot is full of ideas. Shot in black and white, it almost goes down the Blair Witch route but doesn’t end up found footage, there are a couple of dream sequences – one using animation, but that’s not the only animated scene as we get a very cool animated horror sequence too. There’s also some influence here from Kevin Smith’s fantastic Tusk and a decent amount of gore (that I actually would have liked to have seen in colour) that includes some decent makeup and practical effects. In fact, there’s some really cool-looking horror moments, especially in the final third

The story is pretty basic, as the above synopsis would suggest but Greywood’s Plot does have a few surprises up its sleeves. You’ll think you’ll know where it’s heading pretty early on and you will probably guess right but it does go in a different direction from that once the ‘big reveal’ happens. The last twenty minutes or so, are the movie’s best. It’s when it goes full throttle and doesn’t hold back. The ideal slow-burn movie scenario with that build and build until it hits you with its most gruesome and crazy ideas – I obviously don’t want to spoil too much but it’s worth the wait!

The three main actors all do decent jobs in their roles, with Keith Radichel and Josh Stifter (also the director) showing good chemistry as the friends and YouTubers. As a video game fan, I did enjoy the few mentions, shots and sounds of retro games, including an Original Game Boy being played. And I liked that much of the movie, while still feeling like a regularly shot film, as managed to capture that YouTube show feeling too. They could have easily thrown together clips of the made-up show if the director was feeling lazy but instead goes for something more subtle but got a better end result.

Greywood’s Plot is kept comfortably under ninety minutes, which does feel about right but I no doubt with a bigger budget Stifter might have had a couple more surprises. Stick with this and you’ll get your rewards. I’ll be keeping an eye out for the director’s future work because Greywood’s Plot suggests he will go on to bigger things.