Woodshock is a 2017 American psychological thriller drama film[3][4] written and directed by Kate and Laura Mulleavy, in their joint feature directorial debut.
The plot follows a woman who, reeling after the loss of her mother, begins to cope by using a powerful substance which has hallucinogenic, violent repercussions.
Her grief now compounded by guilt, Theresa's emotional state becomes increasingly fragile, and she begins retreating to the surrounding woods for hours at a time, causing strain on her relationship with Nick.
Woodshock explores themes of grief experienced at "extreme loss,"[6] which the filmmakers sought to anchor in "emotion and feeling," according to Laura Mulleavy.
"[7] Hilton Als likened the film to "Alice in Wonderland in reverse": "Theresa is so small in the beginning and so overcome by this landscape and she's so powerful and large at the end standing on that stump and levitating.
"[9] Sisters Kate and Laura Mulleavy, founders of the fashion label Rodarte, began writing the script for Woodshock collaboratively in 2011.
[6] Dunst was a personal friend of the Mulleavys, having known them since her early twenties; she said in retrospect that their friendship afforded her an "emotional safety net" while filming.
[6] Dunst prepared for the role over the course of a year,[7] undertaking dream experiments in order to try to inhabit the character's state of mind.
[6] Commenting on her preparation, Dunst said she felt the dream experiments allowed her to tap into her unconscious, so "by the time [I got] to set, I knew the character better than anybody else.
"[6] Joe Cole was cast in the role of Nick, Theresa's boyfriend, because the Mulleavys felt he had "a presence that could be so aggressive, yet so soft.
"[6] For the sequence in which Theresa levitates in the forest, Dunst was physically lifted in a harness 100 feet (30 m) above the ground toward the tree canopy.
The site's critics' consensus reads: "Woodshock's [sic] engages visually, but its half-baked premise is as underwhelming as it is unsatisfying.
Sustained, chemically induced bliss can be a blessing, Woodshock suggests, even up to the point at which the fog is the only thing left to see.
"[23] David Fear of Rolling Stone compared the film to Repulsion (1965), adding: "Woodshock is both gorgeous and pretentious in equal measures, and it's hard to reconcile the fact that you don't get one without the other.
"[24] In The New Yorker, Anthony Lane referred to the film as "hazy and half-dreamed," noting that "Hints of hallucination, compounded by shifting tricks of the light, mean that the real and the imagined are constantly sifted together; does Theresa, for example, spend quite as much time wandering past towering trees in her underwear as she appears to do?
"[25] Sheri Linden of the Los Angeles Times called the film "pseudo-Bergmanesque" and a "death trip in pretty lingerie," summarily stating: "Sibling directors Kate and Laura Mulleavy’s Rodarte brand made them overnight couture stars; with their filmmaking debut, lightning has not struck twice.
"[26] The New York Times's Jeanette Catsoulis noted that the film is "pretty enough, in the superficially embellished style of a perfume ad or fashion video," but deemed it "depressingly dull and terminally inarticulate...a painterly bore.
"[3] Clint Davis of WKBW-TV called the film "depressing" and "dominated by sickness—both mental and physical," but praised Dunst's performance.
[28] Slant Magazine's Henry Stewart awarded the film one out of four stars, calling it "the obnoxious equivalent of trying to have a serious conversation with people who are high out of their minds.