Speechless – I-N– INTO THE W-O– WOODS

By starrymag | October 25, 2018

By: Taylor Gates

 

 

A couple of neighborhood children are convinced the DiMeo house is haunted and go inside to take a look. When they see the family eating around the table, they scream. Maya (Minnie Driver) informs them the house isn’t abandoned–it’s just in a state of disrepair.

 

Maya wants Jimmy (John Ross Bowie) to fix up the house so it looks nicer, but he decides to lean into the dumpiness of it all and make it look worse by decorating it like it’s truly haunted. Kenneth (Cedric Yarbrough) is excited by the idea, and they team up to make it spooky. Although Jimmy wants to make the house fun, Kenneth is only interested in making it terrifying.

 

Kenneth reveals he wants to scare Jenkins (Joe Howard), their sweet neighbor. Kenneth has beef with him because he always yells at him to move his car. Although Jimmy isn’t sold on the idea, Kenneth hijacks the area anyway.

 

Jimmy brings Jenkins over to the house, and Jenkins sweetly thanks Kenneth for inviting him. He asks Kenneth if he invited him as a thank you for always reminding him to move his car during street cleaning days. He’s brought flowers for Kenneth, as he doesn’t have many people to bring them to since his wife passed.

 

Kenneth feels terrible and goes to take down the scarier decorations before Jenkins sees. As he’s doing so, the power goes out. Kenneth is horrified by his own creation, getting freaked out with every step. After the lights go back on, he apologizes to Jimmy for taking things too far. Jimmy realized he should have just fixed the house in the first place. Now that he actually owns something that could be nice, he cares about it. Kenneth tells him just because he wants nice things doesn’t mean he’s lost sight of what really matters, offering to help him fix up the place.

 

JJ (Micah Fowler) is directing a bunch of tired actors in his new short film. Maya sneaks up on him, concerned about his whereabouts. JJ tells her that since he’s 18 now, he should be able to do what he wants. Maya is worried that something might happen, but JJ says if it does, he can figure it out himself.

 

JJ thanks Lee (Zach Anner), the guy who tased Maya in a parking lot a few years ago, for meeting up with him to talk about CP stuff. Lee invites JJ to a crazy Halloween party, saying he should come all by himself and show his mom he’s a grown man now.

 

JJ announces to Jimmy and Maya he’s doing just that, and Maya agrees to give him space. Jimmy is shocked that she’s so calm, but Maya announces that she’s put a tracker in his seat so he can be independent and still safe.

 

At the dance that night, Maya sees Aaron (Christian Lee) dressed as a decoy JJ in the chair she’s tracking. Aaron tells her that JJ let him borrow it, needing a lighter one for a rave in the woods. Maya is shocked and horrified she can no longer keep tabs on him, dragging his friend Paul (Joey Luthman)–who has a massive crush on Maya–to guide him to the party’s location.

 

At the rave, Lee quickly abandons JJ to meet some girls and JJ avoids Maya’s calls. Knowing that she will draw attention, Maya steals Paul’s Iron Man uniform as a disguise. She makes her way into the forest and quickly spots another Iron Man not there to have fun. The woman is revealed to be Lee’s mom Helen (Julie White) trying to keep an eye on him. They decide to talk to each other’s sons so they can make sure they’re okay without getting caught spying.

 

Maya asks Lee about JJ, and Lee says that JJ is so excited that his mom let him come to the party. Lee misinterprets Maya’s questions of concern for being romantically interested in JJ and yells at JJ that they should trade Iron Man ladies.

 

Lee notices his mother’s bag at the rave and is frustrated that she’s killing the mood just as things are heating up with the lady in the Iron Man costume. Lee decides to go out of the venue and into the woods themselves. Helen chases them, but Maya tries to stop her and assures her they’re going to be okay and they need to let them be.

 

Unfortunately, they’re not okay, as they’ve fallen into a ditch. Maya sees them struggling, but JJ has figured out a way out of it, calling his friend Aaron to come help. Lee asks if they want to go to an after rave deeper in the woods, but JJ passes, as his chair battery is low. He decides to call Maya to come to get him and thanks her for getting there so fast. JJ tells her that, while he needed her this time, he doesn’t always. Maya assures him she knows. JJ tells her he met some hot girls at the party, and Maya doesn’t tell him the truth, not wanting to burst his bubble.

 

Dylan (Kyla Kenedy) is angry that the school administration is taking candy from the Halloween dance and replacing it with vegetables, vowing to get revenge. She’s disappointed when JJ says he’s skipping the dance, but when Ray (Mason Cook) offers to help her execute her heist, she laughs in his face. However, when Dylan needs to get the school’s air duct plans but is worried the secretaries will assume she’s suspicious, Ray comes in handy. Ray flatters them and manages to get the plans easily.

 

That night, Dylan puts Ray on lookout duty while she crawls through the vents to Mr. Powers’ (Jonathan Slavin) office to get the candy. They locate the cabinet filled with goodies, and Dylan tells Ray he has potential, starting to prove himself as a criminal. The sweet moment is quickly interrupted by Mr. Powers busting them, and the two run through the hallway.

 

They are threatened with suspension, but Dylan doesn’t want to give up. This is bigger than candy–this is about abuses of power. Ray is impressed she’s fighting for an actual cause. He asks if she trusts him to guard the candy through the maze, and she surprisingly does.

 

Mr. Powers finally gets Ray surrounded by other chaperones, and Ray quickly gives up the fight, disappointing Dylan. Mr. Powers interrogates them and tells them this is going on their permanent record, but Ray tries to take the fall for Dylan, saying she had nothing to do with it. They get off easy, Mr. Powers just telling them not to do it again. Even better is the fact that Ray had one of the secretaries be his accomplice and switch Mr. Powers’ bags so Ray now has all the big candy bars and Mr. Power just has celery.

 

Jimmy and Kenneth manage to fix the house so there will be no more power outages. Although this is great news for them, they will no longer be the coolest house on the block for Halloween. Ray and Dylan decide to let the family pass out the king size candy bars they got back from Mr. Powers in order to keep their elite neighborhood status.