Linkshoch Wonderful Movie

Phonearl Good start, but then it gets ruined

Odelecol Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

Leoni Haney Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

piry12 For speaking Spanish, a great effort, and a good performance. He is a very versatile actor. I, too, thought that the creepy factor of the movie was going to rest on the child and her situation but I found that the fear was instilled by putting these men in a foreign town and in a situation out of control. The movie opens with a song about "war" and I think this feeling predominated in the movie. I also found creepy the transformation of the more docile character (Paul's friend) I also found that although the movie repeated some stereotypes from other scary movies, it was done in a sober manner. The performances (of the men specially) were good and credible. Maybe we were expecting a more "chilling" movie, but I took it for what it seems to be: a war among men, natives and foreigners, the primal versus a more civilized attitude but at the end: all primal.

Steve Nyland (Squonkamatic) I've got a weak spot for hicksploitation thrillers about demented crackers hunting humans out in the sticks for fun. Here's an interesting Spanish made variant of the formula with a few interesting twists and an appropriately somber, amoral ending. Because it's a Spanish made production that dwells on the tragedy of the story it's not quite the guilty pleasure fun of the classic OPEN SEASON (1974), lacks the poignancy of DELIVERANCE (1972), and doesn't come close to the barbarity of STRAW DOGS (1971), which are the films it is most obviously patterned to resemble. If you are looking for a contemporary film that homages those, look no further.I checked the spoiler warning just so I could complain about one element of the story, though I will leave it as a surprise for those who do choose to seek this movie out -- which I do recommend. But there's one scene where a major character resigns himself to an unwholesome fate and the direction sets it up to suggest that he manages to escape it somehow. Which turns out not to be the case, making the moment into a fake red herring of sorts: If you are going to set up a surprise ending, why fake the audience out and not spring the surprise? The film's premise is solid: A group of Anglo tourists travel back to Gary Oldman's family estate in the outbacks of Spain, two couples that is and naturally both of the women are attractive. They stop at a local pub long enough to rip off the scene from STRAW DOGS about American cigarettes, and then move into their hunting cabin, constructed by a set designer who had studied OPEN SEASON for hints on how to dress the set. The men then set off on a hunting expedition inspired by DELIVERANCE, and quite by accident stumble upon a most disturbing surprise, a young girl apparently kept captive in sub-human conditions, and debate whether to take her to the authorities.They take the waif home & clean her up, then the next morning the local Spanish hicks show up, armed to the teeth, and ask if they have come across a young girl who has gone missing. Interesting. There's a lot of melodrama about the couples being somewhat dysfunctional and some appropriate machismo posturing, and before you know it the two groups are waging war in the forests. Which includes an obligatory home invasion sequence that was particularly distasteful as it objectified one of the women in a way that was profoundly creepy by keeping her half clothed & sort of inviting the mind to fill in the rest. Either the director was trying to keep it classy & misfired, or he's even more twisted than one might think.What the film has going for it is the unique Spanish scenery and a non-conformity to formula. The ending is anything but what you'll be expecting no matter how many of these "humans hunting humans" things you may have seen. It's also exceedingly well made with some interesting musical contributions by Leonard Cohen, who is apparently quite popular in Spain, and some impressive widescreen cinematography that alludes to various Spaghetti Westerns at times. The main gripe I have with the flick is that it lacks a sense of humor or the sly wit that gives OPEN SEASON especially it's legendary status as a cult favorite. THE BACKWOODS is merely twisted + emotionally devastating by comparison, and while there's nothing wrong with that it's probably going to be one of those films you should see once but probably won't need your own copy of, because it's such a total downer. A good downer though, and for fans of Gary Oldman a must see.6/10

Coventry I'm seriously confused about how to properly write a critique on "The Backwoods" without being either overly negative or positive, but nevertheless express my respect to the cast and crew for the film they intended to make. This is a genuine throwback to the era of 70's exploitation film-making, with a truly grim atmosphere and uncompromising violence, but at the same time it's completely unoriginal and derivative. I've read an extended interview with writer/director Koldo Serra, in which he declares that he doesn't understand why so many horror movies are being remade nowadays even though the originals aren't open for any kind of improvement. That might very well be true, and Lord knows I wholeheartedly agree with such a statement, but Serra goes so far in 'bringing homage' to the original classics that he practically copies them as well. "The Backwoods" isn't a remake of any existing 70's flick, but it easily could have been, since it bluntly borrows elements from "Deliverance", "Straw Dogs" and "The Wild Bunch". Cleverly set in the year 1978, so that the script at least didn't had to take into account malfunctioning mobile phones and navigation systems losing their signal, "The Backwoods" revolves on two couples spending a little vacation deep in nearly impenetrable woods of the Spanish Basque region. Paul, the oldest and wisest of the four, bought the old house of his grandmother there and wants to show the beautiful region to his wife and friends. After some very unfriendly welcoming vibes in the local bar already, the quartet faces the ultimate confrontation with the primitive backwoods community when Paul and Norman discover a neglected young girl chained up in a hidden cabin. The girl is the outgrowth of a humiliating family scandal, and the local patriarch Paco so desperately want to keep her existence secret that he mobilizes the rest of the locals for an old-fashioned manhunt. "The Backwoods" is an uneven mishmash of a film in which downright powerful sequences are altered with dreadful clichés and predictable plot twists. The gritty and relentless atmosphere of 70's survival flicks is marvelously re-created, but the script doesn't have the courage to genuinely shock the audience with twisted little details or perverted undertones like they did in the old days. The filming locations are stupendous and the producers managed to attract a fantastic cast (including the brilliant Gary Oldman and Virginie Ledoyen). It's really a shame this film doesn't feature anything truly unique, because I really wanted to like and recommend it.

dunmore_ego Shades of STRAW DOGS and dabbles in DELIVERANCE, THE BACKWOODS is an exploration of deep south justice - in Spain.Two Brits with their European wives holiday in the backwoods of Spain, Paul and Isabel (Gary Oldman and Aitana Sánchez-Gijón), and Norman and Lucy (Paddy Considine and Virginie Ledoyen). The two men go hunting one day and come across a malformed little girl chained prisoner in a disused, ratty hovel.It's the freakiest scene in the movie. Obviously this little girl is being kept alive by someone - so though we fear her "crazy flipper fingers" (she sure plays a mean pinball), we must fear even more the people who are keeping her like an animal.Paul and Norman never think of this, and remove her to Paul's rustic cabin, intending to take her to a hospital. Let the moral ambiguity begin...The villagers come a-lookin' for the little girl, suspecting that Paul and Norman know something they're not telling. They're right, of course. But are the villagers right in their treatment of the girl? Should the British couples just walk away, turn a blind eye and leave the villagers to resolve their own sociological problems? After leading Paul into the woods, the villagers go STRAW DOGS on Norman's wife, Lucy, who "asked for it" quite explicitly by walking into the local bar upon her arrival in town, wearing a see-through dress.THE BACKWOODS is an uneven production, alternately slow-moving and riveting; the malformed girl and STRAW DOGS rape scenes are compelling and wondrously violent, while the character studies of the two British couples trying to rejuvenate their flagging marriages are not so.The villagers have a point when they continually warn that the outsiders should not have stuck their nose into Backwoods business. Resolution is not how Hollywood would have liked it...--Review by Poffy The Cucumber (for Poffy's Movie Mania).