The Backwoods

2006
5.7| 1h37m| en| More Info
Released: 24 September 2006 Released
Producted By: Filmax Entertainment
Country: United Kingdom
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Synopsis

An English couple's holiday in Spain is interrupted when they discover a girl imprisoned in a cabin.

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Reviews

FeistyUpper If you don't like this, we can't be friends.
StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.
Erica Derrick By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.
Brenda The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one
MattyGibbs A small thriller starring Gary Oldman and Paddy Considine sounded too good to be true when I chanced upon it recently and unfortunately it is. Two couples on a Spanish holiday chance upon an imprisoned girl in an abandoned house, take her in and then find trouble from the locals when they find they have taken her. The opening half hour is very tedious and better casting of the female characters would have been preferable as the relationships between the two couples just didn't ring true. Even Gary Oldman and Paddy Considine are pretty lacklustre. Once the girl was found I did expect things to liven up but sadly it clumsily plods on at a sedate pace with random acts of savagery thrown in. There was surprisingly an almost total lack of tension which bearing in mind the plot is pretty unforgivable. This is nicely filmed but is a very disjointed and disappointing effort and not one I would recommend.
Rathko Sometime in the 1970s, two Englishmen and their Spanish wives hope to overcome the difficulties in their relationships with a vacation at a family home in rural Basque country. When the guys go hunting and rescue a young girl held captive in an abandoned farmhouse, it's only a matter of time before the locals come looking for her. 'Bosque de Sombras' clearly takes Peckinpah's 'Straw Dogs' as its model, exploring the same themes of power and masculinity through a sexually provocative wife and her weak and ineffectual husband. Only the psycho-sexual dynamic is played out against the unspoken backdrop of Franco's dictatorship instead of the Vietnam War. Unfortunately, these socio-political underpinnings, which made Peckinpah's 1971 classic so powerful, are lost in 'Bosque de Sombras' not only through the lack of any real sense of the era but a reluctance to define the characters in the broad strokes necessary for political commentary. Even the attempt itself begs the question: just how relevant is a critique of the insular superstitions of Franco's Spain? So we're left with a pretty routine genre thriller of backwoods crazies running amok. The cast and crew do an excellent job (particularly the always brilliant Oldman), the forest locations are beautifully ripe and foreboding, and the movie is suspenseful and thoroughly entertaining, but any attempts to achieve something greater are ultimately held back by a screenplay that dares not deliver on its thematic philosophy.
masherlarni no need/unfair to berate this movie for being similar and not as good as straw dogs. its a good film in its own right. great ending as well, brilliant. nice little twist. liked the way i began to sympathise with the french family as well, until the final scenes of course. one thing i am always frustrated about is when people do stupid things like crash into trees when they're trying to escape from the bad guys, but i don't think I've seen a tense drama or thriller that hasn't frustrated me in this way before or since i watched sexy beast. I've seen straw dogs but couldn't get into it at all, ended up switching it off after about 35 minutes. i think because it was made so long ago i'm 36 it put me off right from the start. straw dogs production was also much more low budget and shabby. backwoods gripped me from start to finish. could be because i like oldman, but id say its much better than straw dogs if i was forced to compare or recommend one of them. this isn't one of my all time favourite films but was much better than i expected for a little known french film that i only hired because it had gary oldman in it. i was pleasantly surprised and definitely glad i watched it.
fwomp Oh say it ain't so, Gary Oldman! Having been a fairly big fan of Mr. Oldman (even having enjoyed his performance as Zorg in THE FIFTH ELEMENT), I've come to expect a certain level of entertainment from his film choices. Not so here.Gary Oldman (HARRY POTTER films) stars as Paul, an Englishman on holiday in Spain's backwoods with his wife and another couple when they run afoul of the locals who are hiding a young girl away in what seems to be sickening conditions (they find her tied by the ankle in a dilapidated home drinking from a dog bowl). "Saving" the girl, they bring her back to their distant cabin and learn that some yocal-locals are looking for her ...and their carrying rifles.Hiding her away, the English vacationers quickly learn that the nearby township will do whatever necessary to retrieve her ...including raping or shooting anyone who gets in their way.Probably the biggest issue with this film is that it has no purpose, and flings about in uncertainty up to and beyond its horrible ending. It is never explained why the girl is tied up in the first place (she does act like an animal and the audience is left wondering if she were some sort of mentally handicapped kid or a hybrid human-canine, or even a werewolf ...but none of these are ever explored in any depth).The acting is so over-the-top that I often wondered if the scenes were supposed to be taken seriously or were designed for laughs.Regardless as to intentions, THE BACKWOODS should remain on the extreme "back shelf" of all DVD rental stores ...if stocked at all!

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