The Backwoods

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Horrorphile - November 2008

The Backwoods

November 19th 2008 01:13

The Backwoods (2006) has all the right ingredients, but it falls short of being the powerhouse study of prejudice and violence that it strives to be. The debut feature from director and co-writer Koldo Serra, the movie deals with isolation, shame and anxiety and is set in a Northern Spanish forest in the summer of 1978.

Several other movies spring to mind while watching The Backwoods, all of them better films, but that’s not to say The Backwoods isn’t well-made. In fact it’s better than most other straight-to-DVD releases. It features an excellent cast, superb cinematography, a good score, and the direction and editing are terrific. It’s the script that lets the movie down. The build-up is solid, the use of tension and suspense is beautifully handled; a real sense of impending doom is blanketed over the main characters, but the movie falls apart during the second half and the ending is very disappointing, and wholly unsatisfying.

Gary Oldman as Paul

A couple, English Norman (Paddy Considine) and his French wife Lucy (Virginie Ledoyen) are holidaying in Spain, visiting another couple up in the Basque forest hills. There’s trouble in their relationship and they’re seeking resolution. Norman’s friend Paul (Gary Oldman) has married a Spanish woman Isabel (Aitana Sánchez-Gijón) and bought an old property near one of the local isolated villages.

Paddy Considine as Norman

After settling in the four visit the nearby tavern, but find the locals to be less than friendly; a simple classic case of us and them. The next morning while Paul and Norman go for a spot of hunting, Isabel convinces a moody Lucy to go for a skinny dip in the watering hole. Off the beaten track and Paul and Norman discover a cabin and inside, locked away in the darkness, a poor young girl, terrified and filthy. Worse still, she has horribly deformed hands (not the best prosthetic work I’ve seen), hinting at inbreeding.

Virginie Ledoyen as Lucy

Norman insists they take her with them and contact the police. Later, a storm arrives, as do the village men who are searching for the girl. It is inevitable things will go awry, it’s the only thing that makes sense; intervene in the locals twisted business and heed the wrath.

Aitana Sanchez-Gijon as Isabel

Straw Dogs (1971), Deliverance (1972), Southern Comfort (1981); these are some of the movies that The Backwoods is trying to emulate. Certainly there is a strong atmosphere of foreboding and a genuine sense of unease that permeates the movie, but The Backwoods trips and falls when it should be ratcheting up the dramatic intensity. There is no real pay-off at movie’s end, but then maybe that’s too Hollywood an ending …?

Paco (Lluis Homar) leads a search party

Gary Oldman is excellent (when is he not?) as the English ex-pat (very impressive Spanish he’s speaking too), and Paddy Considine delivers a nicely controlled performance as the man at the end of his tether whose frustration over a failing relationship boils over into rage at the dangerous predicament they find themselves in. Having seen him last as a calculated sociopath in the brilliant Dead Man's Shoes and before that as a nasty bully in A Room for Romeo Brass (both directed by Shane Meadows), this was a change of pace that adds another notch to his range as an actor.

Yaize Esteve as Nerea

Although Virginie Ledoyen looked and acted the part, she wasn’t the most sympathetic character. Strong support from the Spanish cast including Aitana Sánchez-Gijón, Lluís Homar as the local patriach Paco, and Yaiza Esteve as Nerea, the young girl (she has no lines of dialogue, but her body language speaks volumes).

Lucy is sexually assaulted by one of the villagers

The movie is a UK/French/Spanish co-production (its official title is Bosque de Sombras), and has been largely ignored by critics. Curiously imdb.com lists the running time for the Argentina release at 153 minutes, which suggests nearly an hour was cut out before it was released elsewhere. Perhaps this is an odd misprint, but it does feel like the movie is seriously lacking elements in the story. There’s too much ambiguity.

Paul in retaliation mode

I wanted to know more about the young girl and her family’s situation, I wanted more of a resolution or confrontation between Norman and Lucy, it made no sense why Paul resigned himself in such a dramatic way when Paco ambushed him after he’d confronted Paul’s simple-minded brother. But perhaps there were scenes missing that would have explained his personality more? Maybe the movie was that flawed to start with and there is no longer version? In any case The Backwoods is not a brilliant movie, but it’s definitely worth watching for Gary and Paddy’s solid performances, the rural Spanish setting, and despite falling apart in the last stages, the premise holds up for the most part.

Never a good idea to kill a villager's dog

Here's the trailer (which oddly sets the movie in 1976, not 1978 as the feature states):

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Posted By: Bryn - Category: movie reviews

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Comments

5 Comments. [ Add A Comment ]

Comment by David O'Connell

November 19th 2008 03:58

Screen Fanatic

Looks interesting Bryn, it certainly has a superior cast. Paddy Considine, in particular, is a phenomenal actor with a very scary presence at times, as in Dead Man's Shoes and the superb A Room for Romeo Brass as you mentioned. Also in My Summer of Love, another fantastic film.

Comment by Anonymous

November 19th 2008 20:19

I think I'll have to see this, if just for the 70s setting alone. =) Excellent review though, as always.

Also, I wanted to mention two films to you to see if you'd heard of them or would be interested in checking themout if you hadn't....

Red based on the Jack Ketchum novel. It's not a great film, but it's good and the book (as is pretty much always the case) was even better. I really think the theme is something you'd appreciate.

Next is the short The Demonology of Desire. I haven't seen it, but am intrigued by the premise none-the-less and figure if anyone could give it a worthy critique, it'd be you.

Either way, thanks for the consideration. If you do choose to, I hope you like them.

-Kemi

Comment by Damo

November 20th 2008 05:10

The trailer looks terrific.
I like the premise.

Comment by Bryn

November 20th 2008 06:09

Horrorphile

David, yeah, I guess the movie must've looked pretty impressive on paper and in the auditions with the director, but somehow it stumbled in the translation onto celluloid ... Certainly a director to watch for in the future.

Lilith, firstly, I'm writing about "you" at the moment, as my supernatural horror movie deals with a succubus and there's reference to the queen of the demons ... Secondly, thanks for the recommendations, I'll endeavour to track those down! Shorts are notorious to get a hold of, I have several I've been trying to find for years. In fact, one is from the same director as The Backwoods. It's called El Tren de la Bruja. Another couple are from Irreversible direcotr Gaspar Noe called Carne and The Minotaur.

Damo, yes, great trailer and indeed a great, if not wholly original, premise. It could've been a real contender. Pity it isn't, but there are worse ways of spending a rainy night in.

Comment by Bryn

November 20th 2008 06:11

Horrorphile

David, I forgot about My Summer of Love ... Fantastic film, with my fave female actor Emily Blunt. Oooooo!

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