Manhunt - Backwoods Massacre

The backwoods/survivalist horror genre is one of my favourites, but the films do have a tendency to follow the same formula, Manhunt being no exception. A typical example of 'doing things by the book', it starts in time-honoured fashion with four friends travelling through the wilderness in their VW camper-van (the film is set in 1974, a tribute to that classic of the genre, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre perhaps). After the predictable run in with hostile locals at a roadside diner, they do the expected thing by picking up a scared hitch-hiker, inadvisably stop in the middle of nowhere, and, in yet another retelling of The Most Dangerous Game, fall prey to a group of hunters who prefer killing humans to animals.

Despite all of the familiar trappings, this sort of thing can work very well just so long as there are regular thrills and inventive bloody kills, the protagonists are likable, and they don't behave like absolute idiots; Manhunt is suitably vicious in tone and features some reasonable splatter (although it's not as creatively bloody as I would have liked), but sadly its young victims aren't very appealing and act like morons. They constantly bicker with each other, stupidly insult the locals, and repeatedly make ill-advised decisions that only worsen their already dire situation. In short, I couldn't care less if they survived or ended up as trophies lashed to the bonnet of a Norwegian maniac's Landrover.

Patrick Syversen and Ninni Robsahm must be the most dangerous couple in Norway. Together they transformed the harmonic Norwegian woods into a dark nightmare. When this film kicks in you can either love or hate it, but that's how it should be with this kind of movies.

The title music by David Hess(taken from Last House on the Left) sets the mood and from there on you can just lean back and get scared out of your mind. This is not the sterile dreamy and slightly funny kind of horror that we usually see these days. Rovdyr has taken back the hardcore thrill ride story telling we saw in American and Italian horror movies during the 70's.

I hope Syversen and Robsahm will continue on the route they have started because they are most interesting as makers of Norwegian horror.

I was encouraged to seek this out after having seen it trailed on, I think, the Horror Channel and had the impression that it was probably US independent and most stylish. This was either a misleading trailer or a marvellous bit of editing my the TV people. This is Norwegian, not that the subtitles present much of a problem because after the set up there is not that much dialogue. The baddies don't say a word. The real trouble for me was that the youngsters are such an absolute pain that I can't wait for them to get got. It is not a terrible film and the pacing is good as are the action sequences but it just didn't take me along, I'm afraid. Shows how much attention I paid as I've just noticed from the DVD box that the film was set in 1974. I hadn't noticed it was a period piece, nor know why it was but maybe the director was saying something about youngsters in the 70s and that's why I didn't take to them. But hey, life's too short.

The After Dark series gave me Prowl (2010), A flick I liked. It was directed by Patrik Syversen. I saw that he made another horror, namely Rovdyr (2008). The name says it all, it's spoken in Norwegian and came out in our country surprisingly only with French subtitles. Almost one year later over here in my native country they came out with 'Horror Collection' DVD's. And let it happen that Rovdyr came finally in my hands with the right subtitles.

If you just look at the opening sequence and the music used then you should know that it is an ode to the eighties and even a bit toward the grindhouse. Once the movie starts you get to know the characters and it took a while to knew them. It took over 20 minutes and I thought, well, this is going to suck. But was I wrong. Slowly it moves towards a creepy and even brutal horror. Oh yes, you have seen it a thousand times but just watch it. Before you know it someone is being shot without warning and another one is shot at the Achilles'tendon. From then on it is full of suspense and gory scene's. For me the ending was a bit of an open ending because what is going to happen next? You can only guess it. Will it go okay or is she in a downward spiral.

All the acting was believable. What Henriette Bruusgaard (Camilla) did was really excellent, it was her first role! I loved this movie and recommend it to all fans of good old school horror from the eighties.

Gore 4/5 Nudity 0/5 Effects 4/5 Story 3/5 Comedy 0/5

The movie received great reviews here in Norway, and I was looking forwards to seeing it. Being a Norwegian production, I guess the critics put on their patriot pants, because this is not that great a movie.

The story we've seen before. Some young people gets captured, are hunted, with blood and gore following in ample amounts. The only thing that differentiates this movie from its many siblings is the betrayal within the group, and the charters being somewhat interesting and real. They lack depth thought, and are quite frankly not that well played or presented.

The biggest exception to this is the villains, and their behavior. Without giving any spoilers, let me just say they are a bit to evil and cold. A tad more insight into them would make the movie allot more interesting.

What does deserve praise is the visual side of the movie, with the effects especially in mind. The movie is well shot, and really drags you into it by virtue of this. The effects look so real it's frightening. So frightening in fact, that it is one of the movies greatest flaws. It's just too much.

Now, I'm not a very gentle soul, and enjoy the odd horror movie without problems, but this movie is not that enjoyable. That said, I'm sure if I went hunting moose this autumn, I'd probably not sleep very well having seen it.

Ugly, scary and outright ultra-voilent? Yes.

Exciting, interesting and progressive? No.