Backwoods

If you like b-movies from the 80s then you might enjoy this. Two campers are terrorized by a geek, an insane man that bites the heads off chickens. This movie (Backwoods) is also known as 'Geek' in the U.K. Its a straight to video film with a cast of unknowns, but they play their roles well. I liked the overall creepy atmosphere of the film and the last 30 minutes were very entertaining. One thing that bugged me about this movie was not knowing what really happened to Beth,the little girl. Karen is shown sporting a shotgun and shoots toward William when he is dragging her beaten boyfriend away with Beth in toe and Karen blindly fires at the trio but we never see beth again but i assume Karen shot her by mistake. Other then this tiny plot hole i liked this movie. 6/10

Horror movies aren't really my thing, but the lure of the Hollows pulled me in. Dean Crow directed a low budget winner which principally includes an old farm house, a pup tent and a lake. Poor William (Jack O'hara) the son of the stoical and psychologically nebulous Hillbilly Eben (Dick Kreusser), is quite a hyper guy who has a bad habit of killing little animals for fun and a quick snack, however, deep down he is quite a romantic. O'hara, with his big blue eyes and spastic movements plays the part of the Geek to perfection. I think it's fair to say that if he lived in Hollywood he would have been a utilized character actor and could have had a nice career.

Christine Noonan who plays Beth is the other standout. She is kind of a poor boys Adrienne Barbeau. Noonan does a fine job of acting and Director Crow's team does a great job of accentuating her two strongest points. There are also some interesting camera angles utilizing light and shadows which add to the tense mood of the film. All in all, a solid "B" movie worth a watch, IMHO.

"Backwoods", or "Geek" (as I know it) is one of those films in the same sub-genre as Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Deliverance, Midnight, Just Before Dawn...you get my drift. It reminded me very much of "Just Before Dawn", as some of the scenes are very similar.

I won't go into a detailed description of the plot as I'm sure you will get an idea of it from the other reviews here.

The film gets off to a slow start, although the atmosphere is rather creepy. There is very little gore at all, which is a shame because it would have enhanced things greatly. When things do get going (in the last quarter of the film) is when it is most rewarding - the scenes are tense, disturbing and very well done. The film also makes you think a bit and by the end, the message I got was that ultimately humans stand alone and must protect themselves at all costs.

If you love films such as Just Before Dawn, Midnight, Deliverance, and so on, I would recommend giving this a watch. The pay-off is in the ending but sadly you have to suffer a bit of boredom to get to it.

Obscure horror made just after the slasher era but has the looks like an early eighties slasher even as it isn't really a slasher. It's a typical hillbilly flick. It's rather hard to find this flick only available on VHS. And still people do search it even as it isn't all that good, face it, being obsessed by long black hair.

The reason therefor lays in the fact that the first hour it's all about talking and characterisation. But I guess the director Dean Crow did knew about that fact and did put in some gratuitous full frontal nudity by one time actress Christine Noonan. It's only towards the end that this flick delivers the horror and even that doesn't look creepy at all. But the score used and the hissing of the geek (Jack O'Hara) gives it a special atmosphere. There aren't almost no effects used but when it does it is above mediocre for such kind of low budget flicks.

Made by an unknown director in an era where horror was not done is the reason why this is so extremely hard to find. Still, if you do like hillbilly horror then this is a must see. For the other 'geeks' if you can grab it watch it, you certainly will enjoy the ending but overall a bit lame.

Gore 0/5 Nudity 1/5 Effects 1/5 Story 2/5 Comedy 0/5

A low budget gem with surprisingly good actors and a plot that leaves you wondering who the real bad guy is. It's a shame that Dick Kreusser hasn't had many roles because his acting was the star of the show.

Scares 3/10 Tension 7/10 Gore 4/10 Nudity 10/10 Entertainment 10/10

Plot 5/10 Characters 5/10 Pacing 4/10 Music 3/10 Cinematography 5/10

Final score 5.8/10