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If you've ever been in the middle of taking an exam which requires you to write an essay of which you're fully prepared for but test time runs out before you can complete your thoughts and put them down on paper, that's how you'll feel when this movie ends. I just wanted that little extra something that was missing. It had tension that felt very real and fine acting, especially oldman, and had a constant upbeat pulse throughout the film that kept me interested. But it was a mad dash towards what I hoped would've been an incredible ending but leaves me "out in the rain". Definitely worth a look-see though. Not nearly as bad as what I've been reading.

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.

Two Englishmen and their girlfriends go on holiday to a remote area of Spain, there one of them, Paul (Gary Oldman), has bought his Spanish grandmothers old house and hopes to settle down there permanently. His friend Norman (Paddy Considine) is having relationship problems with his French girlfriend after they lost a baby and they all hope this trip will settle some issues. While out hunting on their first morning in their house, Paul and Norman get lost in the forest and stumble across what seems to be an abandoned house, they enter and find a young girl that is being held there. They bring her back to their own house and clean her up, once there they become conflicted as to what they should do, this is where their problems begin.

The film is set in the 1970's and has obviously been influenced by films from that era like Deliverance or Straw Dogs combined perhaps with Calvaire, this all provides an immediate ambiance and sense of menace, one that I like and I knew early on I would enjoy it. Two giants of the British screen, Oldman and Considine add immensely to their characters, Paul is brash and confident, Norman is withdrawn and quiet. Their development when things go wrong is always interesting. If I have any criticisms its perhaps the ending can be seen coming, but its still fun getting there, Virginie Ledoyen is also a little wooden, though that may be down to speaking in English. The cast of Spanish locals is also excellent and well chosen, each one has that lived in face that suits that inbred feel. You'll have no problem believing these guys are capable of murder and rape. If there's one message to be gained from this film, its "Don't mess with the locals".

Exciting film set at the end of the 1970s , about four tourists threatened by hooligans locals , as there are hunters and prey . When they return to an ancestral village tensions build between them , a brewing conflict with locals becomes a threat to them . As two couples's holiday called Paul (Gary Oldman) , Lucy (Virginie Ledoyen) , Norman (Paddy Considine) , Isabel (Aitana Sánchez-Gijón) in Spain are interrupted when they discover a girl imprisoned in a cabin . Ledoyen and Considine play a young married couple who are going through a difficult patch in their relationship and come to visit a friend Paul (Oldman) who now lives in the Basque region because he has married a woman from there (Aitiana Sánchez-Gijón) . It escalates quickly into a bloody battle between Brits and Spanish rednecks (Kandido Uranga , Patxi Bisquert , Lluis Homar) . Paul whose pacifism is put to supreme test attempts to protect a dim-witted little girl who they have found locked . They try to help her by taking her away from a dark house , but the local villagers, who have to protect the girl and seem determined to keep her in atrocious conditions, start a pursuit in the forest they know much better than the visitors . As the jealous as well as resentful locals and desirous of women assault their house , as they are viciously attacked . Their house is put under siege by the incensed villagers , but they defend the mansion with ferocity . Later on , they flee seeking security , but their attempts to help the little girl are hampered by the denseness of the forest and a relentless pursuit by the nasty rednecks .

Violent film contains thrills , chills , suspense , twists , and results to be quite entertaining . A controversial violence-themed picture ; dealing with a known plot , as a group of British people go to a rural little village and face increasingly vicious local harassment . As their tranquil summer turns to horror when they discover a girl with horribly mutilated hands in the forest . We are facing a tense film , hard , tough , brilliant in many moments, with some aspect of western , with a grand and impressive ending . The picture packs intrigue , action , intense drama and lots of violence . The story takes parts , here and there , from famous films such as ¨Deliverance", ¨Wild bunch¨ , ¨Next of kin¨ and especially "Straw Dogs" . The main cast is frankly excellent with players of several nationalities as the British Gary Oldman and Paddy Considine ; French Virginie Ledoyen and Spanish Aitiana Sanchez Gijon . Support cast is mostly Spaniard such as Jon Ariño , Lluís Homar who excels in his acting , Kandido Uranga and special appearance of Álex Angulo , ¨Dia De La Bestia¨'s starring . Gary Oldman, Paddy Considine and Virginie Ledoyen were dubbed for the Spanish version of the film. The scenes where the characters had whole scenes with English dialog were all dubbed ; only when the characters spoke in English with the Spanish characters, the dubbing actors said their lines in English ; 'Aitana Sánchez-Gijon' dubbed herself .

Unax Mendia cinematography is excellent creating a rainy and cold atmosphere , he's expert on sombre photography , being stunningly shot on location in Navarra woods . Thrilling and moving musical score by Fernando Velazquez who subsequently would make a notorious career with successful films as ¨Orphanage¨ , ¨Devil¨ , ¨Mama¨ and ¨The impossible¨ . The flick was finely produced by the chairman of Filmax Productions , Julio Fernandez along with his brother Carlos Fernandez as executive producer , they're two successful producers and experts on terror genre , producing a lot of hits , such as ¨The machinist¨, ¨Rec ¨1¨, 2¨ and ¨3¨ , ¨Fragiles¨, ¨Darkness¨, ¨El perfume¨ , ¨The nun¨ , ¨Transsiberian¨ and many others . The flick was professionally directed by Koldo Serra in his only film and obtained moderated success . Serra uses many long shots, showing a leisurely narrative pace . Definitely a big "debut" of director Koldo Serra who promises to be a great filmmaker .

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.

I saw the director's short film which was not good but at least interesting and much better than this full-length movie "Bosque de sombras". Gary Oldman is obviously the only star in this movie but contrary to what the other reviewer said, I believed the Spanish cast was good. It was interesting to hear Gary Oldman speak some Spanish and I give this movie 3 stars because of Aitana Sanchez-Gijon and him.

Aitana Sanchez-Gijon, who is an excellent Spanish actress that I last watched in "The Machinist" with Christian Bale and was also in other English language movies like "A Walk in the clouds" plays Gary Oldman's wife. She can express mystery and emotion without saying any dialogue. I think she is one of the best but underrated Spanish actresses today. Lluís Homar was brilliant, in my opinion, and also the little girl.

I was mixed about Paddy Considine. I think he is a good actor but next to Gary Oldman, he was less interesting. In "Cinderella man" with Russel Crowe, he was excellent and also in "In America," but in this movie, he was only interesting when he was not in a scene with Gary Oldman but in scenes with the other actors, he steals every scene. I think that shows how strong Gary Oldman is that brilliant actors like Considine seem to fade next to him.

This movie is the first English language movie for Virginie Ledoyen since "The Beach" and I think it is fair to say that she will always be known as the girl from "The Beach" because she is a bland and boring actress. Even in french films she is dull because she lacks the range that other actresses her age have. In this movie, she is not at all convincing as her character. She "acts" better in her 30-second adverts for L'Oréal.

The biggest problem of this movie is the writing and the directing. Serra and his co-writer lack the skill in writing a coherent and original scénario. Stealing from other movies was a bad idea. There should have been more development in this to make it a real movie. Also, Serra uses the camera techniques of 70's directors which is OK at first but when he does this all the time it is distracting and does not serve any purpose except style. We all know it is set in the 70's but the directing should always be related to the story because style is cheap and easy and anyone who works only on style with no script should just direct commercials and music videos. Skip this movie and rent "Straw dogs" instead.

Saw this at a film festival in Dublin recently and really enjoyed it. The film is an obvious homage to Peckinpah, right from the opening credits. I thought it was very well shot, the film looks great in widescreen photography. There is a nice ominous atmosphere captured by the director and a real 70's feel to the film. There is also a very good cast, it got me thinking, how did a small Spainsh film attract such good actors? The one complaint I would have is that the script was lacking a bit. The dialogue felt a bit forced, almost as it if was translated from Spanish and then when spoken in English it seemed to be missing something in the translation. It just did not come across as believable at times. On the whole though there were far more positives than negatives and I would recommend this film to fans of genre cinema

This was one of the movies I saw in Cannes last month during the film market (it was not part of the festival, which is different) and possibly the worst movie I've seen in a while.

The trailer showed promise. The only reason I went to the screening was because of star Gary Oldman. After the movie ended, myself and my colleagues wondered out loud why Gary Oldman decided to do this empty, shallow movie which was full of clichés and obvious homages to Leone and movies like Deliverance that don't amount to much. A chance to play in Spanish maybe ? That is the only mystery we have in this movie : why did Gary Oldman do it ?

The performances of most of the actors were good except for Virginie Ledoyen who still has not showed that she can play more than one style. I wished the producers had chosen a better actress who has depth and more chemistry with her co-stars. She was by far the weakest actor of the 5 main actors in this movie. Paddy Considine was good as her husband. I'm always impressed by Considine's performances and here he was the actor that gave the most impressive performance out of them all. Gary Oldman and Aitana Sanchez-Gijon were effective as the other married couple. Except for Homar, the rest of the supporting Spanish cast seemed like amateurs doing their first movie.

This is a movie about incommunication and the effects, but unfortunately that theme never gets fully developed. Besides the performance of Considine, the only other good point of this movie is the cinematography.

Everything else about this movie makes it more suitable for viewing as a direct-to-DVD instead of in the theatres. The people I work with did not buy the movie and no one in our company recommended it or felt it was worth it. I don't think Filmax sold it to anyone at the market. Oldman and Considine are good, but 2 good actors are not enough to save a bad film.

I miss seeing Gary Oldman in good films and hope he makes smarter choices in the future. Now I will have to wait for the next Batman to see Oldman in a good film.

A movie dealing with outsiders stuck out in an inhospitable bucolic nightmare. Definitely a paced and concentrated mix of tension and violence.Hostility sticks out all over this film and the performances are superb. This is a well worked trope but it doesn't matter. Highly recommended if you are keen on things like HAUTE TENSION, WOLF CREEK , SHY PEOPLE or DELIVERANCE. Gary Oldman,who has a great track record and versatility not matched does a grand job here.Probably one of his best roles to date. The villains are a sinister bunch of hill-folk,hints are made in reference to inbreeding and unspeakable acts but all is understated.A climate of violence prevails but does not descend into cartoon-like nonsense ala Tarantino(not knocking Mr T.). Rural Spanish Gothic.

Okay, we all know the plot of a movie like this. Some sophisticated city folk go out to the country and are set upon by local inbreds who proceed to rape and kill them.

They retroed the movie to 1978, because if set today, the heroes would call for help on their cell phones and the story would be over.

This movie also had the worst set of fake and bad accents I've seen. Besides Gary Oldman effecting a British accent, we have the two women, whom you can barely understand. (Fortunately, the direct to DVD release has subtitles.

The movie is ponderously slow. The story is unoriginal and you don't really like the characters.

Compared to Straw Dogs or Deliverance, this thriller set in the Basque region of Spain adds that local charm that makes it worth watching.

It features Gary Oldman (The Dark Knight, Harry Potter) and Virginie Ledoyen (8 Women, The Valet), and that's reason enough to watch. Add Aitana Sánchez-Gijón (The Machinist, The Whore and the Whale) and Paddy Considine (Hot Fuzz), and you should have a great movie. There are other very good actors (Lluís Homar, Andrés Gertrúdix, Álex Angulo) familiar to those who watch Spanish movies, and they add immensely to the pleasure.

They find a little girl (Yaiza Esteve) locked in a cabin in the woods with lobster claw syndrome. They take her to help and immediately enrage the locals.

During the hunt for the girl, one of the locals decides he wants some time with Ledoyen, but he didn't count on Norman (Considine) possessing some cajones. He couldn't shoot a rabbit, but you don't mess with his wife.

A lot died before the chase through the woods was over.

Featuring the great music of Leonard Cohen.

Wo, what a real dark, gloomy and very heavy film! I never thought that could be so dark and so gloomy on so many aspects. The film where great Gary Oldman surely shines starts as a typical family drama and goes on rather smoothly and even boring to some extent but then becomes so harsh and so bloody that a jaw drops. Utterly simple plot is quite logical here and it serves the main idea well. The terribly looking incest-stricken locals are a real frightening bunch and the deaths are so tragic here that a heavy feeling never leaves the heart. That heavy rain at the end serves another classic role of sweeping all past sins away...but even apart from clichés it still is a very decent movie

Backwoods is one of those movies capable of attracting the viewer without needing extraordinary special effects, on the contrary, simply creating a truly suspenseful sequence of events, set in a frightening atmosphere. The choice of an abandoned rural home in the Basque forest, where the slow movements of the characters are followed by a distanced camera, giving the idea there's someone watching them from a distance, proves really effective. The plot in itself is rather simple, and with no plot twists, except in the finale, open to different interpretations. On the whole, everything sounds very minimal, however what keeps the viewer attached to the screen is the solid build-up of an authentic thrilling feeling, where setting and shooting are wisely employed. The cohesive and good cast also help build the gripping atmosphere till the end, the characters are well developed and their interaction intelligently explored. The only flaw: I watched the parts spoken in Spanish without subtitles which made me lose some significant dialogues. Apart from this, a wise opera prima by the director Koldo Serra, proving that the mechanisms of fear are always the same and that we need very little to feel scared.

Two couples—Paul and Isabel (Gary Oldman and Aitana Sánchez-Gijón) and Norman and Lucy (Paddy Considine and Virginie Ledoyen)—travel to a remote region of Northern Spain for a relaxing break and a spot of hunting (the guys having somehow brought a pair of shotguns with them through customs), but instead they incur the wrath of locals after freeing a young girl they find chained up in a run-down cabin.

The obvious inspirations for this rural survival thriller set in the late 70s are Deliverance and Straw Dogs (with Ledoyen in the Susan George role, teasing the drooling locals), although there are striking similarities to countless other examples of the backwoods genre, old and new. One might expect the presence of acting heavyweights Oldman and Considine to compensate somewhat for the derivative nature of the script, but even class performers such as they can do very little with what amounts to a collection of tired clichés presented with little flair or imagination.

The Backwoods also suffers from awkward performances from the leading ladies (this may be because neither actress speaks English as their first language), poor pacing, a lack of genuinely disturbing violence (surely a prerequisite of the genre), and a weak denouement that leaves the viewer feeling more than a little cheated.

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.

This movie reminded me of Deliverance. Most obvious reasons being that the woodsy-setting and crazy locals contributed to that, but there's also a majorly creepy/uncomfortable factor to the whole tone of it.

For example, the little girl screamed and cried a few too many times for my taste, as it was starting to get very annoying. But at the same time it made me more tense... so in a way that succeeded in creating a viewing atmosphere where I was on edge the whole time.

Some of the camera work/directing/shots looked great, esp. the chase scenes through the woods.

I'm not sure if I can say that I exactly enjoyed watching this movie, as I tend to like movies with at least a bit of humor in them, but I did think it was effective as a scary movie.

I kept waiting for the story to go somewhere and it never really happens. I felt the main characters were flat and the female mains should make any women embarrassed for there gender representation. Talk about some worthless, unintelligent, feckless, and self centered women. Wow. Whatever this was trying to be it failed miserably.

I enjoyed the movie last week at its Premiere in Madrid. It was very good. A very interesting piece of film art, where the picture is made of a good fusion of beautiful images, ominous silences, sparkling sounds, mature musics, good acting, rhythm, great photography, etc. A very good tension is achieved in the film and even though the story may be somehow known in the history of the movies (there are confessed prior references) is this time treated differently and with a bright eye which captures your eye and grasps your attention from the very beginning. All actors bright in the movie, specially Oldman and Homar, although all the cast is really convincing (mention also Ms. Ledoyen, Ms. Sánchez-Gijón and Mr. Considine).

It is not a perfect work of art (art is as such impossible of perfection) but is a real work of art.

For that reason, I cannot really understand (yet there may be a reason which may not be so difficult to explain, such as an explicit boycott) how so many people voted so low for this movie, ... and they did it even before it was officially released!! I hope now the public can make accurate and sincere voting without any particular economic interest or prejudice.

I do really recommend it to all the people interested in good movies.

The Argentinian release of this movie has it running at 152 minutes which would have been way too long. As it is the UK release came in at around 90 mins. I'm not sure if IMDb made a mistake with the times but i felt 90 mins was just about right as i hate to think that the other hour would have been filler.

It's set in Spain in 1976 and stars (for the most part) 2 couples - Gary Oldman and his wife Aitana Sánchez-Gijón and Paddy Considin (Hot Fuzz, The Bourne Ultimatum) and his wife Virginie Ledoyen (The love interest of Di Caprio in The Beach). It concerns the 2 men (Considine & Oldman) who while out hunting near Oldman's grandmothers old house in the forest's of Spain come across a dilapidated house. In it they find a girl who is disfigured and locked in what is a sty. They rescue her and take her home with the intention of taking her to the police. it isn't long before her family (who they met earlier in the nearest village bar) come looking for her.

It is a decent film with good acting, however it's the head of the household that have the locked up girl - Lluis Homar who steals the show (all his dialog is in Spanish) with his acting done primarily with his expressions and his eyes ala Jack Nicholson.

It's not as gritty as Deliverance and doesn't set out to be comic like Severance, I don't think it's quite as good as either of those films, but it is decent.