Review-American Backwoods has the honor of being the first film I have ever witnessed that made me feel like I was using drugs when I was not. One thing for sure, director Floor Reed is a much messed up individual but my god is he very creative and genius. This film has some of the most insane dialogue I have heard in a horror film; let me rephrase that, in any film this year. There is a scene in the film when the radio is playing a "sexy song", and that song is so absurd that you feel obligated to join in the catchy feel of it. You would never guess from the opening sequence this is a low budget film. Mixing a genre like horror with comical elements is always a hard pill for most horror fans to swallow. The results and reactions are usually mixed at best. I feel this film that film in the early stages had a direction, but as the film was filming that direction went out the window in favor of making the viewer guess where the film is heading.
This film revolves around the simplest premise, the premise of four college students making their way to a strip club. We learn as this film starts going, that the group has a past together. Bro it seems was injured one time when they were on snowmobiles. There is really not much in terms of substance and character development when we see the college guys interact, but this is horror and we sort of expect it. The film finds itself when it comes to both the horror element and also the humor element. What shocked me the most was as bloody and disgusting this film gets, you always feel like they are winking at you. Well our college boys find a bunch of redneck hillbilly types who seem to enjoy hunting for human beings. Well, they also practice the lost arts of raping and killing as well. As we think the hillbillies and being raped could be our worst hope in this side of the world, there is something out there as well that seems to be a bigger threat.
The one word that stuck out to me the most in this film was "unique". This film really does not mind taking gambles and hoping people can follow. This film is not afraid to test boundaries. This film gives you plenty of sick and disturbing moments that fans watch a film like this for. The pacing in this film was a small issue I had, it seemed that as the hour mark hit, the film lost some of its humor flare and felt a little too similar to other films like a Chainsaw Massacre or a Wrong Turn. I really liked the last ten minutes of this film, and felt that it made a good statement about what we just witnessed. This film to me was a great welcome to a director I feel has his head in the right place, and his heart firmly in this genre. This is a horror film that can only be pulled off by a true fan of the genre. While this film is far from perfect, it does deliver in good doses what we watch these little films for. With any justice, this film will get some good word of mouth from both buyers and critics. Slew Hampshire is a odd place but boy was it fun to visit.
