Bosque de sombras

Atmospheric non-thriller. It has a strong cast but the script seems uncertain of what it wants to be and it requires a strong suspension of disbelief.

One must believe that men will resort to rape and murder with little provocation and that women will cower and cringe in all situations. I won't even go into the litany of other trite stereotypes but will summarize by saying that there are no surprises in the movie.

It's sad to see such a waste of potential here as the film could have been so much better if it had been willing to go in a new direction at any point, instead of strictly rehashing the well-worn back roads in these backwoods.

Ah, well...

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 .

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".

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.

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.