Terrore nella foresta

I will be damned if Dan Haggerty, TV's own "Grizzly Adams", does not actually take his role in this no-budget, cheap exploitation flick seriously and truly do his best to act in this film. You are in the middle of watching what has got to be one of the most amateurishly acted and atrociously bad crazy-mountain-man-abducts-sweet-young-thing movies, and all of a sudden, the big burly blonde Haggerty shows up and seems to actually think he is in something by Strindberg.

This movie apparently had something of a following, although I can't imagine why, so repugnantly does it violate the natural order, even of exploitation films, and it even generated a sequel, which I have thankfully been spared having to watch.

I am all for chicks-in-distress films, and I was hoping to see a lot of torn clothing, bared breasts, some good rolling around in the dirt and some real rope bondage in lush outdoor settings. This movie sadly disappoints on all counts, even in the bondage area, and I never saw a mountain guy with more rope than Vern, our psychotic kidnapper. Renee, the hapless victim, played by a young woman who seems to be somewhere between unconscious and dead, is so laughably inept at doing anything but standing still that part of me was hoping she would end up as Mrs. Vern, despite her whining that she was unhappy being kidnapped and wanted to go home. The character of Vern, played with twisted fiendish glee, still basically makes no sense and the actor's performance falls flat, despite his enthusiasm. Only Haggerty's genuine attempts at delivering a performance of some substance save this from being a complete catastrophe from start to finish.

In the genre of kidnapped-girl-in-the-hands-of-a-madman movies, this is about as lame as you can get. Nice Canadian landscape, though.

I saw this movie late one night on a movie channel here in Canada. It has received some medicore reviews here, but I think the movie is slightly above average, all things considered.

Yes, it was a low budget movie and that's quite obvious. The beautiful scenery of the Canadian wilderness is breathtaking. The characters played by Haggerty, and his son were quite well-developed and believable. Haggerty and Weiss also have some great dialog on their trip back to civilization. Roberta Weiss looks great too, and that doesn't hurt.

You won't be able to find this one DVD yet, your only hope is to catch on TV one night, or find a used copy of the VHS.

Despite the best efforts of Collins to make this film bad, he accidentally made an interesting movie. Renee (Roberta Weiss) is out in the forest jogging and within the first minute of the movie finds herself captured by Vern (Lawrence King-Phillips). Vern appears insane at first, with his crazy sunglasses and aggressive nature. Events unfold and we come to realize that Vern has a dad (in a very convincing performance by Dan Haggerty) who is exactly the opposite of Vern, calm and level-headed. Above all this movie explores some interesting ideas, like what happens to the abductee after the initial shock of being abducted. Vern and his dad (Joe) are only in the forest because Joe loves his son and society wants to lock him up. Unfortunately, it seems that not much thought went into the last fifteen minutes, but the rest of the movie is definitely worth a watch. Rating: 25/40

Pretty young jogger is abducted by crazy mountain man. That pretty much sums up the whole plot. Those expecting some exploitation fare will be disappointed. There is no nudity, though Roberta Weiss does look cute in her sweat suit and she spends the climax of the film in her panties. Speaking of Weiss, she's certainly one of the most attractive actresses of the '80s. I only know of her from two other things: a small part in The Dead Zone and an episode of Tales From the Darkside. A good episode, though. Anyway, back to the movie. The location shooting is nice. Weiss, as I said, is pretty and does a fine job with her performance. Lawrence King-Phillips is good as the psycho mountain man. Dan Haggerty, the reason most people will even see this, is enjoyable essentially playing the Grizzly Adams type of character we all expect. It's not the worst thing I've ever seen but it's pretty pointless. If it was a little seedier it might have more of a cult following, whatever that says about us.

I was pleasantly surprised by this movie. It turned out to be better than I expected. It comes across like a Lifetime movie (which is why my wife liked it). Those who rent this movie hoping for your typical exploitation "crazy mountain-man kidnaps innocent girl" movie will be disappointed. There is no nudity, a little adult language, and some mild violence.

What I liked about this movie is that it was better than it had to be. The "villain" actually had some depth to his character, as did the character played by Dan Hagerty. The acting by the female lead could have been better, but isn't so awful that it makes the film unwatchable. The scenes between the female and Dan Hagerty are nice and sometimes rather touching.

I recommend this movie for rising above its genre. Its nice these days to be pleased and suprised by a movie, rather than disappointed.