The Backwoods - Prigionieri nel bosco

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 .

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.

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.

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.

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.