Barricade

Barricade is part of the "German ultra-gore",a complete genre on its own. Back in the 80s, Schnaass, Ittembach and Buttgereit were the founders of this "genre" and now Timo Rose is here to bring a good update on the genre, with more production values and better cinematography but with the same amount of insane violence and blood. Barricade is basically a "torture movie", people captured and mutilated. Not really a big plot, but very good gore FX is what you can expect from this one. I enjoyed it but it lacks in the plot department, and some "camp" moments would help also. I still have Zombie Doom and Premutos in the top of the German ultra gore genre, but Barricade,is near, also. Good photography(but i didn't like the "8 mm picture" FX and the MTV-style editing that were there quite a lot), good FX and lots of gore and blood. 7/10, recommended for the gore-hounds

It is always hard to find any gore flicks that really have a story to tell or have real actors. I immediately became aware that this one was made with great love and with a real budget. The editing is great, performances are good and the gore is convincing. The storyline is of course a typical one, don't go in the woods. It reminded me more towards Wrong Turn then The Hills Have Eyes. Wereas The Hills have deformed people here we only have predators like in Wrong Turn. The movie never slows down. From the start it really gets you going with the gory slaughtering of some Germans, I noticed some friends of Timo that I met a few years ago at a convention. What's really well done is the editing that really made the gore look like it's real and not the gore that makes you laugh. A nice movie even if you aren't a gore freak.

A group of friends come face-to-face with a family of hideous cannibals whilst camping in the beautiful German countryside.

The 'mutant cannibal family' concept is almost as old as the hills that the inbred freaks often call home, so any director attempting to breath new life into the genre needs to come up with something pretty darn special in order to impress. With Barricade, Timo Rose tries to give the well-worn routine a Teutonic twist, by transplanting the action to The Black Forest and giving it the German low-budget splatter treatment. The result is a very bloody, but totally unoriginal effort that is made almost unwatchable thanks to some dreadful directorial decisions—in particular, the non-stop use of fancy filters and irritating editing techniques.

Had Timo Rose not opted to utilise every naff trick his editing software offered him, then Barricade might have been a reasonably entertaining gore-fest: his inexperienced cast do reasonably well; the bloody effects are suitably stomach churning; and there are one or two scares and even some well conceived creepy moments. All of this, however, is completely ruined by the awful camera-work, choppy editing, and overwhelming barrage of visual gimmickry used to give the film the distressed look that is so inexplicably popular with today's film-makers.

I give Barricade 3 out of 10 purely for the outlandish gore, which includes a nifty scene where a guy is forced to drink acid, loads of nasty wounds caused by a variety of sharp implements, and some pretty decent shotgun damage.

I was not completely blown away by Barricade but I thought it was definitely a fun, gore-filled movie. I just read a negative review and it was obviously written by someone who does not watch or appreciate no budget movies. This movie is not Hostel. It is not The Hills Have Eyes. It looks like they shot it for a few thousand dollars. But there is nothing wrong with that - as long as you know that is what you're getting.

The acting is stiff at times and the plot is rather thin, but the real reason anyone should be watching this movie is for the amazing, nasty gore. Much like Andreas Schnaas' Violent Sh*t movies or Olaf Ittenbach's Premutos, the goal here is to show as much splatter as humanly possible on a shoestring budget... and in this regard, I think Barricade's filmmakers and FX artists definitely succeed.

Timo Rose is a talented director and I look forward to seeing more of his movies in the future. I hope he continues getting releases outside of Germany. This is the first movie I have seen of his in Spain. Although his editing sometimes went a little over-the-top in Barricade, it hints at an untapped talent that a larger budget might be able to bring forth.

Also, I was not a fan of the hip hop music in the movie. It was good music - but it did not fit the scenes very well. The other music was all very good, though.

All together, I'd definitely recommend this movie to anyone who wanted to see a lot of gore done of a tiny budget. If you like big budget Hollywood horror films or you need a strong plot, then don't bother. But if you're like me, you'll have a really good time with it.

7 out of 10

I am a big horror movies fan and I followed this movie for a while on myspace. I like German splatter movies and I was excited about this one. I never saw any of Timo Rose's movies before. When i saw it, I was not surprised at all. It is like most German splat movies but with more gore than most of them. I thought it was really cool.

Some friends go into the woods and get attacked by cannibals. It is not an original plot but it is fun in this movie. Germany looks really pretty and the editing is cool. It is definitely better than most direct-to-DVD stuff that gets made anymore.

I would recommend this movie to any gore fans out there. Even though the acting is not great, it is better than most z-movies. It is great for some friends to sit down and watch with some beer. You will laugh at the cheesiness and gag at the gore.