Watch The Backwoods For Free

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

The acting in this movie is really good.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

Blistering performances.

Two couples—Paul and Isabel (Gary Oldman and Aitana Sánchez-Gijón) and Norman and Lucy (Paddy Considine and Virginie Ledoyen)—travel to a remote region of Northern Spain for a relaxing break and a spot of hunting (the guys having somehow brought a pair of shotguns with them through customs), but instead they incur the wrath of locals after freeing a young girl they find chained up in a run-down cabin.The obvious inspirations for this rural survival thriller set in the late 70s are Deliverance and Straw Dogs (with Ledoyen in the Susan George role, teasing the drooling locals), although there are striking similarities to countless other examples of the backwoods genre, old and new. One might expect the presence of acting heavyweights Oldman and Considine to compensate somewhat for the derivative nature of the script, but even class performers such as they can do very little with what amounts to a collection of tired clichés presented with little flair or imagination.The Backwoods also suffers from awkward performances from the leading ladies (this may be because neither actress speaks English as their first language), poor pacing, a lack of genuinely disturbing violence (surely a prerequisite of the genre), and a weak denouement that leaves the viewer feeling more than a little cheated.

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 .

Singly one of the stupidest, most poorly written, and pointless movies I've ever seen. The acting was that of a group of 8th graders on their first rehearsal run, "twists" meant to . . . heighten? the plot (you know, the plot that never was) are outlandish and absurd, and the viewer--"captivated" by mere curiosity as to what could possibly come of an inept wreck like this--sits blankly from scene to scene wasting brain cells by the minute. Case in point: Gary Oldman victoriously wards off and kills a dog, violently drowns a man, and frantically runs for his life with an old man and a grown imbecile on his heels . . . only to acquiescently kneel with no objection whatsoever and passively take a bullet in the head from an old man that he could've overpowered with his hands tied behind his back! His reaction was much as if he'd been on the lam for a month and were utterly worn out and realized that he was insurmountably outnumbered to boot. It didn't fit the scene, the mood, or reality whatsoever.I agree with others: what on Earth was Oldman thinking??? He was the only reason I purchased the movie (because we all know any Oldman movie is a good movie) and the only reason I stuck out all the lame acting and pitiful directing/storytelling. Then he drops to his knees and stares into space while some old geezer takes 5 minutes to aim at him from 3 inches away and shoot him?I'm guessing Oldman suffered an erratic spending spree the month before being offered this script and needed some quick mortgage money to save his hide. Nothing else makes sense.One thing's for sure . . . he did himself an unthinkable injustice by participating in a flop like this.

I've got a weak spot for hicksploitation thrillers about demented crackers hunting humans out in the sticks for fun. Here's an interesting Spanish made variant of the formula with a few interesting twists and an appropriately somber, amoral ending. Because it's a Spanish made production that dwells on the tragedy of the story it's not quite the guilty pleasure fun of the classic OPEN SEASON (1974), lacks the poignancy of DELIVERANCE (1972), and doesn't come close to the barbarity of STRAW DOGS (1971), which are the films it is most obviously patterned to resemble. If you are looking for a contemporary film that homages those, look no further.I checked the spoiler warning just so I could complain about one element of the story, though I will leave it as a surprise for those who do choose to seek this movie out -- which I do recommend. But there's one scene where a major character resigns himself to an unwholesome fate and the direction sets it up to suggest that he manages to escape it somehow. Which turns out not to be the case, making the moment into a fake red herring of sorts: If you are going to set up a surprise ending, why fake the audience out and not spring the surprise? The film's premise is solid: A group of Anglo tourists travel back to Gary Oldman's family estate in the outbacks of Spain, two couples that is and naturally both of the women are attractive. They stop at a local pub long enough to rip off the scene from STRAW DOGS about American cigarettes, and then move into their hunting cabin, constructed by a set designer who had studied OPEN SEASON for hints on how to dress the set. The men then set off on a hunting expedition inspired by DELIVERANCE, and quite by accident stumble upon a most disturbing surprise, a young girl apparently kept captive in sub-human conditions, and debate whether to take her to the authorities.They take the waif home & clean her up, then the next morning the local Spanish hicks show up, armed to the teeth, and ask if they have come across a young girl who has gone missing. Interesting. There's a lot of melodrama about the couples being somewhat dysfunctional and some appropriate machismo posturing, and before you know it the two groups are waging war in the forests. Which includes an obligatory home invasion sequence that was particularly distasteful as it objectified one of the women in a way that was profoundly creepy by keeping her half clothed & sort of inviting the mind to fill in the rest. Either the director was trying to keep it classy & misfired, or he's even more twisted than one might think.What the film has going for it is the unique Spanish scenery and a non-conformity to formula. The ending is anything but what you'll be expecting no matter how many of these "humans hunting humans" things you may have seen. It's also exceedingly well made with some interesting musical contributions by Leonard Cohen, who is apparently quite popular in Spain, and some impressive widescreen cinematography that alludes to various Spaghetti Westerns at times. The main gripe I have with the flick is that it lacks a sense of humor or the sly wit that gives OPEN SEASON especially it's legendary status as a cult favorite. THE BACKWOODS is merely twisted + emotionally devastating by comparison, and while there's nothing wrong with that it's probably going to be one of those films you should see once but probably won't need your own copy of, because it's such a total downer. A good downer though, and for fans of Gary Oldman a must see.6/10