The greatest movie ever made..!

Lack of good storyline.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

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...

Well, this is just one of those films that after you finish watching it you feel (at least I did) like 'Why the hell did I watch this in the first place...?The elements within the film were done well; the acting was quite good all around. But there just was no real substance behind the story at all. If they could have just given the story and and script a little more thought so that it actually lead somewhere, then it COULD possibly have packed a LOT bigger punch at the end. The frustrating thing is that the elements making up the film were good enough to keep you interested and thinking that something just MIGHT happen to make it satisfying and worthwhile. But then after all this buildup you are not really left with much...Good acting and some suspenseful situations are just not really enough to carry a film. Perhaps a more substantial or meaningful background story might have helped. BUT, if you are looking for ANY kind of serious Horror or substance, then likely you will not find this film very satisfying at all.People compare it to 'DELIVERANCE' To me, that is a TOTAL insult to 'DELIVERANCE' YES, you have a vague 'backwoods' type people vs. city people vibe going on, and there definitely is some unpleasantness that makes it tense. But it all just goes bloody NOWHERE. And please DON'T get me started on the ending. And, I don't see how they could POSSIBLY have achieved a more pointless and unsatisfying ending.I THINK the direction that the film makers were trying to achieve was along the lines of a lot of European films that are more dramatically oriented. You know, like the ones where it's all 'talk' but not much really happens. With that kind of film, the enjoyment is in the subtlety and depth of the 'Drama' and character interactions. To me, it seems like that is what they are trying to do here, but with a tense, 'backwoods' setting. The point is, that if you are FOCUSING primarily on that element, then you'd better do it VERY well! That means that you need to provide a LOT more depth to the characters and perhaps MUCH deeper insights into who and what they are. But, this is lacking here. So, unfortunately you don't have that kind of satisfying feeling of both having deeply related to the people or their emotional situations. So, all that is left is the 'story' or 'action', such as it is. But, I'm sorry people, it just simply isn't there...So, despite some good acting and a few well executed tense situations, the film seems to be lacking in any serious depth, substance, or character development that would genuinely involve the audience...

Backwoods is one of those movies capable of attracting the viewer without needing extraordinary special effects, on the contrary, simply creating a truly suspenseful sequence of events, set in a frightening atmosphere. The choice of an abandoned rural home in the Basque forest, where the slow movements of the characters are followed by a distanced camera, giving the idea there's someone watching them from a distance, proves really effective. The plot in itself is rather simple, and with no plot twists, except in the finale, open to different interpretations. On the whole, everything sounds very minimal, however what keeps the viewer attached to the screen is the solid build-up of an authentic thrilling feeling, where setting and shooting are wisely employed. The cohesive and good cast also help build the gripping atmosphere till the end, the characters are well developed and their interaction intelligently explored. The only flaw: I watched the parts spoken in Spanish without subtitles which made me lose some significant dialogues. Apart from this, a wise opera prima by the director Koldo Serra, proving that the mechanisms of fear are always the same and that we need very little to feel scared.

Shades of STRAW DOGS and dabbles in DELIVERANCE, THE BACKWOODS is an exploration of deep south justice - in Spain.Two Brits with their European wives holiday in the backwoods of Spain, Paul and Isabel (Gary Oldman and Aitana Sánchez-Gijón), and Norman and Lucy (Paddy Considine and Virginie Ledoyen). The two men go hunting one day and come across a malformed little girl chained prisoner in a disused, ratty hovel.It's the freakiest scene in the movie. Obviously this little girl is being kept alive by someone - so though we fear her "crazy flipper fingers" (she sure plays a mean pinball), we must fear even more the people who are keeping her like an animal.Paul and Norman never think of this, and remove her to Paul's rustic cabin, intending to take her to a hospital. Let the moral ambiguity begin...The villagers come a-lookin' for the little girl, suspecting that Paul and Norman know something they're not telling. They're right, of course. But are the villagers right in their treatment of the girl? Should the British couples just walk away, turn a blind eye and leave the villagers to resolve their own sociological problems? After leading Paul into the woods, the villagers go STRAW DOGS on Norman's wife, Lucy, who "asked for it" quite explicitly by walking into the local bar upon her arrival in town, wearing a see-through dress.THE BACKWOODS is an uneven production, alternately slow-moving and riveting; the malformed girl and STRAW DOGS rape scenes are compelling and wondrously violent, while the character studies of the two British couples trying to rejuvenate their flagging marriages are not so.The villagers have a point when they continually warn that the outsiders should not have stuck their nose into Backwoods business. Resolution is not how Hollywood would have liked it...--Review by Poffy The Cucumber (for Poffy's Movie Mania).