The Backwoods sees two couples heading off to a renovated farmhouse in Spain only to run into trouble with some of the locals. With plenty of similarities to much better films such as Deliverance and Straw Dogs (even taking a 70’s setting) the film has a very familiar feel to it right from the start but still manges to entertain and drum up some decent levels of tension.
One of the reasons that this film works so well is the casting. When the stranger walks into the bar and the locals go quiet it really helps that the stranger is played by the excellent Paddy Considine and his older more assured friend comes in the form of Gary Oldman (two actors that we really don’t see enough of). These guys might not have much to work with but they manage to convince as recognisable people. Having said that, the casting also causes some problems as the guys respective partners (played by Aitana Sánchez-Gijón and Virginie Ledoyen) are much less convincing and in the case of Considine’s character, Norman, it really seemed out of place that he would be in a relationship with someone from outside of Britain (not that the guy is a racist or some kind of social misfit – it just didn’t ring true).
Beyond the casting the film itself remained nicely ambiguous and, despite the similarities to many others, was not overly predictable. In all, it was an enjoyable and worthwhile watch that is well worth having a look at.
On a technical side I could grumble that speech is sometimes hard to hear (rainy scenes really could do with a bit of tweaking) but the photography more than makes up for and deficiencies so I’m not gonna mention it.
7/10
