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...

Backwoods is set in a remote region of Spain during 1978 where two holidaying couples, Paul (Gary Oldman) & his wife Isabel (Aitana Sánchez-Gijón) along with business associates Norman (Paddy Considine) & his wife Lucy (Virginie Ledoyen) are going to spend some time in Paul's inherited home in the hills. On their way there they stop off at a local small village & introduce themselves to some locals, the next morning Paul takes Norman out into the woods to do some hunting, they stumble across an old house inside which they find a young girl chained up in a dark & dirty locked room. They return to Paul's house with her & intend to contact the police but Paul's jeep hits a tree & is put out of action, back at the house & the unfriendly locals turn up brandishing shotguns looking for the young girl. The two couples have to decide whether to hand the girl over & risk her abuse continuing or do they make a stand & try to get help for the girl & themselves...Shot under the title Bosque de Sombras this English, French & Spanish co-production was co-written & directed by Koldo Serra & in my opinion is a really lacklustre thriller of no note at all, despite the European location & acting talent on show Backwoods made no impression on me whatsoever & dare I say it as a viewing experience I was pretty bored & ultimately frustrated by it. As has already been said by just about everyone who has even bothered watching this Backwoods rips-off Straw Dogs (1971), sure the path it takes to get to it's conclusion is slightly different but the two films are very similar in themes & tones with Backwoods stealing whole scenes & even sets itself in the seventies. Basically a group of outsiders turn up & ruffle a few feathers among the locals & end up having all sorts of trouble because of it, there's an attempted rape (note I said attempted, there is no actual rape in Backwoods & even the character herself clearly says 'he tried to rape me' as in her tried but didn't) & an outraged shotgun wielding husband who suddenly finds great inner strength & aggression after being painted as a real wimp at first. The character's are very unlikable, the soap opera style dramatics is very broadly written & while there's tension amongst the friends it never really amounts to that much. There's no background to the girl, she is found locked in a room & is the child of one of the locals but the script never goes into anymore detail than that & it's pretty much guesswork on the audience's part. It's fairly slow going, half the film is in English while half is in Spanish, I don't mind watching a subtitled film at all but the constant switch between English & Spanish did irritate me. The ending is also very frustrating, set at night in the pouring the abused girl goes back to her captor & this guy just stands there holding a gun which he fires but it's not clear at who or even if he hit anyone & then the guy & girl just sort of walk off while the wife looks on trying to act worried in a nothing sort of ending. The twist's aren't very good & it's never explained why Norman ignores what Paul told him & tried to get to the police station with the girl after Paul had lured the men away. Often an annoying & slow film to watch I can't say I liked it at all.The location used is nice enough & it's reasonably well shot but there's not much style here. There's very little in the way of violence, in fact the original Straw Dogs easily beats Backwoods in terms of bloodshed & violence & actually does have a rape in it unlike this. Not scary or thrilling or clever or particularly entertaining to watch Backwoods could have been a good backwoods brutality thriller but as it is it's a sloppy, unlikable slow moving thriller that just frustrates with it's lack of clarity or answers, w aren't even given much in the way of clues to decide for ourselves what's going on or has happened either.Set & filmed in Spain I can see why Backwoods is fairly obscure & not exactly easy to find despite it's A list star Gary Oldman who is much better than the likes of this rubbish. Oldman gives a good performance but has the sense not to stick it out right until the end.Backwoods is a poor thriller that did nothing for me other than frustrate & annoy, the lack of any answers is a problem & the lack of any pace or fun is also a big problem. A real bore & a bit of a chore to sit through, could have been decent but it isn't.

no need/unfair to berate this movie for being similar and not as good as straw dogs. its a good film in its own right. great ending as well, brilliant. nice little twist. liked the way i began to sympathise with the french family as well, until the final scenes of course. one thing i am always frustrated about is when people do stupid things like crash into trees when they're trying to escape from the bad guys, but i don't think I've seen a tense drama or thriller that hasn't frustrated me in this way before or since i watched sexy beast. I've seen straw dogs but couldn't get into it at all, ended up switching it off after about 35 minutes. i think because it was made so long ago i'm 36 it put me off right from the start. straw dogs production was also much more low budget and shabby. backwoods gripped me from start to finish. could be because i like oldman, but id say its much better than straw dogs if i was forced to compare or recommend one of them. this isn't one of my all time favourite films but was much better than i expected for a little known french film that i only hired because it had gary oldman in it. i was pleasantly surprised and definitely glad i watched it.

Compared to Straw Dogs or Deliverance, this thriller set in the Basque region of Spain adds that local charm that makes it worth watching.It features Gary Oldman (The Dark Knight, Harry Potter) and Virginie Ledoyen (8 Women, The Valet), and that's reason enough to watch. Add Aitana Sánchez-Gijón (The Machinist, The Whore and the Whale) and Paddy Considine (Hot Fuzz), and you should have a great movie. There are other very good actors (Lluís Homar, Andrés Gertrúdix, Álex Angulo) familiar to those who watch Spanish movies, and they add immensely to the pleasure.They find a little girl (Yaiza Esteve) locked in a cabin in the woods with lobster claw syndrome. They take her to help and immediately enrage the locals.During the hunt for the girl, one of the locals decides he wants some time with Ledoyen, but he didn't count on Norman (Considine) possessing some cajones. He couldn't shoot a rabbit, but you don't mess with his wife.A lot died before the chase through the woods was over.Featuring the great music of Leonard Cohen.