Dorathen Better Late Then Never

Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Lucia Ayala It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Staci Frederick Blistering performances.

Tss5078 I suspect that many people didn't even make it past the first half hour of Backwoods, but thankfully the film does get somewhat better after that. The story begins very simply, with a group of computer geeks going on a corporate retreat in the woods. In typical horror movie fashion, they get lost on the way and ask for directions at a gas station. The man behind the counter, directs them to a closer and even better spot in the middle of nowhere and the games begin. Ultimately, the group stumbles on a fanatical religious cult, who mistake the group for FBI agents, because of course all FBI agents are out of shape, twenty-something, computer geeks, carrying paintball guns. From there it's a fight for survival and a race to escape the backwoods of Northern California. While the film does get better after the first half hour, it still has its problems. For starters, the story is far too unbelievable, no one would take advice from someone at the gas station who looked like that and even rednecks in the middle of nowhere aren't going to mistake a bunch of geeks playing paintball for FBI agents. As with most horror films, the cast is lead by two extremely good looking people, Ryan Merriman and Haylie Duff, who both give unexpected performances. Merriman is know for his fiery and inspirational roles in sports films and he should most definitely stick to those. He was way out of his league here, giving a really ridiculous and unbelievable portrayal. Merriman's done horror before, and even starred in one of the Final Destination movies, but he's clearly not right for this type of film. Haylie Duff on the other hand was terrific! She has really turned into a pretty good actress and is absolutely beautiful. Backwoods would not be my first choice for a horror film festival, even for it's genre it is unbelievable and assumes it's audience will be too dumb to pick up on it. The performances vary and the sequence is somewhat expected, although I did enjoy the ending. The verdict, Backwoods isn't terrible, but it's far from special, I'd only rent it if I liked one of the cast members or was a big fan of the genre.

ifuseekkody I like horror films to make me jump or scream. This one did. Yes, it's the same basic premise we've seen many times in this type of movie, but the plot isn't really what I watch these movies for. Also, there's plenty of new twists/elements in this one. This movie really had me cheering for the "good guys" - I was glad I'd watched it by myself, as the last 20 minutes or so really had me screaming at the TV, cheering the kids on. I really enjoyed watching this movie, and am buying a copy to share with my horror loving friends. Backwoods was apparently produced for Spike TV, so don't expect to see much in the way of blood and gore. (Needless to say, there's no nudity whatsoever.) Some old-fashioned traps make the chase scenes through the forest somewhat interesting, but I pretty much relied on Haylie Duff's hotness to get me through the film's 80 minute runtime (although I must admit I got quite a kick out of watch a mortally wounded techie put on an amazing show of shooting bad guys without even aiming.) If you're a horror fan, Backwoods is certainly a watchable film, but you won't see anything here you haven't seen before.

Paul Andrews Backwoods starts as seven computer game designers from Los Angeles & their boss head out to the isolation of Jasper Park in North California for a team building yet competitive exercise of paint-balling, Adam (Ryan Merriman) expresses his concerns about the dead mutilated animals that they find, that he doesn't think things feel right & the fact that he saw someone looking at them the previous night but no-one takes any notice of his rantings. That is until four of the work mates stumble across a cult of people who murder the men that trespass & take the women to breed future members, with the teams numbers dwindling quickly the survivors must find a way to escape the woods back to civilization & get help but the cult members are everywhere & do all they can to kill them in order to keep themselves hidden from society...Directed by Marty Weiss you could be forgiven for thinking that Backwoods is some cheap backwoods teen slasher (hell, it's even called Backwoods) but after watching this I'd say it's more of an action thriller as much as a slasher & I also have to add that I didn't have high hopes for it but Backwoods didn't turn out to be too bad. It starts out like a Wrong Turn (2003) rip-off with a little Deliverance (1972) thrown in there as a teenager is killed & his girlfriend kidnapped by ugly rednecks & then a group of workmates on a team bonding exercise turn up & are seemingly next up for the chop but the majority of the film is spent with a cat & mouse game between the computer game designers & the evil cult members as our heroes turn the tables on the rednecks, most of the character's are adults rather than teens & the whole cult angle is different to what I was expecting. Having said that Backwoods isn't any sort of masterpiece, it never goes as far as it probably should, there's some nonsense about the cult kidnapping women for breeding purposes & when you boil it down I suppose Backwoods is nothing more than people running around a wood chasing each other. At just over 80 odd minutes the film moves along at a decent pace & it passes an hour & a half harmlessly & it even entertains on a basic simple unfussy sort of level but just don't expect lots of blood or gore.Backwoods gets off to a terrible start with some horrible opening credits which are fast cut snippets of footage that is blurred & processed set to some awful rock music but luckily things improve. As mentioned the gore levels are a bit disappointing, while there's a fair amount of violence it's action film violence with fights & shootings rather than horror film violence, a few arrows are shot into people & a guy is impaled on a wooden spiked trap but there aren't many memorable death scenes here. At least it's well made with good steady cinematography & thankfully the fast editing is confined to the opening credits.Filmed in some woods in Los Angeles this has good production values & actually looks quite good without any of the annoying modern over processed editing tricks that are used far too often in modern cinema. The acting is reasonable, Haylie the sister of singer Hilary Duff appears here & is alright.Backwoods isn't a bad way to pass an hour & a half I suppose, it's nothing amazing but nowhere near as bad as I had feared. Overall you could do a lot worse, worth a watch if you can catch it on telly for free.

matttieee123 And no, not horrible for the violence/gore. This movie is just plain horrible because of the acting, directing, cinematography and far-fetched storyline. I strongly DON"T recommend this film to you because: 1: The story line is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard! Since when has work been playing paintball in the woods?! 2: Furthering my point of ridiculousness, a cult in the woods run by crazy old women. HUH?? 3: The acting is really bad. So bad, it probably would have been better if Paris Hilton was in it. 4: It's predictable to a high level. 5: It doesn't even meet the standards of a B grade movie which it is trying to be.So don't be fooled by the "Haylie Duff" on the cover because she is probably the only decent actor in the film but she is hardly in it. If you want to see a decent movie about the woods, see "Wrong Turn" which makes a lot more sense and provides a lot more scares than this disaster of a movie.