UHM - Review - Rovdyr (Backwoods)

While those of us who live in the US are given new wilderness survival horror-related films all the time, countries like Norway are forced to only watch what's available to them from foreign countries like the US. So, it makes sense that someone from their country wants to make their own mark in the sub-genre. I'm one of those fans that love backwoods survival horror films, even to the point that if the movie offers no originality, as long as it has decent gore and is somewhat entertaining, that's good enough for me. Rovdyr or Backwoods in English is one of those films.

There's not an ounce of originality in this movie, but it still managed to keep me entertained. The story is set in the 70's and follows a group of young friends on a road trip to the outskirts in hopes of going on a nice camping and hiking adventure. After a little mishap with the locals at a diner, they reluctantly offer a ride to a female hitchhiker, who's supposedly on the same route as the group. After the hitchhiker gets a little carsick along the way, their roadside stop turns out to be their last, as a few troublesome rednecks decide to off a couple of'em and tie the rest up in the woods. The rest of the movie follows the remaining survivors as they try to flee from the rednecks, who are now hunting them down.

Since Norway is short on horror films, their last effort was the successful slasher Cold Prey, so Backwoods was met with high expectations. This ultimately lead to the film's box office failure in its home country and received a lot of negative feedback from fans and critics. This goes to show that one should never go into a film with high expectations, especially when it's something from a tired sub-genre like this. Though the movie isn't original, it did offer a couple perks that aren't typical in these films, like for instance, the fact that we're never really given clear shots of these guys hunting down the group until they're about to die, and they also never speak. Instead, they communicate with each other through a series of whistles and bird calls, which I thought was very interesting.

I also liked the fact that instead of simply killing them, the rednecks dropped them in the middle of the woods and hunted them down. It would have been nice if they also set traps for the victims to come across to spice things up, but I guess they weren't smart enough to set them up. Obviously the biggest influence for this film is the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre, from the hippie van, picking up a hitchhiker, and being set in the 70s. Luckily, we weren't given another dinner table scene or some wannabe Leatherface. There's a decent amount of blood and gore, but nothing worth mentioning, with the exception of maybe one scene that involved a victim getting their guts removed.

OVERALL

As Norway's first stab at the backwoods survival sub-genre, this proved to be an unoriginal and easily forgetable film, but it still worked for me, since I was entertained and given a decent amount of blood and gore. If you're one of those fans that love the sub-genre (like myself) and can look passed its unoriginality, then give this a check. Otherwise, if you want something fresh, skip it.

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lee :

Posted 9 days ago

casey, your talking shit, it clearly says in the details bit its an old school slasher which means your basic go into the woods n get killed story its not trying to be new or clever.

Kaylee :

Posted 145 days ago

This film looks awesome. We had better get a US release! I don't care if it does look similar to Wrong Turn - many horror films have been made and will be made based on a similar plot line. At least it's not a damn remake. (Although if it has any success at all, America will buy the rights and remake it.) Lookin forward to this.

Casey :

Posted 152 days ago

actually...to tell u tha truth...this movie sounds a lot like Wrong Turn...except they were cannibals...let's be original here ppl...thank you...

fild :

Posted 199 days ago

yes, the second half of the preview is amazing. Please, this film must be released in the US. I want it bad

GoreHound :

Posted 200 days ago

DUDE!! We better fucking get this film in the US we get sooo many piece of shit str8 to video horror movies that aren't worth anyones time and then films like this come up and there no US distributor BOOOO! Also N E one notice the trailer is totally playing the Last House on the Left theme song?? WE NEED THIS FILM!!

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