Backwoods

Plot synopsis:
A man, who is a doctor, and and his girlfriend go hiking in the woods. They stop and camp for the night. The next day they find a girl choking with her father next to her. The doctor is able to save the girl's life. In return the father invites the couple to eat supper with him and stay at his home. All seems to be going well until it is discovered that the father has a son. The son is an lunatic who bites the heads off of animals. It is also revealed that the son has caused harm to humans. The lunatic is attracted to the doctor's girlfriend apparently because her hair reminds him of his mother's. A conflict ensues between the boyfriend and girlfriend and the lunatic. This conflict grows more and more violent with the lunatic's family swept into the middle.

Tags: humor, murder

Review:
"Backwoods", or "Geek" (as I know it) is one of those films in the same sub-genre as Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Deliverance, Midnight, Just Before Dawn...you get my drift.
It reminded me very much of "Just Before Dawn", as some of the scenes are very similar.I won't go into a detailed description of the plot as I'm sure you will get an idea of it from the other reviews here.The film gets off to a slow start, although the atmosphere is rather creepy.
The film also makes you think a bit and by the end, the message I got was that ultimately humans stand alone and must protect themselves at all costs.If you love films such as Just Before Dawn, Midnight, Deliverance, and so on, I would recommend giving this a watch.
If you like b-movies from the 80s then you might enjoy this.
This movie (Backwoods) is also known as 'Geek' in the U.K. Its a straight to video film with a cast of unknowns, but they play their roles well.
I liked the overall creepy atmosphere of the film and the last 30 minutes were very entertaining.
One thing that bugged me about this movie was not knowing what really happened to Beth,the little girl.
Other then this tiny plot hole i liked this movie.
Dean Crow's "Backwoods" is nothing special.The film itself is quite entertaining as it reminds me a little bit "Luther the Geek".Jack O'Hara,who plays William,is truly amazing as a drooling and bearded weirdo.He kills chickens by biting their heads off and goes mad on numerous occasions.The film offers plenty of female nudity and a little bit of gore.The action is rather slow-moving,but the climax is pretty suspenseful and memorable.So if you're a fan of low-budget horror give this one a look-just don't expect something scary or original.My rating:6 out of 10.Here are my other recommendations:"Just Before Dawn","Hunter's Blood","Blood Tracks","Blood Salvage" and "The Hills Have Eyes"..
The slowly sung and chilling lyrics give you the wrong impression that you're about to watch a good film.
The plot = A young couple travel throughout the country on they're bikes in search of a camping adventure, After they venture into the part of the woods that people in the town are scared off they come across an odd family with an even odder son.This is yet another in a long line of camping slashers that came out during the 1980's.
Despite the theme of campers getting mixed up with an odd local family, it's actually somewhat different than what we usually get from this particular sub-genre.
In fact it takes over an hour for anything to actually happen, during that time this movie just attempts to build the tension and flesh out the characters.But to be honest none of this worked in my opinion as this movie was just way to boring, and the cast were just not interesting for me to care about.
Even the so-called pay off didn't work By the time things start rolling it's already an hour in and I've almost lost entirely all interest.
The attempt to build character development was a worthy, but failed, effort for a flick in this genre.All in all "Backwoods" is just way too slow paced to be considered interesting, cause by the time anything happens you would have likely lost interest..
Backwoods (1987) ** (out of 4) By-the-numbers slasher has a couple from the city deciding to go to Kentucky for some camping.
What the couple doesn't know is that the old man has a retarded and deranged son.BACKWOODS is a film that I'm guessing went straight-to-video back in the day.
With that said, if you're a fan of slasher movies and need to see them all then I must admit that this here is much better than several of the slashers out there that had a bigger budget and better cast.As it stands this here is a pretty routine movie.
This film wants to be like that masterpiece but also appeal to horror fans but the lack of any real gore and the lack of killings will keep it pretty much forgotten to most people.The performances are pretty much what you'd expect but I did enjoy Dean Crow's direction.
BACKWOODS isn't a masterpiece, a good film or even a very memorable one but it's mildly entertaining for what it is..
Obscure horror made just after the slasher era but has the looks like an early eighties slasher even as it isn't really a slasher.
And still people do search it even as it isn't all that good, face it, being obsessed by long black hair.The reason therefor lays in the fact that the first hour it's all about talking and characterisation.
But I guess the director Dean Crow did knew about that fact and did put in some gratuitous full frontal nudity by one time actress Christine Noonan.
It's only towards the end that this flick delivers the horror and even that doesn't look creepy at all.
But the score used and the hissing of the geek (Jack O'Hara) gives it a special atmosphere.
Still, if you do like hillbilly horror then this is a must see.
For the other 'geeks' if you can grab it watch it, you certainly will enjoy the ending but overall a bit lame.
I'm tired of seeing "mountain people" of Kentucky get made the crazy people of every stupid woodsy horror movie.
There's always some father who has an attitude about "his way" and he makes moonshine and hunts 'coons and carries a shotgun everywhere he goes and wears dirty overalls and an old hat (but shaves clean everyday!??) And then there's always some passive little white-dressed blond girl who never says anything and is really scared of everyone but is very nice and friendly anyway.
I feel like i've seen this movie a million times.
It's exactly like this other movie that I can't remember the title of, but in the other one, there were two brothers.
Karen (Christine Noonan), the female protagonist from backwoods slasher Geek, has got to be one of the most irritating horror movie heroines I've ever seen, totally deserving of the suffering she endures: she completely ignores a helpful park ranger's advice by choosing to camp in an area shunned by locals (they're not going there for a reason, you silly bint!); she refuses to listen to reason from her boyfriend Jamie (Brad Armacost), forcing him to accept an invitation to dinner from redneck Eben (Dick Kreusser), despite the fact that, moments earlier, he had held a loaded shotgun to Jamie's head; she skinny dips alone at a remote lake, without questioning the wisdom of such an act; and she not only insists that Jamie goes 'coon hunting with Eben, leaving herself at the mercy of Eben's drooling retard of a son William, but she decides that then would be a good time to strip off, giving William an eyeful of her nekkid bod.William, whose hobby is biting the heads off small critters (especially chickens), rather unsurprisingly wigs out at the sight of Karen's tatas, and tries to attack her, at which point the film offers up some reasonable thrills followed by a neat finale in which Karen sets up a nasty trap involving fish-hooks and a bag full of rocks.
Unfortunately, this comes very late in the day, after lots of dull wandering around the woods, and a drawn out scene in Eben's cabin in which Jamie and his hillbilly host get drunk on moonshine.
If it wasn't for Karen's occasional nudity to alleviate the boredom, getting to the (unbelievably silly) end of Geek would be tougher than a three day hike through the backwoods of Kentucky.3.5 out of 10, rounded up to 4 for IMDb..
Absolutely Dreadful Backwoods "Slasher".
However, in all my years there, I never once heard mention of a movie that was made there, BACKWOODS.
After watching it, I can see why.Jamie and Karen are a couple who bike into the woods to go camping.
However, when they awake, they find a young girl choking and her father standing above her holding a shotgun.
However, it turns out the family has a son named William who is a bit nutty.
Well, Karen reminds William of his mother, which causes him to go on a homicidal rampage as he kills anyone who gets between the two.
I'm usually not the biggest fan of the backwoods slashers, but a few have managed to stand out, like JUST BEFORE DAWN, HUNTER'S BLOOD, and RITUALS.
BACKWOODS is a crowning example of why I try to avoid this type of slasher.
Okay, so the acting is definitely really good, it does manage to build up some atmosphere, and the characters were somewhat likable.
Actually, those three things are responsible for one of the stars I've awarded this movie.
The couple bike around, they talk with the forest ranger, they have dinner with the pa, Jamie and Pa go 'coon hunting, etc.
And when that happens, it's still boring because we've seen it all before, and there are more than thirty other flicks that do it a lot better than BACKWOODS.Aside from the rare spurt of entertainment, BACKWOODS should be chopped up for firewood.
There are no interesting plot twists, no interesting characters, almost no interesting kills (the last one is alright), no memorable gore, no nothing.
Jamie and Karen(Brad Armacost and Christina Noonan) are biking across Kentucky, deciding to camp exactly where the park ranger warns them not to.
Karen is up for anything, Jamie himself is more cautious and attempts to talk her out of the notion of hiking deep into the backwoods.
A playful couple, always kidding each other around(she often pokes fun at him because she's more of an adventurer, a tough gal who can better rough the elements than her softie squeeze), they run across a girl suffocating as her helpless father, shotgun in tow, looks on.
Thankfully, Jamie is a doctor from Detroit.After performing an emergency tracheotomy on his daughter, backwoods hick Eben(Dick Kreusser) invites Jamie(and Karen) for a little grub, a special thanks for saving Beth(Leslie Denise).
Eben has a retarded son named William(Jack O'Hara) who drools at the mouth, likes to kill animals, and peep on Karen when she's swimming naked in the local watering hole..oh, he's just "misunderstood" is all.Coon hunting, moonshine in mason jars, chicken heads, and a lil ditty the name of "Shake 'em Down" all should appeal to fans of "redneck cinema" as poor savage William is clearly aroused by Karen(he views her in various stages of undress)and is certain to make his move on her eventually as Eben informs Jamie of his boy's past behavior in regards to snapping the neck of his deceased wife.
William is the perfect embodiment of a wilderness freak of nature, with no teeth, who hisses, screeches and gargles, in overalls, covered in filth, bad hygiene, the works.
The finale erupts in chaos as William makes a nuisance of himself, nearly choking Karen over a necklace, shot by Jamie out of fear for her life.
This causes Eben to suffer a heart attack, with William going berserk.
The result being a fight for survival between Karen and William in the woods as night falls.
Neat trap involving fish hooks, with shots to the face by a stone, and the effective use of a flare all add some potency to an otherwise snoozer except for the hicksploit elements certain to please fans of this sort of thing.
If I'm honest, though, regarding the plot, not a lot happens until the end, and I think backwoods horror fans might be more than a bit disappointed..
Could've been better, but this off-the-beaten trek through the Kentucky wilderness wasn't all that bad.
The odd thing about this ultra-cheap, b-grade fare was how it actually went about setting up the whole situation, as the horrific nature and possibilities waiting to break out don't really come to play until the hour mark when it turns in to a fairly routine backwoods survival story.
But before that it's slow winding with its focus on a city couple (a doctor and his girlfriend) when they save a young girl from chocking, as her father (a perfect performance by Jack Kreusser) watched on.
In gratitude the father invites them back for supper and to spend the night on his property, but unknowingly to them he keeps in his back-shed his geek son (an illustratively deranged Jack O'Hara) that likes to bite heads off chickens.
Strangely this where an interesting rapport is created as the drama at hand follows the welcoming hospitality and communication between the father (who likes coon hunting and moonshine) and the young doctor.
Their first encounter with the wacko son builds up a bit of tension and would show the fascination that draws him to the young lady (the very capable Christine Noonan).
This progression of differing values comes to a loggerhead and the material does a good job in developing the characters.
However the tactical set-up of the climax is a nasty surprise, and the shock ending is a bit of a doozer.Dean Crow directs with a resourceful touch for such a budget and enthusiasm, where he skips the blood and gore (which can be disappointing) in the favour for building up suspense.
Geeks Are People Too. I have to admit that this fascinatingly awful movie (the version we screened was the US release, BACKWOODS) was actually quite watchable, the most amusing aspect being that one of the peanut gallery here remarked that it was better than DELIVERANCE because it had four scenes female nudity instead of Ned Beatty getting punked.
"What EVER, dude" was all I could manage as a reply.THE PLOT: An annoying young urbanite cutesy yuppie liberal couple sets off for a biking/hiking tour of the Kentucky mountains (with their doctor's bag & some sort of game about telling people they are brother/sister, which is kind of kinky to say the least) and promptly wind up enjoying supper with a backwoods cracker who makes his own moonshine, carries a breech loader shotgun everywhere and thinks he's Tom Waits, growling out the movie's theme "song" with the same kind of gusto.
Seems ole' Eben has had a spate of bad luck at his stereotypical cracker/hick/hillbilly chicken farm, losing his wife to tragedy, having his son suffer a developmentally disabling accident and his daughter breaking her neck, oops.
The yuppies are too polite to tell the cracker to go punt off and hang around long enough for William the Geek to decide he likes the purdy lady's hair more than biting the heads off the mechanical chickens credited in the film's closing reel of talent names (there's a resume I'd like to read -- "Responsible for the mechanical chicken effects on Dean Crow's BACKWOODS, 1987").William predictably runs amok, Eben conveniently dies, the annoying doctor boyfriend inexplicably disappears, there is a showdown of survival skills that our pretty heroine wins by default for just having seen a couple episodes of "MacGuyver" or "The Fishin' Musician", perhaps both, and the inconclusive twist ending (now how does the guy end up in the Geek Shack, again??) is just infuriating enough to make you forget that eighty nine minutes of pretty much nothing have just idled by, but gosh darnit it wasn't boring once you get down to brass tacks.
There is indeed abundant female nudity (though star Ms. Noonan's film career begins and ends with this epic tale, too bad because she had some spunk to her & a non-traditional feminine beauty that is hard to deny when she's all naked like that), it's always fun + politically acceptable to laugh at stupid white redneck trash haha, and ole' Eben can spin a mighty interesting story when he's tossing back a mason jar of real Mountain Dew. All he needs is some guy with an accordion and he could go on tour with a Tom Waits revival band.I guess that's the movie's big insight: The term "Mountain Dew" was originally hillbilly slang for moonshine before becoming the name for a disgusting soft drink I'll never be able to ingest again without thinking of this movie.
Beyond that, a great line about how "Women in these parts warm the bed", and some hints as to how to make a death trap out of fishing hooks (plus bring some nice take-out when staying at a hillbilly chicken farm overnight) the movie doesn't seem to have had a real artistic need to have been made, raising the interesting question of what the point of it is :-) .
We don't learn anything about the people involved and since William the Geek is a slavering sub-human rather than an evil villain ala the guys in DELIVERANCE the film comes down to a behavior study -- Here is how yuppies behave when on vacation, here is how hillbillies behave when the have company over for dinner, and here is how geeks behave when purdy ladies start getting undressed on the front lawn & going for ill-advised but fun to watch naked swims.
That the movie is well made and doesn't try to accomplish more than it's budget allowed is more impressive than anything depicted on screen; Here is a stupid exploitation film that knows it's place, nice and safely tucked away down in the gutter for anybody who wants a peek, the rest of us can just go about our lives without missing anything too novel.
Basically third generation 'Friday the 13th' on a meagre budget, with a cast of unknowns who have, justly, stayed that way - kudos though to Jack O'Hara as the eponymous 'geek' for a performance with more conviction and disturbing energy than the rest of the crew put together.
It's difficult to really find anything interesting to say about a film that has very little to offer.
For a film of this nature it's also disappointing (and incomprehensible) that all but two of the cast survive!