Synopsis
You would feel as if you were watching a more toned-down, refined version of Straw Dogs (1971) by Sam Peckinpah. As with Peckinpah's movies, The Backwoods also deals with masculinity through violence. A weak and diffident man who has communication and sexual issues with his wife experiences indiscriminate violence as he enters an unfamiliar world as a stranger. The story is set in Spain in the 1970s. An American couple on a relaxing vacation at a cabin in the tranquil forest of the Basque region encounters local villagers who don't seem to welcome them. While out on a hunt, they happen to rescue a girl who was locked in an abandoned house. Their good intentions to protect the girl stir a trouble with the villagers and the impossibility of communication between the couple and between alien classes and cultures lead to uncontrollable violence. The beauty of the forest, unidentified, uneasy gaze from within the forest, sexual gaze from local men, and animal-like, instinctive movements of the girl all turn the depiction of violence into a gruesome horror. Moreover, western-style shooting and editing of the showdown between the two conflicting groups escalates the tension quite effectively. As always, Gary Oldman who played short-tempered Paul and Paddy Considine, whose weak and indecisive Norman ends up destroying the very object that he wanted to project by even inciting violence, superbly portray conflicting masculinity in an alien space where there is no distinction between good and evil. (CHO Hye young)