Backwoods Bloodbath: Films made with lunch money…

Director: Donn Kennedy

Starring: Scott Ash, Ryan Buth, Jesse L. Cyr, David Lephardt, Angela Lowe, Amy Quin

Running Time: 89 Minutes

Release Date: April 5th 2010

… Indie films, ahhhh they are a breed of their own.

This is actually my second screener, I thought being a horror fan above all else I should try and get my grubby little mitts on as many horror screeners as humanly possible.

Sometimes that backfires because of course I want more screeners but wonder if saying bad and terrible things about the freebies I get result in me never seeing another screener again?  I hope not…

If you’re the lovely lady that sent me thescreener for Backwoods Bloodbath stop reading now because the film was awesome, you should all go out and buy it now! Hooray.

Has the rep from MVM gone? yes?  GOOD!

Backwoods Bloodbath is the directorial debut of Donn Kennedy who also wrote the film that won Best Horror Feature award at the New York Independent Film Festival. All I can say is the pickings must have been slim in 2007 when this film was made.

I know I shouldn’t judge indie films the same way I do bigger budget stuff but Hatchet was done on a lesser budget and that built up some moments of tension and mustered up moments of amusement.

So what is Backwoods Bloodbath about?  It’s about a group of college kids who go on a trip to the Black Forest (not the gateau) to get over the recent loss of their friend.  The only problem is, for centuries the forest has been stalked by a bloody legend, a creature called The Black Hodag and he’s one mean killing machine with a taste for human flesh.  The forest belongs to him and our group of unsuspecting knob ends urrr victims are on the menu.

Backwoods Bloodbath is a horror that fails to build any tension at all, a horror should be something that allows the viewer to tighten their sphincter without knowing why.  The impending death of the folks on screen should evoke some kind of “Oh shit, it’s coming” response but with Backwoods Bloodbath it just doesn’t deliver.

The film features copious amounts of gore and had Donn Kennedy had more cash to pop into the film I’m sure we would have seen more of the deaths on screen rather than cutting to a gore covered corpse after someone has been mysteriously grabbed.  Doh!

Acting is another thing that fails this film completely, were these kids picked up off the street or do they actually intend to act for a living? “He’s lost a lot of blood” one of them proclaims as they take care of their friend who had just been stabbed.  The only problem is, he has one little red patch in the middle of his chest, a white shirt which had he lost a lot of blood would have been drenched in the red stuff.

Come on Donn you showed us in the opening scene and subsequent scenes that you had plenty of guts and gore just waiting in the wings to be used.

I also want to know what was with the girl with the creepy eyebrows and the other one with the teeny tits?  Come on it’s a horror film at least give us someone with implants to give the illusion that you care.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m honing in on the negatives here and there’s plenty of them for this little indie flick which has an RRP of £12.99.  About £10 too much if you ask me.

Grab it via love film, give it a rent as we should support our indie horror flicks and all reviews are subjective… remember, I’m the guy that doesn’t like Night of the Living Dead lol

The one good thing going for Backwoods Bloodbath however is the original score.  You could close your eyes listening to that score and imagine a young boobalicious 20 something being stalked down a narrow passageway by a bloodthirsty killer.  Then you make the mistake of opening your eyes and seeing what Donn has come up with.

I’m afraid like Adam Greens Hatchet I just didn’t dig this at all but both films attempt to do the same thing and bring back old school horror with some amazing gory effects and that’s where the money shots are in Backwoods Bloodbath the effects.  Time and effort went into some of those severed limbs and torn off faces.  They were particularly gruesome but without seeing the majority of the violence that got them to that stage, they just seemed redundant.

Oh and the All The Boys Love Mandy Lane attempt at a twist to go along side the Black Hodag was welcome but unneeded as you could see how it was going to end.  It’s just a shame that none of the Victims stood out from the crowd as had there not been the obligatory survivor, I don’t think I would have cared.

All in all, I just didn’t dig it but you never know… you might.  Give it a go, Donn did well for what he had.  I believe the film was shot on one HD hand held camera which must have been a right ball ache it’s just a shame the picture quality seems a tad noisy but that’s the HD freak in me coming out.  Indie films should never be too polished.

It’s a miss for me but could be a hit for you.

Keep screaming.

Puppy