# Backwoods Brutality



## Foxbat (Jan 25, 2006)

As February is a short month, I've opened the discussion thread a little early. Hopefully that will allow folk time that wish to participate to think about the subject. 

Anyway, on to this month's theme (I've taken the liberty of borrowing Ravenus' words as they sum up the theme quite nicely)



> *Backwoods Brutality* genre typified by often diverse films such as _Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Deliverance, House of 1000 Corpses, The Devil's Rejects, I Spit on your Grave_ and any others that people may suggest.


 


> Points that can be discussed:
> 
> What are the defining characteristics of the genre?
> Which films are shining examples, which are the crappy duds?
> Where do you draw the line between what is acceptable as rivetting entertainment and what is plain off-putting exploitation?


 
I think that about covers it all. Have fun folks


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## polymorphikos (Jan 27, 2006)

_Last House on the Left_ was pretty darn bad. Wes craven was just starting-out and had no idea what he was doing, though, so that he managed to make anything even remotely coherent is a pleasant surprise. There were a few original touches, and the story itself was solid, but it fell through because they didn't settle on a theme. It swings constantly from painfully unfunny and entirely irrelevant comedy to deadly seriousness, and then tries to go entirely over the top for the ending but can't really seem to get there. The saddest part is that the moments in the wood aren't especially powerful - most of the impact comes from imagining what it would be like to be in that situation, and not from what we are shown.

I think _I Spit On Your Grave_ handled the concept of the rape-revenge much better. The first two acts are incredibly good, or at least effective if good seems the wrong word. The problem with that one was that the final act simply couldn't match the first two, and so what would have been a solid finish to a different film came-off as a little weak. The villains were also stupid to a degree that I find difficult to believe, and there were a number of plot-holes (like, where has Jenny been getting her food from in the weeks between the attack and her revenge, because she obviously wasn't getting it from the general store). 

I think it could have done with running a little longer, to ramp-up the tension in the last act. I also think that the execution of Mathew could have been handled in a manner slightly less ridiculous. I did like that it managed to avoid over-glorifying Jenny's revenge, and tried to make her actions as chilling as those of the men. You're on her side, but you're also very scared of her, which ties into that whole "they let the genie out of the bottle" thing with the guys.

This post is rambling and incoherent.


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## Foxbat (Jan 27, 2006)

My knowledge on this genre is extremely limited but here goes my thoughts anyway. With the exception of Deliverance, it seems to me that one thing that stands out is the budget constraints on these movies - usually typified by a slightly lower quality of film and the use of relatively unkown actors. 

The theme in these movies seems to be that no matter how civilised we think our society has become, there's always an animalistic rump hidden away somewhere (which is usually where our protagonists come by walking straight into that dangerous area).

I think what  stands out most about the genre (given low budget, unknown - and therefore- low paid actors, straight forward plotlines) is that it is a good entry point for fledgling directors and writers. The ridiculous execution of Mathew that polymorphikos mentions could have been a flexing of the imagination of the writer.

A defining point of the genre? For me its - don't think too much...just enjoy the ride


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## ravenus (Jan 27, 2006)

polymorphikos said:
			
		

> _Last House on the Left_ was pretty darn bad. Wes craven was just starting-out and had no idea what he was doing, though, so that he managed to make anything even remotely coherent is a pleasant surprise. There were a few original touches, and the story itself was solid, but it fell through because they didn't settle on a theme.


Interesting comments. I haven't seen _Last House..._ but I've seen the film from which it derives its story, which is Ingmar Bergman's _Virgin Spring_ (Shall we call that the Daddy of Backwoods Brutality movies then? ).

Bergman's film has strong religious tones, the young girl's father being a devout and austere man. When he discovers that the people to whom he has given shelter and food are the ones that have brutalized his daughter, he questions the value of faith and God. I'm not sure on what note the film ends, it shows a spring miraculously beginning to flow from near the girl's corpse as she is held by her father. To me it seems ironic, as an arbitrary miracle by a God whose stance towards his devotee seems something like "Well I do exist, although whether I am the benevolent fatherly God you pray to is up to you to decide."


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## Omega (Jan 27, 2006)

The only reason why Last House On The Left was banned originally because of the brutality at the time it was first released. I have a copy of this film and have watched it and by today's standards is pretty tame.


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## ravenus (Feb 5, 2006)

Having just seen Last House, I must more or less agree with what Polymorphikos has already said about it:

[FONT=Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif]*Last house on the Left - Wes Craven*

This was one of the most hilariously corny movies of all times. The dialog tries to cram in every cliche of the 60's and every bit of trashy sitcom humor it can. The music that accompanies most scenes is incompetent by itself and bewilderingly out of touch with the sort of mood it is supposed to generate. The characters (and the actors that play them) are so completely cardboard you don't feel anything, neither pity for the girls who get raped and killed nor revulsion for the people who do it to them. The entire revenge sequence is handled with such clumsiness as to register no impact. In comparison Rob Zombie's *The Devil's Rejects*, which cribs a lot of its concepts from this movie manages to use them to ball-squeezingly tense effect, and very little of that owes to higher gore content, it all comes down to nail-bitingly good writing and direction, none of which this so-called classic possesses in any measure. This movie is still recommended viewing but only for campy movie lovers.[/FONT]


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## polymorphikos (Feb 10, 2006)

An interesting aspect of films like this is that critics will often judge a film based less upon it's merits and goals than upon audience reaction to it. If you look at Roger Ebert's review of_ I Spit On Your Grave_, for example, he basically condemns the film as filth amed at allowing wannabe-rapists to get their kicks, based upon the fact that he saw the film with in a cinema full of morons who completely missed the point of the picture.


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## Foxbat (Feb 10, 2006)

A good point. I suppose it's also one of the genres likely to get politicians up in arms and asking questions in Parliament. Ironically, the one important question - _Have you actually seen the movie?_ brings a negative response from such upstanding citizens.


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## ravenus (Mar 5, 2006)

*Calvaire aka The Ordeal* 

A Belgian backwoods brutality movie I saw recently which IMO stands amongst the best of this particular sub-genre of horror. 

A male professional singer has a car breakdown in a remote countryside and takes shelter in an inn...and finds out that his exit has been blocked out by the inn-keeper who insists he is his "wife" and a wierd bunch of bestiality-practising villagers that want to pry him out of the innkeeper's clutches for their own "needs". 

While most American efforts tend to be relentlessly pacy and rack up the body count once the action begins, this one takes a more quiet and gruadual process, features comparitively less gore (and very few killings) but excels in generating a bizarre and inexorably nerve-wracking atmosphere, and maintaining a continuous empathy towards the victim.


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## Foxbat (Mar 7, 2006)

*2000 Maniacs* (apparently the second in a trilogy of films).

A small southern US town celebrates the 100th anniversary of the Civil War by torturing and killing Northerners in a variety of imaginitive ways. Bloody and sometimes humerous but, on the whole, not a very good movie - bordering more on Yawn-Fest rather than Gore-Fest. 

Low budget(not necessarily a bad thing in itself), bad acting, little or no script, very few redeeming qualities. Not for me.


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