Timber Falls

I watched this film aware of the critical kicking it had received at the hands of the UK Press. It wasn't nearly as bad as I feared it might be .It is Director Tony Giglio's mainstream debut, and you can see the films he enjoyed watching at Film School. The "Hills Have Eyes". "Deliverance", "Misery" "Friday The 13th" all have thematic or visual references .Those who have enjoyed those films will not be disappointed by this .However, therein lies the rub, in terms of originality it is 0/10, as an homage my 6/10 stands.

Aficianados will enjoy the horror staples. Brianna Brown, as toned, wavy haired blonde victim Sheryl is perfect. She screams and moans a lot, and gives us a very enjoyable white lacy underwear moment before some embarrassingly soft porn shots. Heroic boyfriend Mike, played by Josh Randall, is able to take beatings, whippings, brandings, Bear trap entrapment and various other indignities whilst still coming out at the other end as manfully as a hero should. Interestingly although this film has been caught up in the "torture porn" debate, it is Josh who is shown bare chested and writhing much more provocatively than his female heroine.

The cinematography is strong, and the mountain setting in West Virginia beautiful. Although essentially a "painting by numbers" horror plot, the story is lifted by the intelligent performance of Beth Broderick as Ida, the religious fanatic unable to carry a baby full term. One of the problems of the horror genre is that it is impossible to churn out stories each more gory, more horrifying or more titillating than what has gone before. This neither attempts , nor achieves, any of those objectives. That should not disqualify the likes of "Timber Falls" though for a picture soundly made, and well executed.

For the life of me I cannot understand why Michael (Josh Randall - "Ed") would bother going after Sheryl (Brianna Brown). All she did the first 30 minutes of this movie was whine and complain.

There is nothing new or original here. It's the same story about inbred mountain folk and their bizarre rituals - this time with a really interesting weapon.

You have the usual torture, and a nice decapitation, but it never really gets to the level we are used to. The ending just doesn't make sense, either.

Go watch Texas Chainsaw Massacre again instead.

Timber Falls is the typical horror movie about teens having big troubles in the woods. Without introducing something we've never seen before, Timber Falls manages to be entertaining for the most part.

Mike and Sheryl are young, traveling couple whose destination is a lake in the woods. While enjoying the beauty of nature, the two meet inhospitable hunters who act weird only to steal $50 from the couple. After this bizarre event is forgotten, Mike and Sheryl spend the night in a tent. The problem is that they are not alone. Somebody spies on them. When Mike wakes up at the next morning, there is no Sheryl. Having realized something is terribly wrong, Mike goes after the hunters, blaming them for his girlfriend's disappearance. They are not the kidnappers though.

Timber Falls is not a waste of time although this storyline is really one of the biggest clichés around. Location - woods, characters - dumb, killers - disfigured or sheriffs. However, the movies has its moments for sure. The first 20 minutes are an almost perfect build-up for any kind of story. There is this beautiful location which helps for the increasing tension although I didn't feel tense. But it's there and it's obvious what purposes it serves. The second part is completely different with the characters being tortured underground. Maybe I didn't fall for that, but still, the first act is quite impressive for something that has been made for over three decades. Director Tony Giglio, although not experienced enough, has shot some good material. The opening sequence for example. We are shown a scared, tortured girl whose friends are supposedly killed, but we never get to see what happens to her. The scene's fast pace leaves the grotesque for the imagination. A very smart move by the creators although it does resemble Wrong Turn a bit.

Now, I do have some remarks concerning the acting. OK, I can live with Josh Randall's weird, never ending screams. I can even bare Brianna Brown's horrible performance in the second act, but I simply hated the villains. From what I understand, Beth Broderick, as the crazy old lady, is considered the highlight of the film. However, I have a completely different opinion about her heroine - Ida. I mean, this woman wasn't believable at all. She is one of the first supporting characters introduced and you could clearly tell she's not what it seems. Maybe, just maybe, that was intentional, but still, it's a terrible moment for the plot development, because you know the main characters will have an unpleasant, second encounter with that lady. As for Nick Searcy, who plays Ida's husband - well, I didn't care about him. He was impersonal and tedious. Besides, his overacting was irritating. Good that there is this German guy who plays a disfigured retard who does the dirty work for the old couple. He's a nice addition to the otherwise boring villains.

Overally, Timber Falls is worth a look. It's flawed, but the final result is rather satisfying. Check it out.

I reluctantly rented this movie after passing over it repeatedly at my local RedBox. From the DVD cover art and that fact that I've rented quite a few low budget stinkers from RedBox, gave me pause to ponder. I paid my 1.07 and brought it home thinking that I was in for another cheap digital, direct to DVD bomb (see Full Moon's "Petrified" for all time worst movie.) Maybe I'd get a couple of "Plan 9" type laughs out of Timber Falls. Boy, was I wrong!! This movie was tight and scary. Sure I've seen this type of plot line a dozen times or so, but what the hell--I love those predictable zombie movies too and will rent them religiously. Timber Falls was well crafted and moved at a brisk pace. It easily held my attention and I had only paused it for one trip to the bathroom. That says a lot, because when bored, I will usually get up multiple times from my living room couch to meander around the crib. The acting was very good and believable. There were a few scenes that I could've done without, but as a whole, the movie had me jumping up and down and wringing my hands like an old Jewish bubby that just found out her grandson married a shiksa. I highly recommend this movie and give it a huge "welcome to my vault of horror."

All the major clichés of the genre seem to get wound up in this movie. A young couple go camping in the mountains of West Virginia and end up in the clutches of a murderous local backwoods (and somewhat backwards) family. How original can this be? Well, the answer is not very. About the only part of the standard cliché that was left out was cannibalism! It's not that the movie was a waste. It actually had quite an eye- catching opening, and the performances were surprisingly good (a judgment which may admittedly be more a factor of my own low expectations than anything.) For a while there's also a pretty fair level of suspense, and good use of the setting.

But the good is outweighed by more problematic aspects to the story. My first question revolved around why this couple even got into this situation. They were warned to stay off all but two trails. Then, when they first ran into trouble on the trail they chose (not one of the two,) why continue on. After an encounter with that first group of backwoods thugs, I think I'd have gotten out of there as fast as I could. The movie ends up going for one of the unfortunate choice to make the backwoods killer family a bunch of religious wackos, for no truly obvious reason that I could see, but crosses certainly abound in this. The movie gets increasing and graphically gory as it moves along, and some of the gore near the end comes across as silly rather than believable. It all culminated in an admittedly unexpected but also completely inexplicable (and somewhat nonsensical) very last shot before the credits begin to roll.

Granted that there are some good things involved with this, but they can't save an unoriginal, cliché-ridden piece of work.