User Reviews

High school cheerleader Molly (Isabella Alberti, Triggered) wakes up drugged, bound and gagged in the trunk of her boyfriend's car before she runs into the forest of Hangman's Hollow, only to meet an urban legend. That's right - The Hangman is a deformed monster who lynches any man that comes on his property and keeps the women as his brides.

Backwoods is just about the circumstances that led our heroine into her predicament as it is about the slasher killer. Unlike the majority of shot for streaming dreck that's clogging up Amazon Prime, this film has actual cinematography, color balancing and ideas, which puts it (severed) heads and shoulders above that crowd.

Most of the same cast and crew on this - including writer/director Thomas Smith and producer/writer/actress Erin Lilley - worked on 2019's Demon Squad.

The film starts out with some smart graphic fronts and a cheerleader tied up inside the trunk of a car. We get the back story as she goes to Crystal High, clearly a reference to both drugs and Crystal Lake. A party is being held at Hangman's Hollow where a man would kill anybody on his property. Rumor is there is a son of the Hangman out there. Our cheerleader manages to escape and find him.

I like the Lauren Bacall play on words spoken by Olive. I liked her character. The captive scene was basically going through the motions. I wish they had done more there.

Guide: F-word. No sex or nudity.

Not understanding all the positive reviews on this. It wasn't good. A plain jane looking cheerleader, that apparently every guy wants for reasons I don't understand, gets abducted. Turns out she was drugged at a party and through a series of terrible events ended up hostage by the hang man. Sounds solid, but let's break down where it all goes wrong.

The party: a high school after football party at someone's house. Ok, I get it. I played football and I remember those nights. But 1: why does this look like a college party? 2, why is only our main female and her bf and bff the only ones that look like they are in hs? Her sister looks like middle school and everyone else looks like a fully fledged adult. 3: why have the creepy older guy that contributed nothing for the story?

The abduction: through a series of awful flashbacks (this was the worst gimmick in this film) we learn that her bff drugged her and was going to kidnap her to bang her, thinking everything would be ok. What? This made 0 sense. He ends up getting knocked out by the hang man and held hostage also. When he and the main girl escape they spend more time arguing about him trying to date rape her than actually escaping. Why would she even go with him knowing what he did? And why did the directors think this was the perfect time to explore that with them being chased by a killer? Awful. And speaking of our main girl, time and time again it bothers me when they act super tough and then the first sign of conflict they crumble. This girl's determination was all over the place.

Ending: inconclusive. She escapes date raper to make it to the main road, but as she gets there and hears her sister, the credits roll. What? Why? This wasn't a suspenseful movie. Either she makes it or she doesn't. Don't try to create a sense of mystery. This was a waste of 80 minutes, which felt like 2 hours. If you want good teen slasher, go to scream.