Backwoods Bloodbath (2007)

Directed by Donn Kennedy [Other horror films: N/A]

In many ways, I think Backwoods Bloodbath is an impressive independent film. It’s not great, but it’s a very solid attempt, with some decent humor and a fine enough story.

Filmed entirely in Wisconsin, the film deals with a mysterious creature known as the hodag (which is indeed a real urban legend around the Wisconsin area) and a bunch of college kids having a reunion who run amok of it. It’s simple, but the story has a twist thrown in, so it’s not as straight-forward as it might sound.

What helps a lot is the good sense of humor the film has. There is some legit amusing dialogue in the film, from a guy playing football, telling his buddy “to take a cue from my dick and go long,” to one of the funniest, sports-obsessed guys I’ve seen, played amazingly by Travis Ruhland.

In fact, I think that Travis Ruhland should get a medal. He cracked me up so often in this movie (“WHERE’S MY BRATS?”): how he completely ignored his injured and scared friends to listen to a football game, or how he, naturally, became dejected (“I want to die”) after his team lost. It was good stuff, and I loved him here. Aside from Ruhland, I’d say Angela Lowe and Dwight McMillan were solid. Amy Quinn and Jesse L. Cyr both had their moments, but I didn’t love where Cyr’s story took him, and Quinn really just had one notable moment.

The special effects here weren’t amazing, nor were the kills, but for a lower budget movie, I thought they were perfectly serviceable. They mostly consisted of organs and the like falling out of bodies, but we do see someone’s leg get chopped off, which I thought was playful. I will add that the design for the hodag was solid – wearing a long, black trench coat and holding a hand-held scythe, I thought they did well with it.

I’ve seen Backwoods Bloodbath before, but I didn’t remember a whole lot about it, and aside from some of the funnier pieces of dialogue and scenes, I sense that this will again be the case in a couple of months. Even so, Backwoods Bloodbath did a decent amount right, and given it won an award (the best horror feature in the 2008 New York International Independent Film & Video Festival), I think others saw the potential also.

Look, I don’t think it’s a movie that would wow many people, but it was well done in plenty of aspects, gave some good laughs (while keeping silliness away), and isn’t a bad time, even though it’s not exactly good.

6.5/10