Timber Falls (2007)

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Started out reasonably okay, the first 17 minutes or so set up for a fairly decent film.But 18 minutes in, perhaps the most stupid decision a character in a movie of all times happen which kind of makes you lose hope in the movie as a whole.Right after being harassed by some creepy armed rednecks, the wife inexplicably decides to force her husband to get rid of his gun in case they come back and he have to kill them.Like really?Who writes this crap?PS that's not really a spoiler as it's so early on in the movie, and it's not really a major plot point, also if you do decide to go ahead and watch this movie I feel as that it's to your benefit to know it just so you can more easily look aside it and pretend it didn't happen, which you kinda have to do to remotely enjoy the rest of the film.Anyway, as it progresses I found that for the more part it was pretty dull, actually that's a understatement I found the middle of the movie to be extremely dull. Torture scenes can be creepy if it's well-done and the characters are menacing, but that's not the case here.The last 20 minutes though were surprisingly good and although it didn't manage to save the movie (as at that point it's still a little too late) it did make me not completely hate the movie at least.

How in real life could someone be such a looser to make all those mistakes that got the characters in trouble over and over again? This is a lousy, but really lousy movie! Long time since I last saw something unpleasant like this thing. How come after being threatened by the brothers you throw away your gun? How come after fighting with the women, the main character goes down to the basement without first making sure she would not constitute a threat to him? And he didn't even look for a gun? And the list continues on and on, this was a really big disappointment to me, sorry. Not criticizing the actors here, they did what they could, but, who wrote this plot? Is this the best he can do?

I am a pretty picky Horror movie fan and I gotta say, I was surprised how much I enjoyed this movie. Original enough of a storyline (for this type of West Virgia "backwoods" style movie) Twists, turns, and just enough gore to appease the gore hound in me. If you like hills have eyes, river runs red, wrong turn or any like style movie, you are sure to enjoy this one. The cast and characters are believable enough to make this movie work. I saw some pretty nasty reviews about this movie and I don't know why. It wasn't like Staunton Hill where you had to wait for a week and a half for something to happen. I would rate it a 8.5/10

Timber Falls starts as loving couple Mike Warren (Josh Randall) & Cheryl James (Brianna Brown) arrive at Lake Kumbrabow State Park near West Virginia to go hiking for a couple a days, local Park rangers advise them to stick to patrolled paths but Mike & Sheryl decide to hike to Timber Falls after a woman named Ida (Beth Broderick) says the scenery is better. Mike & Sheryl set up camp & the following morning Mike wakes up to find Sheryl has disappeared, after being caught in a bear trap Mike is rescued by Ida & she tends to his wounds at her house. Worried for Sheryl Mike insists that Ida call for help but she doesn't & Mike becomes suspicious, Mike discovers that Ida is being held by a deformed freak in Ida's basement & that Ida & her husband Clyde (Nick Searcy) have a twisted plan for Mike & Sheryl...Co-written & directed by Tony Giglio this backwoods brutality horror thriller is watchable enough for it's type but it's not something that I would call great, a mixture of classic films such as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) & Wrong Turn (2003) without really adding anything new or particularly memorable. The script is strictly routine in everything it does, the two big city civilized victims who take a wrong turn & make some bad decisions after which they end up at the mercy of inbred & or deformed Redneck or Hillbilly psycho's who torture them & abuse them for the remained of the film until they manage to turn the tables although here in Timber falls there's an awful twist ending in which the deformed mutant ends up at Mike & Sheryl's house over a year after he was supposedly killed. The body count is fairly low, a woman jumps to death off a cliff during the opening sequence but then no-one gets killed until the last fifteen minutes & as such Timber Falls often doesn't feel like a ten slasher but that's exactly what it is only without the large body-count. There are some glaring moments of stupidity too, why does Sheryl wait so long to admit she's already pregnant? Given the choice between being brutally tortured & having sex with your girlfriend most people would surely choose to have sex? So why then does Mike refuse & let himself & Sheryl be tortured for so long? It just doesn't sit well with me. The psycho's here are religious nuts & once again the whole idea of these deeply religious people torturing & killing people just seems contradictory, the deformed psycho Deacon is never more than an inferior Leatherface rip-off which his arsenal of rusty blades. knives & weapons. Then there's the infamous head scratching scene in which after being threatened & robbed by three Hillbillies the couple actually carry on hiking & Sheryl amazingly makes Mike throw all the bullets from his gun away.To it's credit Timber Falls is well made & a pretty glossy looking film, the photography & lighting are slick, there's no CGI computer crap just good old fashion make-up effects & there's a definite backwoods feel although it's maybe a little bright at times. The gore levels are alright but maybe because Mike & Sheryl are held captive for so long you think you see more than you actually do, a woman has long metal nails through her hands which she then rips out, a man is whipped, a little finger is cut off, people are beaten, a guy gets an axe in the head, someone is decapitated, people are shot, someone gets a knife in the neck & there's a fair amount of blood splatter too. Not the goriest film out there but still quite brutal at times I suppose.With a supposed budget of about $2,600,000 this was set in Virginia but actually filmed in Bucharest in Romania. The acting is alright, the two leads were cast for their looks while the two main psychos are pretty good.Timber Falls is a competent backwoods horror thriller that is well made, moves along at a decent pace & has a few nice torture scenes but a silly script that defies logic & common sense at times & a lack of originality prevent it from being anything more than merely watchable if there's nothing better to watch.