Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022)
Backwoods Brutality
The ninth Texas Chainsaw Massacre film, this offers the intriguing idea of Leatherface vs millennials
Backwoods Brutality
Backwoods Brutality is a term devised by this site to refer to a sub-genre of horror films that began in the 1970s where city dwellers innocently wander into remote rural areas (not always necessarily backwoods) where they are variously hunted, imprisoned, brutalised and slaughtered by the locals. The locals are usually portrayed as uncouth hillbillies or degenerate in their ways, sometimes in-bred and even cannibalistic.
The genre began with Straw Dogs (1971) but took off with the success of Deliverance (1972), which put many of the tropes in place. The next few years produced classics such as The Last House on the Left (1972), The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) and The Hills Have Eyes (1977), along with many imitators. The films came with a focus on the brutality and sadism and attracted much censorship controversy.
The genre underwent a revival in the 2000s with a cluster of remakes of and sequels to the 1970s classics and many other works paying homage and reusing the tropes. The period also saw a number of efforts translating the tropes of the genre to international locales.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006)
Backwoods Brutality
Prequel to the 2003 Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake, which sets out to tell the origin story of the cannibal family. New director Jonathan Liebesman pushes the gore and sadism to Torture Porn extremes
Them (2006)
Mysterious Home Assault
French horror film that generates a reasonable level of tension as a couple are attacked in their home by mysterious strangers
31 (2016)
Human Hunting Survival Game
Rob Zombie featuring people abducted and forced to play in a deathsport game. This is largely a re-run of House of 1000 Corpses, while both films in turn draw heavily on The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. As always, Rob Zombie has a following but also switches large swathes of his audience off
Timber Falls (2007)
Backwoods Brutality
By the numbers Backwoods Brutality where a woman is imprisoned by crazed backwoods fundamentalists in order to bear them a child
Tourist Trap (1979)
Psychokinetic Psycho
An early Charles Band film with Chuck Connors psychically bringing a collection mannequins to life. A fine little film that develops a eerie strangeness all of its own
Tucker and Dale vs Evil (2010)
Backwoods Brutality Parody
An amusing parody of the Backwoods Brutality film where the hillbillies are likeable innocents and the college kids end up killing themselves in a series of bizarre accidents. Amusing, although in the end is only a one-joke film
Turistas (2006)
Organ Harvesting of Tourists
A blatant copy of Hostel about tourists in Brazil being abducted into an organ harvesting scheme. Director John Stockwell seems distracted by filming diving scenes
Vacancy (2007)
Remote Motel Torture and Sadism
A reasonable film clearly influenced by Hostel with Luke Wilson and Kate Beckinsale as a married couple who sign into a backroads motel used to shoot snuff movies
Vacancy 2: The First Cut (2009)
Remote Motel Torture and Sadism
Passable sequel (or rather prequel) to the remote motel snuff movie thriller Vacancy. Even though a throwaway effort, it manages to build an okay head of steam
Virgin Cheerleaders in Chains (2018)
Horror Film on a Horror Film Set
Full marks for an attention-grabbing exploitation title, this is a horror film that takes place on a horror film set where film being shot and sinister characters on the sideline blur in a rubber reality
Welp (2014)
Belgian Backwoods Brutality
Belgian Backwoods Brutality effort concerning a boy scout troupe who run afoul of a mysterious feral child and hunter in the woods near their campsite. Defying many of the expectation of the genre, this provides a series of often unearthly images
Wilderness (2006)
Human Hunting/Bare Hands Survivalism
Tough brutal British film where a group of youth offenders are hunted while on a wilderness survival course on an island
Wolf Creek (2005)
Australian Backwoods Brutality
Making dubious claim to be based on real-life, this courted considerable controversy with its violence. Essentially an Australian Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Greg McLean readily pushes things to extremes
Wolf Creek 2 (2013)
Australian Backwoods Brutality
Greg McLean and John Jarratt return to the Australian Backwood Brutality saga of Wolf Creek for a second outing that is just as effective as the first. McLean often pushes the material into black humour and creates at least one sequence that makes for genuinely uncomfortable watching
Wrong Turn 2: Dead End (2007)
Backwoods Brutality
A sequel that has been arranged for the sole purpose of serving up a series of gory dispatch set-pieces every few minutes
Wrong Turn (2003)
Backwoods Brutality
Passable effort that copies that basics of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre with a group of stranded teens running afoul of an in-bred family
Wrong Turn (2021)
Backwoods Brutality
A reimagining of the long-running Wrong Turn series of Backwoods Brutality films, this does imaginative things with the set-up and emerges as the best of the series so far
X (2022)
Psycho Film on a 1970s Porn Film Set
Ti West returns with a fascinatingly charged psycho film that takes place on the shoot of a 1970s porn film