Timber Falls (2007)

Director:

Tony Giglio

Writer:

Daniel Kay (writer)

Release Date:

23 May 2008 (UK)

Genre:

Horror | Thriller

Tagline:

Prey for the victims

Plot:

A weekend of camping in the mountains becomes an excursion into hell for a young couple, who become pawns in a grotesque plot hatched by deranged locals.

Plot Keywords:

Hiking | West Virginia | Woods | Human Branding | Head Blown Off

Cast

Josh Randall	...	Mike
Brianna Brown	...	Sheryl
Nick Searcy	...	Clyde
Beth Broderick	...	Ida
Sascha Rosemann	...	Deacon
T.W. Leshner	...	Darryl
Branden R. Morgan	...	Brody
Ryan McGee	...	Lonnie
Carl Bressler	...	Sam
Debbie Jaffe	...	Evelyn
Suzanna Urszuly	...	Sarah
Ryan Wiik	...	James

MPAA:

Rated R for strong bloody horror violence, torture, language and some sexuality.

Runtime:

USA:100 min (DVD)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Certification:

USA:R (Certificate #43636) | UK:18 | Australia:MA | Finland:K-18 | Germany:18

Filming Locations:

Bucharest, Romania

Company:

Rifkin-Eberts

Quotes:

Clyde: We're not violent people, Michael. It pains us to pain you.

If Timber Falls In An Empty Cinema, Does It Still Make A Sound?

When a young couple (Josh Randall and Brianna Brown) go hiking in West Virginia, they meet with a local woman named Ida (Beth Broderick) who recommends that they head along the trail to Timber Falls due to the beautiful waterfalls and gorgeous Appalachian views. Despite prior knowledge that the trail is the least frequently patrolled, Mike and Sheryl decide to follow Ida's advice and end up abducted, tortured and fighting for their lives against... oh, that would spoil the fun wouldn't it?

"Timber Falls" borrows a little bit from "Wrong Turn" (in fact, it was mistakenly marketed as "Wrong Turn 2" in Brazil), a little bit from "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" and a little bit from "Hostel". Unfortunately, it ends up less than the sum of its parts. The best scene in the entire movie comes in the opening segment which features a lot of blood and the rather gruesome way in which a young woman frees herself from imprisonment. Unfortunately, the rest of the movie is nowhere near as bloody or horrific. With only one exception that I can think of, the camera subsequently shies away from showing most of what is happening.

The fact that it borrows from other movies isn't what causes "Timber Falls" to fail. The movie fails because the main characters aren't actually that interesting. They spend the first half of the movie making small talk or simply making out with one another, and the second half crying or shouting. You don't get much back-story either, other than some dialogue explaining that one of them is a nurse. Because of this, you can't really connect to either of them and ultimately don't care all that much about their fate.

It's a shame really because you get the feeling that director Tony Giglio has quite a lot of talent. The Romanian landscape (where the movie was actually filmed) is captured beautifully and he fully conveys the gloom of the location in which the two main characters are imprisoned.

As it is, "Timber Falls" isn't a bad movie. It just isn't a particularly great one either. The torture scenes aren't particularly interesting and there's absolutely nothing here that you haven't seen before in other horror movies of this ilk. If you've already watched "The Hills Have Eyes", "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre", "Wrong Turn" and all the other scary wilderness/torture-porn movies then this will be an okay rental until something better arrives. If not then try one of the aforementioned movies instead