I wasn't really expecting much from this one, especially since everyone's been coming out with backwoods homicidal hillbilly flicks these days (Wrong Turn, House of 1000 Corpses, TCM Remake, etc), and it's a direct-to-video release (so you never know what you're going to get), but I can honestly say that this was one of the best independent horror films that I've seen in a long time!!!!
The story's nothing really groundbreaking, but it's the way director Jeremy Wallace and crew pulls this movie off that's so refreshing. What I appreciate the most about the movie is that it's very straight forward and serious in its handling of the horror elements of the story (unlike that crappy Cabin Fever flick), which is something you rarely see in horror films these days. The film is very much in the vain of the great 70's horror flicks like the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Hills Have Eyes. Like those films, the story is simple in nature, and yet it delivers a wonderful sense of dread and tension with a brutal dose of well-executed gore!!!
I've seen Wallace's first flick, The Christmas Season Massacre, and while I thought that movie was good for what it was (horror spoof), he really took a major step forward as a director with this flick (he even wrote the simple, yet extremely effective score for the film). Wallace's confident direction is aided by some fantastic editing and cinematography by Eric Stanze (director of Ice From The Sun and Scrapbook) and a cast that's way above average for a movie of this budget level, who all turn in great performances (especially Trudy Bequette and Julie Farrar).
Horror fans should definitely check this baby out! Like I said, it's nothing original, but it definitely delivers what it promises, which is more than I can say for most of the stuff coming out of Hollywood these days!