Chester, Virginia is a long way from Hollywood –figuratively and literally. It’s there that indie horror filmmaker Robert Elkins –using locations he discovered largely through his day job as a police officer- has crafted a shoestring-budgeted slasher flick throwback called “Backwoods”.
The plot concerns a group of twenty-somethings driving through Virginia who stumble upon a town secret centered around a deformed, sadistic killer. If not for the fact that it was shot on digital video, “Backwoods” –shot under Elkins’ Eyesore Productions banner- could easily have come from the late seventies/early eighties era of rough-hewn, gore-heavy drive-in fodder that is only now being recognized as a viable piece of cinema history.
Sure, everybody with a Best Buy credit card is churning out their own slasher flick these days. But how many of those guys are handling writing, producing, directing, cinematography, music scoring, AND special FX chores, while also finding time for a supporting role? Well, maybe a few. But this piece is about “Backwoods”, dammit.
As mentioned above, Elkins works as a police officer; a vocation that gives him a unique perspective.
“As a director, I think being a cop gives me a skewed view of people, how they interact with each other or in stressful situations. I think I tend to make characters react from a realistic standpoint, from knowing how people react to something horrific, as well as the everyday. I think it helps my dialogue writing.”
Indeed, one of the principal characters in “Backwoods” is a law officer with a less-than-heroic past. Played by Jerry E. Long, the Sheriff spends much of the running time seeking comfort in a bottle, until finally making a decision to take on the film’s antagonist Caleb to fix his mistakes. But even in trying to make things right, his methods veer far from being pure.
As for Caleb, he’s clearly based on earlier screen psychos, yet his ties to a key character make him a tad more interesting. The script strikes a nice balance between making him frightening and somehow pitiable. Not surprising, considering that Elkins cites the early Universal horrors as an influence, along with what is basically a horror filmmaker’s required viewing list: “Halloween, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Funhouse, Friday The Thirteenth Part 2, the original Dawn Of The Dead…damn! If you know the movies pretty well, you can pick out all the homages –or rip offs- in Backwoods,” Elkins admits.
It’s noteworthy that most of those films are FX heavy. “Backwoods”, as well as Elkins’ earlier short film efforts, feature FX ranging from decent to surprisingly good. Elkins himself designs and executes all FX, which range from splatter to the look of the antagonists themselves. The 25 minute “Autumn Moon” for instance, features a stunningly effective full body werewolf suit. “Backwoods” villain Caleb, seen in the film both as an infant and as an adult, gave Elkins a chance to create some horrific makeup FX, on top of the huge workload he already had in bringing his vision to life.
“I think I don’t trust anyone else…no really, I just love doing everything. I wish I had another set of arms. There’s just not a big community of independent filmmakers in central Virginia…or I can’t find them. I’d love to collaborate with someone, but right now, I just have me.”
It would seem things aren’t going to slow down anytime soon for Elkins, as he now begins the process of seeking distribution for “Backwoods”, even as he gets set to crank up “Backwoods 2”. Fortunately, the first film has enough story to make a sequel viable, rather than just something cobbled together from the plot points of the original. Whereas the first film basically shows only a brief glimpse of Caleb as a baby, “More will be revealed about Caleb’s childhood. Growing up in the swamps, hiding, some interaction with his father…there will be a few flashbacks…or nightmares.”
When I sat down to watch “Backwoods”, the first thing that struck me (beyond the aforementioned homages), was the stark, desolate feel of the setting and locations. The rough video look, which takes some getting used to, soon begins to work in the movie’s favor, giving one an intimate attachment quite different from the bigger-than-life feeling of film. An extended scene of Caleb chasing and hunting heroine Carie Keller takes us through a tangled nightmare of overgrown fields, unused roads, and abandoned houses, trailers and shacks, giving the impression of a dying town somewhere on the outskirts of progress, where there is no help to be found.
“Backwoods” definitely has captured that nasty edge that gave the early slasher films an ‘outlaw’ feel.
I’ll gladly take it over most of the crap Hollywood has absently tossed us over the last couple of years.
But alas, to be a successful filmmaker, one must eventually embrace the system. “I’d love to work on something bigger. I plan to continue making movies I can currently afford to produce. I hear all of these horror stories about movies being made within the Hollywood system, the wasted money and ridiculous cost. It’s a wonder anything ever gets made. I figure if I can crank out a good, entertaining feature length movie for the cost of lunch in Hollywood, someone will eventually say ‘We should give him some money and see what he comes up with.’”
Elkins has plans for a zombie film called “Wormwood”, from his own script of course. For more, see myspace.com/backwoodsthemovie
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