Review by Emily Craig (@emillycraig)
Directed by: Flood Reed
Starring: Dayo Okeniyi, Shawn Thomas, Tyler Rice, Jeremy Isabella, Flood Reed
American Backwoods: Slew Hampshire is an extreme horror directed by Flood Reed, who also stars. The film opens with a news clip dating to June 1994, when numerous people had been slaughtered and are still reported missing in the backwoods of New England. We are then introduced to four stereotypical students; Bro (Dayo Okeniyi), Buddy (Shawn Thomas), Dude-Guy (Tyler Rice) and Kid (Jeremy Isabella) – most sarcastic names ever, I know. The foursome want one last wacky road adventure together before some of them whisk themselves off to college; however, like most horror films set in backwoods, things don’t go to plan and American Backwoods: Slew Hampshire turns into the most insane film ever.
I don’t even know where to begin discussing this film – it’s so cram packed and busy. The four boys, after stopping off at a convenience store and meeting the creepy guy serving them (like in every horror film ever), plan to drive to a local strip club, only to get captured by some perverted backwoods hillbilly-type men who have something quite disturbing in mind, a “hunt” of some sort. There are so many horror antagonists crammed in to one movie here; we have the hillbilly characters who hunt their prey in the woods, we also have some sort of sacrificial cannibalistic cult, not to mention a mythical creature whacked in there for good measure.
You would think that the film would be a complete overcrowded mess, but it sort-of works. It’s not a great film by any stretch, but I can see this appealing to a lot of horror fans out there. When you think that the film is going one way, it goes the opposite. The film got better as it went on because it was continuously exceeding my expectations and bending the conventions of horror; I mean, why have one common horror archetype when you can have three, right? Extreme horror fans who are bored of Hollywood conventional horrors may love this, however those with a faint heart I beg you stay away. The film is super gory and even puts many torture porn films to shame; brace yourselves for penis biting, male rape and intestines galore (I told you, not for the faint hearted).
Some of the stylistic choices may not have been the best, and do let down the film; for example the film’s soundtrack mainly consists of heavy metal, which isn’t personally to my taste, and there are numerous editing flaws. The plot doesn’t make complete sense either; it would have mean nice to actually know what game the hillbillies were playing, considering they talk about it so much. It’s nowhere near perfect, but American Backwoods: Slew Hampshire certainly shocks like intended and will probably tick a lot of extreme horror fan’s boxes.
