review movies: Timber Falls | Tony Giglio | THE backwoods represent fertile ground for film-makers with a bit of spooky storytelling they want to get off their chests. Think Deliverance or The River Wild.

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The Review - AT THE MOVIES with DAN CARRIER
Published: 22 May 2008

Josh Randall and Brianna Brown in Timber Falls

Camden cinema | Timber Falls| Tony Giglio| Hiking movie - think Deliverence or The River Wild

TIMBER FALLS
Directed by Tony Giglio
Certificate 18

THE backwoods represent fertile ground for film-makers with a bit of spooky storytelling they want to get off their chests. Think Deliverance or The River Wild.
It meant the countryside would never be equated with cute, furry animals again.
It is from these tales the writers of Timber Falls have drawn – so heavily it seems that they expect the audience to recall their collective fright at other similar films and therefore be scared through memory. It doesn’t work, and it’s lazy. If I want to be scared by Deliverance, I’ll go and watch it.
From the off, Timber Falls relies on a series of hackneyed clichés. We meet young couple Michael and Cheryl on their way for a weekend of hiking. The love-struck pair are warned by a suspicious-looking park ranger that there are two paths to stick to and, if you stray, some unforeseen tragedy will be waiting. Then the couple realise, while still in the car park, that they have, wait for it, no mobile phone signal.
Of course, they ignore the ranger’s advice, and things go wrong. It involves a God-fearing couple who believe walking in the woods and camping together is a sure-fire way to head to hell. The pair, aided by a deformed, lustful brother, kidnap the pair to fulfil a ridiculous plan.
At times you may wonder if Timber Falls is a spoof: it could be, but there is nothing funny about this film.

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