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HERE'S THE LATEST< Back 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.
Genre - Genre Classics
Director(s) - Tony Giglio
Writer(s) - Daniel Kay
Cast - Josh Randall, Brianna Brown, Nick Searcy, Beth Broderick and Sascha Rosemann
Blue Rider's Role - P&A Lender
Distributor(s) - Slowhand Cinema Releasing (US), Scanbox Entertainment (UK), Arsenal Pictures (non-US/UK)
Release Date - 2007
Synopsis - City couple Mike and Sheryl hike the Timber Falls trail in West Virginia, which is recommended to them by two mysterious strangers. Early the second morning she is abducted by a strange figure, while swimming in the lake, leaving only her necklace. Searching for her, Mike is caught in a bear trap and passes out.
Turns out, they've both been captured by Ida and park ranger Clyde--a deranged, religiously fanatical childless couple who want them to produce a child, which they will keep--killing Mike and Sheryl. The city couple resists, and are tortured. Then things get really creepy and violent.
Release Dates and Festival Showings:
Screened at the German Fantasy Filmfest on July 27, 2007 and then at the U.S. Screamfest Film Festival on October 20. It also played at the Frightfest in London. Timber Falls pened on 49 Los Angeles screens on December 7, had its German DVD premiere on February 14, 2008, came out on U.S. DVD on May 13 and debuted on British screens on May 23. It bowed in Turkish theatres on Oct. 3, on Russian screens on Oct. 9, on Finnish DVD on Oct. 24 and on Icelandic DVD on Oct. 30.
Boxoffice Results:
As of April 12, 2009, Timber Falls, a horror film to which Blue Rider provided funds for prints and advertising, earned $53,335 in the U.K. in nine days, took in $191,304 in Russia in nine weeks earned $249,882 in Turkey in six months, did $172,371 in the United Arab Emirates in 18 days and was due to open in Norway at a date to be determined. Its worldwide total was $666,892.
Viewers' Ratings:
As of Feb. 26, 2009, more than 55.7% of the 1,452 people who evaluated Timber Falls at the Internet Movie Database gave it positive ratings. People 17 and younger liked it best (rating it 7.5 out of 10), followed by women 45 and older (6.2).
Critics' Kudos:
Alan Jones, Fangoria (at Cannes): "Tony Giglio’s Romanian-shot Timber Falls was a pleasant surprise. Thanks to taut direction, convincing acting and great production values, the anguished chills come thick and fast in this tale of lovers Josh Randall and Brianna Brown camping in remote woods and being kidnapped by religious fanatics desperate for a newborn baby. The warped Bible bashers going to extremes is a potent hook. The tension goes for maximum dread, the splatter is in full check and the couple’s terrified plight evokes gripping empathy."
"Ian", Film 4 Frightfest (London): "Timber Falls, directed by Tony Giglio and starring Josh Randall, a delicious Brianna Brown and Sascha Rosemann Timber Falls, is a set-in-the-woods horror well done. It was enjoyable, with some nice touches and a few laughs. It was great to watch the film with an appreciative audience. Normally, in Cannes the screenings are full of buyers who are just chalking off another film. They multi task, reading e-mails on their Blackberries as they watch the film. We all applauded the good bits and there were even a couple of girls screaming at the back at the cinema."
Horror Movie a Day Review: "This one was actually a bit of a slam on Catholic extremists, something I am always a fan of in movies.
"Having gone to catholic school for 8 years, I began to see that a lot of it was just based on fear. Don’t do this, don’t do that, if you wish you had a bike like your neighbor’s you will burn in hell for eternity... just seemed a bit odd. I don’t think God’s really so much a dick that he’ll have some flaming demons poke me with spears for millions of years because I decided to sleep in on Sunday. I’m more of a 'Be a good person, you’ll be fine' type guy.
"Anyway, in the film, our villains are bible spouting extremists who are unable to have a child. So, they kidnap tourists and try to force them to conceive (as long as they are married), the plan being that when the child is born they can kill the parents and raise it as their own. The movie does a fantastic job of showing how the two of them see no hypocrisy in their actions, and this movie should get anyone who is a fanatical Christian at least thinking a little about how baffling their ideology can be at times.
"It’s also kind of funny how obvious it is that they are the true villains in the film. We meet them separately, and in between, our heroes are approached and somewhat terrorized by some standard movie rednecks. We are supposed to believe that they are the bad guys, but since both the other folks gave dirty looks to the protagonists when their faith/marriage status came into the conversation, we know right away that they are the ones we need to fear. In fact, the rednecks even try to play hero and save the couple near the end of the film, which I loved. However their attempts are pretty quickly dealt with, which is kind of a bummer; the film really would have benefited from a scene where the heroes realize that their prejudice and fear was totally misplaced (they never know the rednecks tried to help them).
"The lead in the film is Josh Randall, who is from one of my all-time favorite TV shows, Scrubs. He’s great in the film, pulling off the action heroics with much ease. The chick playing his girlfriend is quite good too.
"I recommend you check it out, as I’d like it to be a hit. We need more Josh Randall."
AnthroFred, Slasherpool.com: "Right up my alley...it's gory, violent and has teens running for their lives through the woods.
"The acting is terrific and I thought that every single actor in this movie gave it their all, which really brought their characters to life. The movie is also rather nicely directed by newcomer Tony Giglio. The gore naturally helps as well. Worth a rent."
Luke Y. Thompson, L.A. Weekly: "Director Tony Giglio doesn’t skimp on the goods, delivering ample amounts of blood, torture, sex, deformities, skinny dipping and the requisite dose of anti-red-state paranoia. No one who’s seen any horror movies will be surprised when a seemingly benevolent officer (Nick Searcy) turns out to be in on the plot the whole time, but you may be taken aback by how much you end up rooting for the leads to survive, which is a testament to their acting skills. Giglio doesn’t quite seem able to decide what his tone is, incongruously mixing goofy redneck humor with harrowing scenes of intense pain, but horror fans should dig it nonetheless — I did. Not recommended for the devoutly religious, moralistic scolds or anyone with a sensitive stomach."
Steve Biodrowski, Cinefantastique: "The low-budget Timber Falls is an effectively horrifying opus about about religious loonies who kidnap a couple in order to force them to conceive a surrogate child. Instead of just another 'Torture Porn' flick, we get a black-comedy satire that combines elements of Misery, D eliveranceand The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Although clearly derivative, the film works hard to assemble its familiar pieces into something that works in its own right, and largely succeeds. The characters and suspense are handled well, and the horror hit the right notes - grim enough to to yield some grueling fright without drowning lost in a welter of blood.
"Timber Falls delivers enough decent thrills to satisfy its intended audience. The film strikes a reasonable balance between the horrible suffering of the protagonists and the equally horrible final-reel pay-back, which is immensely satisfying. The gore is safely in the R-rated category, although not excessive for its genre.
"Timber Falls is a good deal more effective than the eight low-budget efforts in this year’s After Dark Horrofest (which saw limited theatrical distribution in November). In an era when most indie horror goes direct-to-video, regardless of quality, Timber Falls is good enough to deserve its own shot in theatres. Although the release is limited to 50 theatres, horror fans lucky enough to catch it in their local theatres will be glad they sought it out."
Chad Greene, Boxoffice: "To paraphrase the old riddle: If Timber Falls in a theatre, but no one is there to see or hear it, does it still make a sound? In a word: Yes. And that sound will be a scream.
"Although Slowhand is releasing this hikers-take-the-wrong-trail-in-the-woods-and-run-into-demented-hillbillies horror thriller in only 49 theatres, it’s actually a perfectly serviceable scary movie. Director Tony Giglio has enough of an artistic sensibility to add his own original flourishes to the finished picture.
"Another refreshing touch is that Mike and, especially, Sheryl aren’t quite the idiots that one might expect, given the whole lost-in-the-woods setup.
“'I’m OK,” a bleeding Mike insists in one scene. 'We’re OK.'
“'You are not OK,' snaps Sheryl, who is strapped to a table. 'And we are not OK.'
Timber Falls, however, is—at the very least—OK.
Major Cast and Crew Awards and Credits:
Directed by Ton Giglio (Chaos, In Enemy Hands, Soccer Dog: The Movie and Love, Sex & Murder).
Written by Daniel Kay (Way Off Broadway).
Stars: Josh Randall (Scrubs, The Story of O: Untold Pleasure, Someone is Waiting, The Aviary The Last Time I Committed Suicide); Brianna Brown (Spider-Man 2, Knocked Up, The 40 Year Old Virgin, The Animal, Hollywood Homicide, Entourage); Nick Searcy (won 1998 Hollywood Film Festival's Discovery Award and Atlanta Film Festival's Southeastern Media Award for Paradise Falls; also appeared in The Fugitive, Cast Away, One Hour Photo, Runaway Jury, Nell, Fried Green Tomatoes, Rodney, Seven Days, American Gothic, Thunder Alley and 61 other movies and TV projects); Beth Broderick (Fools Rush In, Psycho Beach Party, The Bonfire of the Vanities, Lost, Breast Men, State's Evidence, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Stealing Home, Slammer Girls and 47 other movies and TV projects) and Sascha Rosenmann (In Enemy Hands, Küstenwache).
Cast also includes: Branden R. Morgan (Black Sheep, The Beverly Hillbillies, Senseless, In Enemy Hands); T.W. Leshner (Heroes, Judge Koan, Crossing Jordan); Ryan McGee (The Prince, the Pimp, the Jackal and the Spayed), Carl Bressler (The Usual Suspects, Arthur 2: On the Rocks, Free Enterprise and Welcome to Hollywood); Suzanna Urszuly (Drop Dead Sexy, The Job and A Fate Totally Worse Than Death); Ryan Wiik (Oh Marbella!) and Debbie Jaffe (debut).
Executive Producers: Todd Traina(Punk's Not Dead, Grace is Gone, Skeleton Woman, Black Water Transit); Harmon Kaslow (Asylum, Dog Soldiers, Boo, Red Scorpion, and Jam); Mike Marvin (The Wraith, Hamburger: The Movie, Hot Dog: The Movie and Maui Heat) and Doug Croxall(debut).
Producers: Christopher Eberts (Lucky Number Slevin, Lord of War, The Punisher, The Watcher, Woman Wanted and Who's Your Caddy?); Arnold Rifkin (Live Free or Die Hard, 16 Blocks, Tears of the Sun, The Whole Ten Yards, Bandits, Touching Evil and Who's Your Caddy?); Kia Jam (The Jacket, Lucky Number Slevin, Dungeons & Dragons, Juwanna Mann and Who's Your Caddy?); Steve Markoff (Alpha Dog, Asylum, The House on Turk Street, Stander, Camille) and Bruce McNall (WarGames, Weekend at Bernie's, Mr. Mom, Gleaming the Cube, Asylum, Millennium and The Sicillian).
Original Music by Henning Lohner (won the 2005 BMI Film Music Award for composing the score of The Ring Two; also scored Santa's Slay, BloodRayne, Der Eisbär, Hellraiser: Deader, Mimic: Sentinel and Ancient Warriors).
Cinematography by Toby Moore (Jonathan Creek, Mile High, The Afternoon Play and Wish You Were Here).
Film Editing by Peter Mergus (edited In Enemy Hands; assistant editor on Scary Movie 2, The Replacements, Nurenberg, Species II and The Rage: Carrie 2).
Production Design by John Welbanks (production designer on Caved In, art director on Van Wiler 2: The Rise of Taj; assistant art director on Zebra Lounge).
Art Direction by Anca Perja (art director on Stag Night and Night Train; worked in art department on Van Wilder 2: The Rise of Taj and Caved In).
Costume Design by Bobbie Read (The Rock, Con Air, Bad Boys, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, Dangerous Minds, Major League 2, Sweet Hearts Dance and 17 other movies and TV projects).
Special Effects: Mihai Reti (Modigliani, Van Wilder 2: The Rise of Taj, Capitaine Conan, Dracula the Impaler, Balanta and Dark Asylum).
Visual Effects Supervisor: Jonah Loop (Collateral, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Basic, Transporter 2, Just Like Heaven and Bulletproof Monk). | 
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Links:
Internet Movie Database site for Timber Falls
Timber Falls trailer
Official site
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