The Backwoods

The Backwoods is one of those movies that ends up shelved in the horror section (and got at least one article about it in Fangoria) in spite of the fact that it is a straight up drama.
At least I can kind of understand the mis-shelving in this case. The plot is an old horror favorite (actually, it's a bit of a two for one deal this time): English-speaking tourists in a foreign country (in this case Spain) go out to the woods and stick their big ol' city noses where they don't belong, which don't please the locals none, no sir.
In this case, they barge into an abandoned house uninvited and find a girl with deformed hands locked up in a room. So they take the girl back to their own cabin and hilarity ensues.
And by "hilarity" I mean, of course, confrontations with the people who were keeping the girl, murder and attempted rape. It's not a subgenre of horror I'm particularly fond of, so I'm even less fond of it in drama form. Really not my kind of movie. And I actually expected as much going in.
So why bother watching it at all?
Gary Oldman.
Beautiful, mustachioed Gary Oldman, who is in the movie a lot and spends quite a bit of it speaking Spanish. And he's not playing a villain, which is kind of a rare occurance.
He is wonderful and I adore him, and he's all I need to sit through a depressing drama of any sort. I just don't do it very often. 'Cause when he's in a drama, he goes for the gusto. He's been in some of the most depressing movies I've ever seen (Romeo Is Bleeding, Prick Up Your Ears, Immortal Beloved, State Of Grace ... and he wrote and directed Nil By Mouth, which I won't even try to watch).
Which is why I demoted him from being my favorite actor of all time. He's brilliant and, of my favorite actors he's probably the best. But if you're going to be in movies that I wouldn't want to watch if you weren't in them, at least be in ones that won't make me suicidal, you know?
(On the other hand, Robert Englund took over the number one spot when I demoted Gary Oldman to number two, and Robert Englund was in Red. I'd rather sit through Romeo Is Bleeding again, and I swore I wouldn't rewatch that one unless I was paid handsome sums of money.)
(Fun Fact: I just looked up The Backwoods on IMDB. Under the "If you liked this movie, we also recommend" section they included Red. The Backwoods isn't as bad as that, but I sure wouldn't watch it again. They also included American Psycho, but I can't figure out why.)
I'm not saying Gary Oldman isn't worth the trouble. I just wish he'd make more screwball comedies.

End of line.
-Sally