Il bosco fuori

Saved from a rape attempt, a woman and her boyfriend take up shelter in their rescuer's house, unaware of the deadly secret they hide within that is soon unleashed upon them with a ferocious vengeance.

This was one of the more impressive and enjoyable Italian slashers in the scene. One of the better elements in here is the general sense of unease and discomfort found within here as it details several different tactics quite successfully. While hinted at somewhat with the early scenes after the rescue, the film begins to really get into the discomfort when it brings their deformed child into this. Looking suitably distressed and gruesome, there's enough off about his behavior and appearance to lead to quite a distinctive feature here, and even more to that point is the discovery scene where they find him hiding in the bedroom after one of the many escape attempts. That fact that there's some rather decent ones in here is another rather enjoyable feature, providing this one with some enjoyable action that keeps it flowing along nicely. Starting with the main escape attempt, where the group is able to get out onto the dirt road which is pretty dark and chilling here, and a secondary attempt here through the woods leads to some pretty chilling stalking scenes in the bushes. This one also manages to set-up some rather intriguing action in here as not only are those thrilling yet there's a lot of other fun times featured elsewhere with these alongside such scenes as the opening car-crash on the highway, the assault in the motor home off in the woods and the final retribution against the gang-members which takes up the entire final half in the house which is over-the-top gory, brutal and just a lot of fun featuring the chainsaw action, cannibal attacks and tons of suspense here with the encounters in the child's bedroom and down in the basement. That all of the action scenes result in tons of gory, bloody and rather inventive kills tops off the film's positives here, as these are enough to hold off the relatively few flaws. The main one here is the rip-off nature of the film during the dinner sequence, which is cribbed so heavily that it never manages to stand on its own because so much of it is shot-for-shot that prevents it from being enjoyable. Beyond that, there's minor problems that don't really amount to much such as the shaking camera preventing a lot of the action in the woods from being clear or the brawl in the garage looking incredibly lame with the weak choreography really taking the sting out of it. Otherwise, this one proved to be a lot of fun and really enjoyable.

Rated R: Extreme Graphic Violence, Graphic Language, Nudity, a rape scene and children-in-jeopardy.

I have read some real negative reviews on Last House In The Woods, and I did'nt have high hopes...but I actually thought it was a good time.

If you like the old-fashioned Italian flicks (Argento...Bava) I think you will probably get something out of this.

It has some pretty nasty moments, arms and legs getting ripped off, nasty bites, bashed in heads and more!!! It reminded me of House On The Edge Of The Park and TCM Also on the Ghost House DVD, it has English dub or Subtitles, we watched it with the dubbed language, which is fine (quite funny at times too!) All in all I had fun time watching Last House In The Woods, watch it without any expectations and I'm sure you will too.

Nice artwork on the DVD box and that's about it. On the cover it says, "from the people who brought you the Grudge" etc etc, lot's of hype. From Ghost House pictures, a company that usually will deliver the scares, but not in this case.

First 10 minutes of the film is shot too dark. Then there are numerous gaffes with the day for night type scenes. One scene it is dark, the next it's daylight. On par with an Ed Wood film. Horrible editing, shots of 3 guys driving in a little Fiat seen over and over with the driver never turning the wheel.

Lingering close ups, fast zooms--both in and out, shaky hand held camera to the point of it looking like the cinematographer was having a seizure.

Goofy, over the top acting, more suitable for an Italian soap opera. "Hey Enzo, we needa more blood, no?"

I bought this movie used for 10 bucks and I might as well of just flushed it down the toilet. Here's some advice for Ghost House pictures: Please don't become another Full Moon. There are already enough low budget stinkers being put out by those guys. Have some credibility and actually watch the movie before you market it --and in the case of Last House in the Woods, your marketing was deceptive and I fell for it. You got me, but now I will research a Ghost House movie before I buy or rent one.

Last House in the Woods, The (2006)

** (out of 4)

Original title: Il bosco fuori

The Italian horror film has been dead for nearly two decades now but director Albanesi tries to bring it back with this piece, which is getting mixed reviews to say the least. A woman and her boyfriend are in the woods when they are attacked by three thugs. Thankfully an elderly couple rescue them and bring them back to their house. Soon the young couple wish they had just stayed with the thugs because these elderly folks have a secret of their own. The title would make you believe this is yet another rip of THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT and while there are elements of that film the main draw here is THE Texas CHAINSAW MASSACRE so in the end we have an Italian throwback to both of those. This is certainly exploitation 101 but without the sex and nudity, which was a little shocking. As far as the film goes there's certainly plenty of gore and violence but in the end it really didn't work for me. The low budget nature is put to good use as we get some very raw scenes but at the same time the film's third act is so over the top that you can't take any of it too serious. I'm not sure why the tone of the film changes but there are a couple extra characters thrown in, via CHAINSAW style, that just don't work. One deformed guy with some sort of thing growing on his shoulder eventually gets that thing popped and watch out. The gore is flowing throughout the final act but by that time I had grown pretty bored with the entire set up. If you want a throw back to the grindhouse days of the 70's then you'll probably want to give this a try even though the final results aren't a major winner and I doubt this kickstarts the Italian horror genre.

Usually, I depend heavily on the 'external reviews' here on IMDb; no disrespect for the other reviewers here like me of course, but I have my favourites who I rely on for my impressions of a film and whether I think I will like it.

Well, as my title suggests, I VERY much disagree with some of my 'regulars', that is for sure! Both at DVD Verdict and Dread Central they praise this film as a great return to Italian Horror. I suppose... However, perhaps it's just a matter of 'taste' in this case (no pun intended - I guess you'll hafta actually see the film to get it) Sure, there is a LOT of old fashioned gore, etc. And that can be okay IF, and I do bloody well mean ***IF*** at least it is done well. But, sadly, in this case I am sorry, but it was not. Now maybe the level of competence is expected to be lower with this kind of movie, but still, there are TONS of great low-budget Horror films that may even be somewhat stupid, BUT there is a certain charm or retro feel to them or SOMETHING for Goodness sake that makes them worthwhile. Not this one...

Primarily I just couldn't bleed'n STAND the monotonous and EXTREMELY super-extended padding in this thing. GEEZ, so he / she / whatever is running through the woods... Okay... I get it... Can we PLEASE not spend 20 frigg'n minutes watching them running and screaming, and running and screaming, and then running and screaming some more...???! PLEASE...! Literally about 20% of the dang film is made up of all these SUPER-extended reaction shots (hold on her face... Okay, now hold on his face. Okay, now go back to her face... GEEZ, just shoot me already, or hang me, I REALLY do not care at this point!) I GUESS, MAYBE, if it had just been tightened up a bit and moved along with SOME concept of pacing it probably would indeed have been a fun and enjoyable little Horror film. Man, as it was it came in at what, about 85 minutes WITH credits. I mean EVERY dang scene was dragged out, mostly with awful repetitive yelling and 'acting' I mean HOW MANY bloody times does one tough guy hafta tell his other friend to 'Shut up!' And also how many, MANY times does that same friend say 'Hey, we really should go back; we shouldn't do this, etc., etc., etc... It's just that when you add all this stuff up it ends up being HALF the damn film, really! Just a LOT, and I do mean a HELL of a lot of time wasted, totally destroying whatever possible suspense or interest that may have been generated .

I WILL say though that there were a few things about this movie that I did like. First, I REALLY liked the opening song; I mean it sounded RIGHT out of TWIN PEAKS, honestly! So, I'm thinking 'Great! This is gonna be some subtle, moody, atmospheric film a la David Lynch. WRONG... BUT, I will say though that towards the very beginning there were indeed a few shots / scenes that did remind me of Lynch's use of long, quiet shots that gave it a nice, odd feel. And also, I really noticed a very deliberate effort to copy Argento's lighting in 'INFERNO' You see blues and reds EVERYWHERE! That looked kinda neat. But, all in all whatever slight patches of style or mood that MIGHT have been there, they were TOTALLY obliterated by completely inept narrative and pacing and WAAAAAAAAAY drawn out scenes. If he could have just edited all that completely useless crap out of there and maybe brought the film in at even 70 minutes, that might have done the trick.

Now again, if this kind of film falls into the category sort of like Porn where you really aren't exactly watching it for the 'tight' direction (cough...) etc., well then, fine... Maybe this just isn't my kind of movie. But, at least as I imagine it being directed, I THINK that you really could have snipped out all the stupid stuff and just gotten to all the gore, etc., THEN you just might have had a much, MUCH more effective and emotionally striking film. Instead ALL the tension that is actually built up is completely wasted and drained away by about 20% of the footage that just shouldn't be there.

YES, there is a definite and even somewhat effective homage to Argento and Classic Italian Horror in general; but, if you are gonna do that type of thing, PLEASE do not completely ruin it by making an awful film around it...