Is it worth the gore? :Rovdyr (2008)

Rovdyr (Manhunt) (Norway, 2008)
rating:*1/2
starring: Henriette Bruusgaard, Jørn Bjørn Fuller Gee andLasse Valdal

Ouchies!

Rovdyr, or Manhunt, is typically another backwoods bodycount film, set and made from the woods of Norway. The usual victims are here, a quartre of teenagers out in a road trip, only to run into trouble in the form of a trio of hunters who then, after knocking them out unconscious, let them loose in the woods and made them their game. That's pretty much the whole plot, with the rest is your usual backwoods survival horror with the men out for them and they're thinning down one by one.

It's true to its exploitation/slasher roots, that I am sure, but it's so basic that there's barely anything special about it other than the icky gore. Gorehounds will love this film for its visceral vivisection, feet blowing off, and all other assorted ways of innards in places where they it shouldn't be, but in terms of excitement, originality and proper scares, there's barely any. Tension is present at times but I hardly care since none of these guys are worth rooting for. Okay, so they act good and they're performance is at least believable, but so what? If the whole movie lags around, none of it really matters. (plus the villains aren't even that special, they're middle aged men with bad hygiene, period.)

What is up with maniacs forcing guns to female victim's mouths?

I like a few plotless horror, I really do. I even gave four starts to Stagefright (1987) and that one barely had any story, in fact I would had given this a higher rating if they could at least find a proper direction for the film. It doesn't have any surprises, it doesn't really stand out, one or two other backwoods titles out there can easily replace this for a night viewing.

I know many people other out there might give this a higher rating but I'll be honest to my feelings here and this film fails to deliver the real goods. Better luck next time, Norway.

bodycount:
1 female shotgunned on the back
1 male seen dead
1 female shotgunned on the chest
1 female had her foot nearly blown off by shotgun blast, hunting knife to the neck
1 male disemboweled with hunting knife
1 male had a hunting knife forced to his gut
1 male gets a hunting knife to the neck, mostly offscreen
1 male shotgunned on the chest
1 male gets an arrow forced into his chest
1 male impaled on the mouth by projected pickaxe
total: 10