PopHorror Let's Get Scared
There are few more beloved and battle-tested subgenres in horror than the backwoods slasher family. You can’t go wrong with youthful friends out on a celebratory adventure that get hacked up by a bloodthirsty brood. What was once made iconic by The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (read our franchise ranking here) is reborn in the 2021 release, The Boonies.
The Boonies is directed by Lance Parkin (Baby 2016) and co-written by Parkin and Matt Schultz (Pawns 2015). In their feature film debut, they tell the tale of five friends who embark on a camping trip to celebrate their buddy’s bachelor party. In their woodland hike, they come across the eccentric Boone family, and it turns into a fight for survival.
In a film like this, ambiance is key, and that’s one of the areas that The Boonies nails. The woods give you an open air tension that makes you feel like the protagonists can’t escape, and the Boone family lair feels appropriately creepy. The cinematography also manages to capture the scenery in its serenity while simultaneously making you feel dirty as you spend time with the antagonists. The drone shots are well placed, and the grittiness doesn’t diminish the beauty of the locations. The sound design uses minimalism to build the tension, and the gore is creative and accurate.
The Boonies has a big cast, and certain characters find a way to steal their scenes. Jess Uhler (Massacre Academy 2021) and co-writer Matt Schultz (Butterfly 2016) are two of our unlikely heroes here, and they both have prideful strengths that command the screen in totally different ways. Christine Mancini (Beginnings TV series) and Ben Dietels (Slaughter Drive 2017) are members of the backwoods Boone clan, and they give off an unease with their unfiltered aggressiveness, yet they make it impossible to look away. This film does a great job at casting its key roles, and these principal actors brought something fresh to the standard good versus evil formula. Even when you know what’s going to happen, you find yourself rooting for the good guys to win.
While The Boonies may not reinvent the wheel in its plot, it is a tense and engaging romp that flies through its ninety-seven minute runtime. If you like backwoods survival horror, this film gives plenty of fodder to enjoy. Thankfully, you don’t have to go out in the woods alone to see this film, as it’s currently streaming on Google Play, Apple TV, Vudu, Amazon Prime, and YouTube Premium.
