Film4 Frightfest the 13th - Day 2

#5 - Hidden in the Woods

rating: 3

Seat-of-your-pants exploitation is the order of the day in Chilean horror Hidden in the Woods. The premise borrows from an actual tabloid newspaper story in which two sisters - here called Anny (Carolina Escobar) and Ana (Siboney Lo) - were raised in isolation in the woods by their abusive father (Daniel Antivilo). In this film, his rape of Ana has produced a mutated offspring, Manuel (Jose Hernandez). When the sisters finally decide to report their father to the authorities, he turns violent against two police officers, and his spree ends him up in prison before can tell drug baron Costello (Francois Soto) the location of his remaining wares. Thus, when Costello and his gang come a-knocking looking for the drugs, the sisters, with their deformed half-brother, are forced to fight back, and do so in unexpected ways. Described by Frightfest's organisers as the most "punk-rock" of the fest's offerings, Hidden in the Woods is a rollicking, guerilla-style affair, shot largely with handheld cameras and basking in the apparent realism of its spuriously authentic premise. This grimy, supposedly unfussed aesthetic accentuates the film's exploitative tone, borrowing from 1970s Grindhouse flicks, with its gratuitous focus on both gore and nudity. So trained is director Patricio Valladares' focus on his leads' nubile young bodies that many are liable to find its later rape scenes particularly distasteful, but in the prior close-ups on Escobar and Lo, he creates a sexy, if entirely unsubtle, vibe. That the two girls can also act is, of course, a huge bonus, and they take command of challenging roles with gusto, playing the parts of vulnerable victims and violent femmes with remarkable tenacity. The film is smart enough to include some gallows humour amid all of the sexual slavery and violence, grim enough itself that it doesn't bring up any tonal issues, while Valladares directs traffic with an aptly muddied style that only accentuates the fact you're going to want a shower after this one. Valladares is already planning an English-language remake starring Michael Biehn.