Greenes Please don't spend money on this.

Stevecorp Don't listen to the negative reviews

Baseshment I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

BeSummers Funny, strange, confrontational and subversive, this is one of the most interesting experiences you'll have at the cinema this year.

Nemesis42 Bad direction, in all departments. The script and the characters do not match, so that is bad casting. Or is it bad script only, and the actors were stuck with dud scenarios? Or were the actors not let in on the vision of the script? It is not easy to tell where this went wrong. The 'family' behave as if they are all strangers, when they are supposed to be a family. Bad casting, script or direction. Probably not the actors fault. One thing is for sure, the main protagonist does not make sense and is entirely unconvincing. This could be the main problem perhaps. So many characters do dumb and illogical things in this it is unimpressive. You want characters to do the odd clever move in order to appreciate the concept of humanity.It's kind of annoying that people connected with crappy films do bullshit reviews of those crappy films which misdirect us in the public whom desire to spend our time watching something of quality.The score is good and the twist near the end is good. That is about it though. A pity. Could have been great with better casting and a more talented director.

trashgang I have said it a thousand times and this time it isn't different, if you put on front the title from the makers of then mostly you know that it isn't going to be a good thing. Here we have Darren Lynn Bousman as the director known for a few entries in the Saw franchise. This is something completely different. Don't think that you will have a torture porn in your hands, this is in fact a creature feature somehow. The acting was rather good and that makes it watchable because sometimes it was a bit lame story wise. What I was rather surprised from was the use of some gory moments. Still, it must have been a low budget because the intestines from animals and humans all looked the same. The only thing that annoyed me was the accent from Stephen Moyer of True Blood fame. He is indeed British but somehow playing a Brit it sounded more somewhere between British and a Southern accent.If you are into a no-brainer then this is a must see but to say it was scary, no it never was.Gore 1,5/5 Nudity 0/5 Effects 2?5/5 Story 2,5/5 Comedy 0/5

Kolobos51 Darren Lynn Bousman directed some of the more watchable Saw sequels and the cult, horror sci-fi rock opera Repo! The Genetic Opera. Since then, his movies just get worse and worse. After his barely okay Mother's Day, I didn't have high hopes for this movie but it still managed to disappoint me.True Blood actor Stephen Moyer stars as an upper middle class family man that drags his wife, teenage daughter, and pre-adolescent son out camping to the same place he used to go with his father. Once they arrive at a heavily populated camp site, he immediately begins acting crazier and crazier but this doesn't seem to concern his family, who agree to follow him even deeper into the woods. Along the way, he is haunted by visions of local legend the Jersey Devil, a man eating demon spawn that supposedly stalks the woods.Not much of The Barrens makes sense and Stephen Moyer's performance is just terrible. He plays the whole film in the same note of crazed, squinting intensity. He rants, pops pills, shoves his kids, and throws jealous temper tantrums at his wife so frequently that he makes Jack Nicholson in The Shining seem balanced. It's completely unbelievable that his family wouldn't be more concerned by his insanity.Mia Kirshner of The Black Dahlia and The L Word and the rest of his family are better, but they're not given enough personality to impress. Erik Knudson, of Scream 4, Saw 2, and Jericho is also great is a supporting role as a skate punk the daughter befriends and he steals every scene he's in but he doesn't have much screen time.Aside from a cool looking creature, which may or may not only exist in the father's imagination, there's not much to The Barrens and it just limps along like a wounded hiker for the first hour. Things pick up in the last 30 minutes but it's too little too late and down ending seems forced and, like the rest of the movie, has some major logic issues. I just really can't recommend this movie to anyone.

Richard Bold Before I watch a film, I tend to check IMDb. Sadly,the negatives always prove right. Especially with 'The Barrens'.This film had a positive review, but I struggle to see why.OK, I like a good low-budget film (e.g. Carriers), but this was too much. The director did try to create tension - a teenage daughter, protecting a young child, a possibly errant wife, etc., but it all amounted to nothing.I found myself second-guessing the dialogue, and the story. After an hour of suffering, I gave up.A nice try, but try harder.