I have really been looking forward to this movie for quite sometime. Barricade is really one of the first movies that almost drummed up all of its hype strictly on MySpace. Yes other sites like ours did cover the film but all of their PR seemed to come directly from MySpace. Really a first for an independent film, at least successfully that is. Barricade has built up a massive following online and the movie hasn't even been released yet. So the question is.. Is Barricade any good? Hell yea.

The film begins as two friends David and Michael are chillin in their home in Germany. It becomes evident from the conversation that Michael has a definite crush on his female friend Nina who is coming by from the states the next day. Soon they pick her up from the airport and catch up on some things. The next day they plan to go camping and this is when we know they are in for it.

This film is a combination of Wrong Turn and High Tension with a dash of old grindhouse sensibilies thrown in for good measure. Out in the woods lives a family of deformed inbred cannibals who hunt every summer to stock up on food over the winter months hence the Wrong Turn reference. But for the most part I would say this movie has it roots deeply in ultra gore films. This movie displays some of the goriest scenes I have seen in quite some time. So if you are looking for one of those pansy PG-13 horror movies you are definetly in the wrong place.

The story is told through two different sets of eyes. One is the group of campers and the other is through the Cannibalistic family. The stories are intertwined until a huge confrontation happens near the end of the flick. One that I will not soon forget involving an axe handle and a handy shotgun. What I probably enjoyed most about the movie is that it never drags. As soon as they get into dangerous territory we are rushed back to the cannibals dwelling or to a couple of helpless campers who are about to get theirs. It works perfectly because we really learn and actually begin to care about the main characters but are still provided with enough blood and gore to keep us waiting for more.

I also have to add how much I enjoyed the setting they chose to film the movie. Germany really proved to have a beautiful backdrop for the film that was equally matched by the great score that Timo Rose supplied the film with. Speaking of Timo Rose is their anything this guy cannot do? Literally he is listed multiple times throughout the credits working on almost every single aspect of the film including having a role in the film playing Mark one of the only "civilized" cannibals in the family.

The rest of the cast was also filled out nicely by horror genre veterans Joe Zaso as Michael and Raine Brown as Nina. I had previously seen Brown in Satans Playground where she had a bit part which she played incredibily well. I had never seen Joe Zaso and if you were to look at the guy you would automatically think this guy is going to come off as the jock character in the film. But you would be sadly mistaken. I would actually have to say at least in this movie he almost plays the exact opposite. His voice is not brooding and he actually comes off as the kind of "sensitive" guy. I also cannot forget two other roles in the film that definetly need to be pointed out. Zaso's characters friend David is played by Andre Ressig. He really did a pretty good job of playing the fun loving asshole in the film. While on the other side of the spectrum is the mother of the Cannibalistic family Manoush. Of all the cannibals her presence was the most deeply felt in my opinion. Whether it was eating human flesh or tromping through a creek she did a great job.

Something else I should probably comment on is the entire look of the film. Its pretty unique but for some odd reason it looked ALOT like something Uli Lommel does in his films. But let me assure you this movie is about 1,000 times better then anything I have seen by Lommel. During certain scenes it would kind of flash on this gritty old film reel. It really gave the movie the "grindhouse" feeling I mentioned above. I noticed they also used a nice effect that I love with a handcranked camera. It was done during a flash back sequence in which one of the unlucky campers remembers his family being slaughtered in the cannibal's cabin.

This is the film that gorehounds have been waiting for. Trust me this movie is not for the squeamish. We got all kinds of face melting, nipple cutting, head smashing, and plenty more in this movie. Buckets and buckets of blood are used, so if you like gore you need to check this one out.