BACKCOUNTRY
IFC Midnight
Reviewed by: Harvey Karten for Shockya. Databased on Rotten Tomatoes.
Grade: B
Director: Adam MacDonald
Screenwriter: Adam MacDonald
Cast: Missy Peregrym, Jeff Roop, Eric Balfour, Nicholas Campbell, bears Chester and Charlie
Screened at: Review 1, NYC, 3/17/15
Opens: March 20, 2015
“Uh, oh, John, there’s a bear coming toward us. We’ll never be able to run faster than him.”
“I don’t have to run faster than him, Peter. I only have to run faster than you.”
Sure, you’ve heard that one before, but I can’t think of a better way to introduce “Backcountry,” which is based on a true story of a pair of campers who get lost in the woods and are confronted by a hostile bear. Adam MacDonald, a Montréal-born actor who wrote and directs the psychological-horror narrative, draws tension from what is basically a two-hander out of his freshman offering in the director’s chair. “Backcountry,” which also features overlong conversations before the life-and-death confrontation in the style of “The Blair Witch Project”, is graced by two first-class performances by Jeff Roop as Alex and Missy Peregrym as Jenn, two yuppies who leave their known world of Montréal or Toronto to trek not only in the wilderness but across one particular pathway that’s off limits because of dangers. Writer-director MacDonald, whose script makes regular jabs at the stupidity of men while congratulating women for their caution, foreshadows some bad decisions as Jenn, reading from a tabloid quiz about male-female relations, takes umbrage at women who do dangerous things just to please their boyfriends.
That’s certainly the case here, as Jenn is a corporate lawyer who’d feel more at home taking in a movie than following her outdoorsy b.f. Alex in the Canadian wilderness. Ironically she is better prepared than he, carrying a cell phone, which he promptly hides because, hey, we’re supposed to be leaving civilization behind; and a flare, which he thinks almost comical; though both are at fault for doing with a map (he’s experienced, having navigated the stretch of land when in high school) and a compass. Macho men try to impress women but succeed only in arousing their contempt.
When Alex and Jenn run into Brad (Eric Balfour), who claims to be Irish and a tour guide, they are on their guard as he appears to act weird and busily flirts with Jenn, having been invited by her to share the many fish he has caught. Is he a rapist? A knife-wielding maniac? Strangely, Alex fears him more than Jenn, and Jenn is never going to hear the end of it for inviting him to the campfire.
When Alex has to cut off an entire toenail because of an injury, a nearby bear smells blood and feels the need to defend his territory. The rest is blood, guts, chicken wings and cherry pie.
Though Adam MacDonald throws enough gore to satisfy most fans of slasher movies, there are too many pauses between the two dangers (the bear and the so-called tour guide), testing the patience, perhaps, of the average moviegoer. But narrative aside, Christian Bielz makes his camera lenses virtually breathe in the open air wilds of Canada, specifically North Bay, Powassan, Restoule Provincial Park in Ontario and Squamish in British Columbia, the last location a popular tourist attraction about an hour’s drive from Vancouver and Whistler and an increasingly popular residence for people escaping the high cost of living in Western Canada.
Unrated. 92 minutes. © Harvey Karten, Member, New York Film Critics Online
Story – B-
Acting – B
Technical – B+
Overall – B
