Backcountry is titled for its location, but it could just as easily be called Worst Case Scenario for the events that play out. The real-life horror’s strengths lie in its plausibility—we’ve all imagined a camping trip gone wrong, but seldom of us have really considered the torturous desperation involved.
Neither have the film’s two leads, young lovers Alex (Jeff Roop) and Jenn (Missy Peregrym). Showboating woodsman Alex is determined to wow Jenn by guiding her to one of his favorite spots in the wilderness—one he insists he’s so familiar with that he won’t even need a map. You might guess where this is going.
Despite the Based on a True Story title card that appears as the couple paddle their rental canoe into the woods, the first half of the film follows familiar horror beats, often teasing viewers into guessing what might go wrong: Will they be attacked by hoodlums as the park ranger warns they might? Will Alex’s nasty blow to the foot come back to haunt them? How fresh are those bear tracks on the trail? What’s the deal with the creepy Irishman (as played by a smirking Eric Balfour) they mistakenly share their dinner with?
Despite all this potential, the film is remarkably restrained for most of its running time. Only small things go wrong mostly, but given their isolated surroundings, the minor misfortunes easily pile up to create a palpable sense of fear and desperation threatening to end in grisly death.
The grueling and often alienating experience is likely an attempt to mirror what being lost in the woods is actually like, but so much of the same makes it easy to disengage from a film as self-serious as Backcountry.
The camera is mostly handheld and often purposely disorienting. In one climactic scene, the soundtrack and shaky-cam thrillingly convey the chaotic nature of the events—we experience the horror as the characters might experience it. Elsewhere the gimmicky cinematography and synth-laden score often undermine the tension and sometimes-immersive atmosphere, working against the film more than they work for it.
Despite some easy couple’s banter in the first half, the plodding desperation grows tiring for 90 minutes of wandering through the woods. The grueling and often alienating experience is likely an attempt to mirror what being lost in the woods is actually like, but so much of the same makes it easy to disengage from a film as self-serious as Backcountry.
Admittedly, all that self-seriousness has a worthy pay-off. The tension created by an hour-plus of strong acting and minor terrors eventually culminates in one of the most gruesome scenes I’ve seen in a recent film. The climax is in fact so effectively horrifying that the action that follows seems almost unnecessary.
I did not enjoy watching Backcountry, which isn’t to say I don’t like it. Director Adam MacDonald has a strong grasp on what makes nature so beautiful and what makes it so terrifying, even if he sometimes loses sight of his film’s pacing in favor of brooding realism.
If you like your horror with plenty of honest-to-God jumps, see this film. Conversely, if you’re planning a camping trip sometime soon, avoid this film at all costs.
Backcountry opens in Los Angeles this Friday.
