Backcountry
2014
Action / Adventure / Drama / Horror / Thriller

Backcountry
2014
Action / Adventure / Drama / Horror / Thriller
Plot summary
A couple on a deep-wilderness hike become hopelessly lost within an aggressive black bear's territory.
Director
Tech specs
720p.BLU 1080p.BLUMovie Reviews
Cautionary tale rings true
boring first hour
Alex Louis (Jeff Roop) sees himself as an outdoorsman. He brings his city dwelling girlfriend Jenn (Missy Peregrym) to a provincial park. They rent a canoe for an excursion of a few days. He is eager to go to the Blackfoot Trails despite being closed early for the end of the season. They encounter Brad (Eric Balfour) who leaves the couple uncertain. Alex insists on taking Jenn into the deep woods without a map and they are soon lost. That's when they face a black bear.
This is a little boring for the first hour. Eric Balfour is not quite threatening enough. It's also hard to get involved with this random couple especially with an off-putting Alex. After an hour, there is a pretty good non-CGI bear attack. The real bear looks good and threatening. It's a lot of shaky camera and sharp edits. All of it is very effective. I would have prefer this earlier in the movie and have more of Jenn in survival mode. That would have made this a more note-worthy movie like a low budget Revenant. I would also get rid of Brad and encounter signs of the bear much earlier. While the bear attack is scary, the whole movie could be so much more thrilling and scary.