Backcountry

Adam MacDonald – 2014 – Canada

This is a strong, minimalist thriller that makes the most of natural fears and realistic situations versus horror movie tropes.  In other words, it’s exactly the opposite of something like Andrew Traucki’s gimmicky The Jungle (2013).  Backcountry is more the film he should have made, but in his stead, newcomer Adam MacDonald proves assured and more than capable at creating suspense.  Alex (Jeff Roop) and Jenn (Missy Peregrym) are young lovers out for a weekend excursion in the woods.  Missteps occur like clockwork, but MacDonald somehow makes it feel like these are the clichés of life, not just movies; the guy declines any kind of assistance or advice, which he would regard as an affront to his manhood; the girl is distracted first by phone socializing and then by a handsome stranger who seems to have a sinister agenda.  All these things result in Alex and Jenn wandering further off the visible trail and getting lost.  Their fresh scent soon attracts the attention of a single huge and hungry grizzly bear.  The attacks are harrowing and swift, and the characters display neither the heroics nor the stupidity that most people do in simpler horror films.  The use of silence is also effective in these scenes, as time seems to stand still amid a flurry of violence.  I liked that there is no special explanation behind the bear’s aggressiveness; another film would surely have had it the victim of a chemical spill or genetic engineering by evil scientists.  It is not portrayed as villainous at all; but simply an animal trying to live.