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    Backcountry

    Reviewed by
    adamwatchesmovies@

    When I see the words “based on a true story” and it’s a horror film, the red flags get raised. I mean how can “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre” and “Psycho” both be based on the same events when they have basically nothing in common? It usually feels like a cheap gimmick. When it comes to “Backcountry” though, it works. It’s a lean, to-the-point horror thriller that feels authentic and makes for a frightening watch.

    The story is simple, but it’s the execution that makes it effective. Alex (Jeff Roop) and his girlfriend Jenn (Missy Peregrym) leave the city to go camping for a long weekend in the Canadian wilderness. After an awkward encounter by another camper (Eric Balfour as Brad) their trip goes from bad to worse and it becomes a struggle for survival.

    I’m a big fan of horror films that are distilled to the bare essentials. There’s no need for any jump scares, no gimmicky violin twings, or scenes where someone sneaks behind someone else when they’ve got no business doing so. There’s not even a big body count here. It’s just the simple idea unfolded before your eyes. “What if you went into the woods for a fun weekend and it all went wrong?” There are only 4 actors in the film. Our two leads, another camper named Brad that they bump into and a park ranger who sets the couple on their way (Nicholas Campbell) Even within the wilderness itself there’s no extraneous elements. It’s about building that suspense and letting you absorb the gravity of the situation that these characters find themselves in. It’s about the quiet that is suddenly disturbed and makes you go “what was that?!” You can tell that director Adam MacDonald knows how to make an effective horror film, probably because he’s been in a situation like this before. If you’ve ever been camping, the smallest things already get your adrenaline going. It can be a single branch snapping in the middle of the night or an unexpected shadow that pops up behind you. All of a sudden that concrete, those glass windows and all the bustling people you went out of your way to escape from seem a whole lot warmer than this wilderness.

    With “Backcountry”, a limited cast means more character development and therefore, more anxiety. It’s not like a slasher movie where you look at the cast and go “Virgin’s going to survive, but the party girl is going to get it, followed by the jock and that comic-relief character”. You don’t know what’s going to happen because if even one person suffers even the smallest of calamities, that’s basically half your cast on the verge of death right there. Then it goes further and ends up working both ways. If they’re willing to do something bad to one person… well, what’s one more really?

    I’ll say that this picture is more suspenseful than actually flat-out terrifying, but that doesn’t make it any less intense. When something bad happens, it sticks with you and a particularly unsettling scene about ¾ of the way through will last with me far longer than that 12th lady that was bitten by that zombie that one time. It’s got just enough moments that will make you go “Oh $%&*! ” to make that general feeling of dread stick with you and doesn’t let you relax all the way, but it also doesn’t overdo it. When an injury of startling realization rears its ugly head again, it feels just as big, if not bigger than the first time. I was never quite sure if a scene that made my skin crawl early in the picture was going to come back, or if it was just there to set up the mood so I was never able to take a breather. Even when it seemed to me 100% certain that the end was right around the corner, I still couldn’t do it.

    I can see it now, people coming back from a camping trip early, having wet themselves out of terror because someone had the devilish idea to bring a DVD of “Backcountry”, a projector and showed it to their friends on a bed sheet tied between two trees. My only criticism of the film is that it doesn’t really reinvent the genre or necessarily bring anything new to the “survival horror”. That’s ok. Sometimes you just want to go into a restaurant and order a dish that you know is going to taste good because you’ve had it before at other places. It always comes down to chunks of potatoes deep-fried and sprinkled with salt, but fries are tasty.

    The no-frills approach to the simple fear of the wilderness means there is never a scene that jumps out as being created for the film. In fact, until I read the news story that inspired the story, I assumed that it was essentially a 100% truthful recreation with maybe the names changed around and some dialogue made up for the benefit of the audience.

    We see a lot of horror movies that just don’t know what to do with their running time so they throw in useless stuff. Characters to be bumped off, special effects that are unnecessary or jump scares to get the audience through the 90 minute running time. “Backcountry” is a confidently made picture that will give lasting shivers to those that believe that a camping trip is a great way to spend the weekend. (Theatrical version on the big screen, September 15, 2015)

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    adamwatchesmovies@  16.9.2015 age: 26-35 2,867 reviews

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