Backcountry

Backcountry follows an urban couple (Missy Peregrym’s Jenn and Jeff Roop’s Alex) as they embark on a weekend getaway in the woods, with problems (and violence) ensuing as the pair first lose their way and, eventually, run afoul of a vicious black bear. The familiarity of the premise is, at the outset, offset by filmmaker Adam MacDonald’s stylish approach to the material, as the writer/director infuses Backcountry with a cinematic sensibility that nicely compensates for the less-than-novel storyline – with the watchable atmosphere perpetuated by the affable work of stars Peregrym and Roop. The movie’s first major stumble comes with the protagonists’ encounter with a mysterious backpacker named Brad (Eric Balfour), with Balfour’s almost comically menacing performance proving effective at injecting a dose of campiness that was, up until that point, completely absent. From there, Backcountry progresses into a middling midsection revolving around Jenn and Alex’s increasingly fruitless efforts at making their way to safety – with MacDonald, despite his best efforts, simply unable to ratchet up the tension on an ongoing basis. This is especially true of a mid-movie death that should be riveting but instead falls distressingly flat, while the movie’s third act drags to an increasingly palpable degree before reaching a somewhat underwhelming climax. And while MacDonald admittedly does pack the proceedings with a handful of effective sequences (eg the bear’s first appearance outside Jenn and Alex’s tent), Backcountry ultimately feels like a short film that’s been clumsily expanded to a feature-length running time.

** out of ****