Review of Backcountry (2015) by Luciano G — 03 Apr 2015

Every scene of Backcountry is full of excessive shaky-cam that flounders in and out of focus, and totally unmotivated camera moves that feel like they were directed by an amateur Michael Bay. The director seems to think that this creates tension, but instead it just serves as a constant annoyance during one flat scene after another, while the inconsistent soundtrack pounds away trying to convince us that this is in fact a horror movie and not an unimaginative relationship drama.

But that's exactly how the first two thirds of the movie play out. "Honey, don't we need a map?" "I don't need a map because I'm a man." By the midpoint it's grown tedious and ultimately doesn't even pay off as the couple never really develops a fulfilling conflict and delivers short monologues to each other with not even a hint of subtext.

The only significant event in the first half is a visit from a stranger carrying some fish. The scene seems written to be some kind of creepy love triangle, but it all feels forced and by the end all you can really take away from it is a cautionary tale about washing your hands before you prepare food. The scene has no payoff save for being very briefly mentioned later in the film.

The second half brings a muddled and ultimately failed attempt at build-up, followed by a bear showing up to deliver a 30 second gore fest that, while it contains one or two traumatic and jarring images, is again, totally lacking in suspense. What follows is obviously supposed to be a story of strength, will, and survival. Unfortunately, the flat writing, flat performances, and arbitrarily inserted shots of running in slow motion, make the ending feel even more tedious than the first half of the film. Ultimately we get one obligatory "face to face with nature" scene, and a stumbled into, largely non-existent finally that leaves you breathing a sigh of relief from the horror of a badly-paced, empty, and underwhelming film.

If you really want to watch it for what little horror/gore-fest there is, just hit the fast-forward button until you see a bear and hit stop when people start running in slow motion. You won't be missing a single thing, and you will have saved yourself an hour and twenty-five minutes.