Movie #884: Backcountry

Backcountry is a survival horror/thriller starring Missy Peregrym, Jeff Roop, Eric Balfour, and Nicholas Campbell. And a bear.

Alex (Roop) takes his girlfriend Missy (Peregrym) on a camping trip, intending to propose to her at a place he used to go in high school that he finds really special. Missy is a city girl and really doesn't much care about camping, but seems game enough. The first big red flag should have been when a park ranger (Campbell) offers them a map and Alex refuses (at which point Missy should have said "well, I'll take it, just in case", but she trusts her man), and then off they go into the park!

The first night, a dude with a bunch of fish (Balfour; the dude, not the fish) happens across them and things get a little tense, and you're not sure if this guy is dangerous or just kind of aggressive and Irish. And then they delve deeper into the woods, go off the trail (red flag number two for Missy!) and eventually wind up lost because Alex does not actually know what he's doing. And then comes the bear.

The last half hour of the movie is the "horror" bit, wherein the bear attacks them, kills Alex, wounds Missy, and she has to get back to civilization with no gear, claw wounds on her arm, and no real idea of how to wilderness. 

So, it sounds like not much happens in the movie, and that's fair on one level, but I don't feel like it's padded. The movie takes its time and shows us the relationship between the two of them, and while I think Alex could have been portrayed as a little smarter (like, stepping on a bear footprint and then going on anyway?), one thing I've always liked is that the movie plays fair by camping and hiking. Likewise, the bear attack is fucking horrific, as we get to see the bear attack, get driven away by bear spray, and then come back to finish the job. Also, I never think of black bears as especially huge, I guess because they're usually, like, smaller and leaner in movies? But this one is a monster, and the scene where it presses its snoot into the tent while they're sleeping is a really amazing tension builder.

I also like that the bear just kind of fucks off at the end. Missy escapes by sliding down a waterfall (and breaking her ankle in the process), but the bear has no particular interest in following her and just goes back to bearin'. That's also why I see this as survival horror rather than creature feature; it's not really about the bear, it's about the environment and the man vs. nature hubris. 

Watching the behind the scenes is funny because the cast seems to have a really inflated view of how amazing this movie is, and like, it's good, but the producer's like "it'll leave people gripping the edge of their seats! Like, leaving permanent indentations!" and I'm like dude, settle down, you'll attract bears.

My Grade: B+ (like I said, it's a solid movie) 
Rewatch Value: Medium

Next up: The Blob (1988)