Movie Review: Backcountry

Backcountry (2015) *** / *****

Directed by: Adam MacDonald.

Written by: Adam MacDonald.

Starring: Jeff Roop (Alex), Missy Peregrym (Jenn), Eric Balfour (Brad), Nicholas Campbell (Ranger).

 

I cannot help but wonder if writer/director Adam MacDonald intended for the audience of Backcountry to not know what waiting out in the woods for his central couple (if you don’t know, just go watch the movie – and don’t look at the poster before you do). I wonder this because it takes a long time (more than two-thirds of the 90 minute runtime) before the star that the advertising has promised actually shows up and does anything. Up until then, he has skillfully built the tension, and shown us multiple threats to the couple’s safety that turn out to be red herrings. The film is building to something – and when it hits, it hits. (Okay fair warning to this four year movie – if you don’t know what the film is about yet, and want to see it, just stop reading and go watch the film – I’m going to stop being coy about it in a minute or two).

 

Alex (Jeff Roop) and Jenn (Missy Peregrym) are city dwellers, who are heading to a Northern Ontario provincial park for a few days of hiking and camping. She has never gone camping before – doesn’t particularly care about it – but he’s gung ho. He’s got a plan for the weekend that involves taking her to his favorite place as a child – the Blackfoot Trail. He’s so confident that he knows where to go, that he even rejects the offer of the park ranger (Nicholas Campbell) of a map. The scene with Campbell, a well-known character actor to Canadian audiences, probably not so much outside here, provides several different red herring – the first being that Campbell is, himself, deliberately more than little creepy, and the second talk about too many crazies on the Blackfoot Trail – which is why it’s closed for the season. So along with the no map thing, we now have three potential threats to the couple. We’ll add another threat at the end of the first act, as the couple come across Brad (Eric Balfour) – a hunky Irishman – out in the forest – or more accurately, Brad comes across Jenn as Alex is gathering firewood. They share a tense dinner together – where everyone is polite, up to a point, but it’s clear the two men are sizing each other up – and Alex starts to feel insecure – and Brad pushes harder and harder. It’s also in this scene where we learn more about the dynamic between Jenn and Alex – that she is a lawyer, and he’s working for a friend with a landscaping business. This whole trip, with Alex overcompensating for everything, is perhaps a way to feel manlier – and show that off to Jenn. It’s also what leads him to keep making stupid mistakes.

 

All of these are red herrings of course. Yes, their relationship is strained, but strained in a way that really does feel real. She is willing to go along on the hike, and defends him to Brad, etc. – but when he makes a mistake (and then another) – the true feelings come out, and the gloves come off. But even that isn’t the real threat – at least the one that will kill them. That, of course, is a bear – a giant hulking black bear, who makes a brief appearance at the hour mark – pushing his snout against their tent as they sleep – and will eventually come back for more. When the attack finally does hit – it’s a bloody doozy, horrific and horrifying in the way you expect – and then the film becomes a survival thriller for the one who isn’t killed.

 

All of this works remarkably well. The film slowly builds the tension throughout its runtime – you’re never quite sure where the horror is going to come from. At the end, you may feel a little bit cheated – because of all the red herrings and themes brought up and discarded, etc. But while the film is playing, it works remarkably well.

Movie Review: Pyewacket

Pyewacket *** / *****

Directed by: Adam MacDonald.

Written by: Adam MacDonald.

Starring: Nicole Muñoz (Leah), Laurie Holden (Mrs. Reyes), Chloe Rose (Janice), Eric Osborne (Aaron), Romeo Carere (Rob), James McGowan (Rowan Dove), Bianca Melchior (Pyewacket), Missy Peregrym (voice), Neil Whitely (Detective). 

 

It was just last week when I reviewed Paco Plaza’s Veronica, about a teenage girl, who holds a séance to communicate with her dead father, and gets more than she bargained for. I didn’t think much of that film that was a slow burn, until a fairly satisfying finale – but ultimately indulged in every cliché imaginable through its runtime. Now comes Pyewacket, a film about a teenage girl, who performs a blood incantation, to get even with her mother who she is upset with following the death of her father, and gets more than she bargained for. The two films are similar in some ways – but while I don’t necessarily think Pyewacket is overly original either – it is a horror film that worked for me, slowly getting under your skin, and building to a truly frightening climax. The two films are perhaps a study in how horror, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.

 

The film stars Nicole Muñoz as Leah – a teenager girl, who has started hanging out with the “goth” crowd following the death of her father. Their interest in the occult is somewhat comforting to her – interest in that implies there is an afterlife, so it provides some of the same comfort as religion does, but is “cooler”. Her mother, (Laurie Holden) isn’t doing well however – she cannot seem to get over the death of her husband, or reminders of him, so instead she decides to move an hour away from everything Leah knows, to a remote house in the middle of the woods (seems logical). One day in the car during an argument, her mother says something that infuriates Leah – so that night, she heads to the woods to call upon a spirit – Pyewacket – to punish her mother. It’s something – much like that séance in Veronica – which a grieving, angry teenager may well do, without meaning it. She almost immediately regrets it – but it’s too late, as the spirit makes their presence felt almost immediately.

 

Pyewacket is a slow burn of a horror movie – first getting us to care about Leah, and even her mother and her friends, and then working to scare us. I liked how the film shows the teenagers interest in the occult, and how confident they are all in how cool it – right up until they actually confront it in real life – Leah’s friends Janice (Chloe Rose) comes up to the house to try and observe what is actually happening, because she thinks it’s great – but the next morning, she’s hiding in the car, freaked out and wanting to go home.

 

Pyewacket makes great use of its setting to help deliver the scares – from the dark forest that surrounds there new home, to the attic that Leah repeatedly has to go to – either to try and figure out what that strange noise is, or to try and get away from it. The film is nicely subtle in the scares too – it doesn’t lead the audience as much with music or jump scares, but like the slow burn of the film itself, the scares are similarly subtle at first, and then mount as the film continues.

 

I would not argue with someone who felt the opposite of me – that Veronica was incredibly scary, and Pyewacket was too slow. Different strokes for different folks I guess. But to me, I was mainly bored by Veronica – a film that didn’t scare me, and felt like it was going through the motions. I was scared though by Pyewacket – enough that I really should go back and catch up with Adam Macdonald’s other horror film – Backcountry. He clearly has horror movie chops – and while Pyewacket isn’t overly original, it delivers.