Month: March 2026

Backcountry (2014)

Hey tenderfoot romantics!

Backcountry, written and directed by Toronto filmmaker Adam McDonald (Pyewacket), is based on a true story, and serves as a perfect illustration as to why couples in crisis should avoid the great outdoors.

Relationships are already subject to unimaginable stressors at the moment, from within and without. The idea that some magical symbiosis will take place around a campfire or running terrified through tall timber is laughably naive.

This captivating notion is dangled in front of the endangered duo as they paddle their canoe into a wilderness that is indeed beautiful. They even pass a happy, smiling mirror-image couple in their own canoe, heading back to civilization.

Sweetheart yuppies Alex (Jeff Roop) and Jenn (Missy Peregrym) are on a camping trip in a remote Canadian park. So far, so good.

Like most men in charge of movie expeditions, Alex is a poor choice for leadership. After arrogantly dismissing the need for a map, he gets them lost in a rogue black bear’s feeding ground.

For about the first 40 minutes, Backcountry is more of a relationship on the rocks/adventure film—until the bear enters the picture.

Once blood is shed, it’s buckle-up survival horror that explodes with very valid and very real terror on a painfully primordial level.

McDonald accentuates the panicky state of affairs with dizzying rotation shots that emphasize the lack of familiar landmarks and the growing uncertainty of Alex and Jenn.

The last third of Backcountry is super intense and frightening, because we have traveled a fair distance with these characters and their relatable idiosyncrasies, and a definite emotional investment has been made on our part.

While Alex apologizes for the umpteenth time, for getting them into this mess, Jenn tries to soothe his guilt, by telling him, “Could be worse. At least we’re together.”

It gets worse. Backcountry is a tense place to pitch your tent.


The Prey (1983)

Somewhere amidst a monsoon of nature insert shots, filmmaker Edwin S. Brown managed to cobble together The Prey, a tedious Dead Camper drama of the sort that turned up in plentitude post Friday The 13th.

This isn’t a buried treasure or an overlooked gem. The Prey has more padding than the Philadelphia Eagles.

If you were to take a shot of whiskey each time Brown cuts away from the actors to show spiders, snakes, millipedes, ants, vultures, woodpeckers, frogs, and other woodland creatures, you will be unconscious long before the scarred giant killer (Carel Struycken, Lurch from The Addams Family) appears on the screen.

We can tell he’s there, though. His stupid heartbeat thumps wildly every few minutes. Just the heartbeat. Saves time and money on makeup (and tension).

As it stands, we get to know three vapid couples on a wilderness getaway being stalked by the mysterious survivor of a long ago forest fire.

The choices that Edwin Brown makes in order to further the plot can be blamed on the wee budget, with a chunk of change undoubtedly going to pay Jackie Coogan (Uncle Fester from a different The Addams Family) in his final film role as Ranger Lester Tile, who burns up the screen eating a cucumber sandwich in one the movie’s most pivotal scenes.

For sheer artistic goofiness, Brown’s decision to feature Ranger Mark O’Brien (Jackson Bostwick) playing a lengthy banjo solo and telling one of the world’s oldest (and slowest) jokes to a deer, demonstrates considerable artistic chutzpah in a rather barren entertainment landscape.

The anemic narrative actually gets pepped up when Joel (Steve Bond) shares the ancient tale of The Monkey’s Paw around the campfire. To his credit, he tells it reasonably well.

The only time The Prey gets truly horrifying is the ending, as Final Girl Nancy (Debbie Thureson) gets carried away to a cave to start a family with a huge murderous freak.

That’s some bullshit. No way she deserved that! But perhaps that’s why Edwin Brown included so many unpleasant shots of critters eating each other—it’s all part of nature’s eternal cycle of death and renewal.

Ewww. Gross.