Backcountry

O filme não nos diz muito sobre a dupla central, e passar uma hora com eles, vagueando pelo bosque e discutindo frequentemente, não traz muito prazer ao espetador. Mas a partir dessa dramatização vigorosa (dura, cruel), o filme capta a tensão e o último terço vale bem a pena. Edição muito desorganizada em cenas-chave, mas é salva pelo rugido aterrador da vítima, que o faz sentir a agonia da dor. A música ambiente e as tomadas psicadélicas ocasionais que correspondem fazem disto um filme estranho, mas aceitável, sobre a vida selvagem. (27/03/2015)

Deliverance with a bear. The script is fairly tame, but just enough to maintain credibility, and at the right moments, to stretch to the limit the negative feelings about the suffering of the two main characters. The bear attack scene is one of the most shocking and intense I've ever seen in film; after seeing it, nobody can convince me to go hiking in the countryside. (11/08/2017)

There are only a few actors here. Four who actually get some space. But that doesn’t harm Backcountry. Its strength lies in how it utilizes the beautiful scenery to create drama, which often unfolds off-screen, but that certainly doesn't diminish its impact. On the contrary, there is strength even in that. It's just a pity that the atmosphere isn't a little more escalated. Still a good film. (11/11/2015)

A very realistic and minimalist survival flick, the script can’t have been more than five pages long. I think that’s what it must look like when two people get lost while camping in the wilderness and get attacked by a bear on their way back. The level of credibility and crudeness is very high in Backcountry, including those “main” scenes when the bear attacks. It’s on a completely different level (in conception and ambition) that this year’s Grizzly, fortunately so, I must say. My only quibbles are the self-serving and pointless episodes with the foreigner and that the survival part “proper” begins rather late. Edit: I sometimes think about this film, even a year later, and that main attack scene still remains very much alive. Quality. (26/03/2015)

Not even Bear Grylls can prepare you for some situations. The real terror, which will make you put your hand over your eyes, comes only after an hour, but the preceding minutes will still keep you on the edge of your seat. With its subjective shots, close-ups of the protagonists’ faces and shallow depth of field, Backcountry effectively evokes a feeling of a constant threat of uncertain origin. We can infer exactly what and from whom the central couple are under threat and how much danger they are in. The hour-long build-up also serves to introduce Jenn and Alex, to whom we are not indifferent thanks to the fact that they act sensibly (they have rational justifications for most of the decisions that turn out to be wrong) and, at the same time, they are not perfect, but they are completely honest with each other. With its visceral intensity, the final act is thus exhausting not only physically, but also emotionally. Backcountry is proof that even with a very simple concept, it is possible to make a truly brilliant and brutal survival movie that is consistent and convincing, compared to which Wild with Reese Witherspoon, for example, seems like a casual walk in the park. 85% (01/01/2021)