In writer/director Adam MacDonald’s feature debut Backcountry, things seriously go wrong for happy city couple Jenn (Missy Peregrym) and Alex (Jeff Roop). Going on a camping trip to Northern Ontario, the two end up losing their way, walking straight into bear territory. Backcountry tackles the survival thriller, and surprisingly succeeds. With two great performances, a smart screenplay, and impressive cinematography, Backcountry avoids falling into clichés, delivering a taut, tense, and all around good genre film.

Before the film’s world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, we briefly chatted with Adam MacDonald about Backcountry. The film hits theaters Friday March 20th, you can read our review here.

The promotional materials mention that Backcountry is based on a true story. Could you tell us what story the film is based on?
After I came up with the idea of an Open Water in the woods, I started to do quite a bit of research on black bears as well as first hand accounts of campers and hikers who have been attack by these animals. I came across a story of a couple who were savagely attacked in the backcountry by a predatory black bear nearly ten years ago, I found the story both heroic and tragic, it made me very emotional. The couple being young and alone made it all the more compelling to me.

You shot the film on location in Northern Ontario. How was that experience, especially for your first feature film? Did you have any of your own problems with Mother Nature during the shoot?
She’s a bitch! NO! Just kidding. Well there were definitely two sides to her. The crew would always joke that I had a direct line to God while shooting because the weather would always match the script. For instance, we needed it to be dark and overcast for certain scenes at the start of the shooting day and that’s what we got BUT I needed sunshine for the last scene and you know what? That sun broke through the clouds right on time! This happened a lot, it was a little spooky to be honest. As for her other side, when it was cold it was cold! Some night shoots we were all pushed to the limit.

How did you work with cinematographer Christian Bielz to establish the film’s look and mood?
Christian was amazing, I love that guy. I called him the eye of my soul because he captured my imagination. When I first met him for an interview I asked him what came to mind when he read the script. He said The Place Beyond The Pines. That was exactly it! I love Derek Cianfrance, and the mood his films put you in. They’re organic and alive and nothing seems forced. We set up a lot of the scenes where the actors could turn 360 degrees and not see one crew member. As for the mood, to me it’s a balance of music, performance, camera work, editing, and even colour temperature. You’ve got to find that balance until you feel it and then you hope others do as well.

Survival thrillers, or more generally films dealing with man against nature, have been around for quite a while. Did you have any hesitations or concerns about tackling such a familiar genre, and if so how did you address those concerns?
My only concern was making it feel as real as possible and make that bear attack the most visceral of attacks ever seen. I want people to feel it. I love nature, I have huge respect for her. I spent a lot of my life in the Laurentians north of Montreal. Being attacked by a large predatory animal is no joke.

Missy Peregrym and Jeff Roop are both excellent in this. They nail a kind of natural chemistry that’s hard to pull off. You have a background in acting, so now that you’re behind the camera, how much does that experience influence how you work with the cast?
I’m very fortunate to have had a lot of experience in front of the camera, so I know what it’s like be in the arena. I know how I like to be approached when I’m working with a director. But Jeff and Missy are professionals first and foremost. My gut knew that these two were the ones to play these roles. Missy is out of this world, her work is so intense and immediate. I love them both.

Could you talk about some of your filmmaking influences, not only on Backcountry but in general?
Rob Zombie and Derek Cianfrance are two big influences on me. I study their work and it definitely inspired me on Backcountry. I hope fans might see a bit of both in the film. I’m also a huge fan of South Korean horrors and thrillers. They go right to the bone on those! I absolutely love The Chaser!

One of the things I enjoyed about the writing was how hard it was to predict exactly what would happen. There are warnings from the park ranger, the unsettling encounter with the wilderness guide, bear tracks on the trail, the feeling of somebody watching them (just to name a few). Did you intend to do this as a way to keep viewers on their toes? 
Yes! 100%! I wanted to keep it subtle and avoid the “jump scare” tactic that has been done to death lately.

Your film seems intent on scaring people out of camping. Are you personally a fan of camping?
Yes, I’m a fan of camping until a six hundred pound black bear comes looking for me. It’s nature and it can be so beautiful beyond belief only to turn into the most terrifying experience one can face. That’s life.

What are you planning to work on next? 
I’m developing a new feature called The Wolf At The Door. It’s a story where a secret is revealed over a long weekend cabin getaway that ends up in murder.

This interview was originally published on September 9, 2014 as part of our TIFF 2014 coverage. 

Adam MacDonald’s first feature film Backcountry has a quote on its film poster saying that the film “…does for the woods what Jaws did for the ocean.” And while its true the film portrays a truly grisly and terrifying backpacking trip gone wrong, the film surprisingly cautioned me more against the dangers of an uncommunicative relationship than it did the dangers of camping. This was likely an unintentional lesson on MacDonald’s part, but nonetheless adds another dimension to what is a generally slow-building but tension-sustaining survival thriller.

MacDonald understands the way five little words almost always set a film up for a more invested viewing. Place “Based on a true story” at the beginning of any film and viewers are more likely to pay attention, wondering all along the similarities to real life and feeling a deeper connection to the story’s characters because they are based in reality. So while watching Jenn (Missy Peregrym) and Alex (Jeff Roop) embark on a backpacking trip in the woods of Ontario, it’s that much easier to hope for the best for this couple. Things start out normal enough. Jenn and Alex make their way north to the woods where Alex spent his childhood backpacking. Jenn takes a telling quiz in a women’s magazine about her boyfriend. “Does he have a hard time admitting when he’s wrong?” Definitely, she says.

Alex is disappointed upon their arrival at the trailhead to learn from the ranger that the trail he wanted to take Jenn on is closed for the season. They embark on a different trail instead, Alex teasing Jenn right off the bat for the bear spray she brought and a seemingly useless road flare. Clear foreshadowing of course, and its hard to fault MacDonald for this sort of projecting if the viewer has even the vaguest idea of the story before viewing, but unnecessary nevertheless. The two set off on the trail and hit their first bit of unease when another hiker, a cocksure Irish trail guide named Brad (Eric Balfour), charms Jenn into inviting him for dinner. Alex is clearly unhappy about the situation and it makes for a tense evening, especially when the confrontational Brad feels the need to assert his dominance before taking off back on the trail.

Alex leads them off-trail the next day, much to Jenn-the-lawyer’s dismay. Their conversation is light at times, telling at others. Alex sees signs of trouble, a broken twig outside their camp for instance, and chooses to lie to Jenn rather than let her worry. Without giving away too much, the two meet a statistically unlikely but quite terrifying situation when the culmination of all Alex’s bad choices lead to disaster.

MacDonald doesn’t hold back. The transition from camping trip to survival tale is swift and dizzying. Peregrym and Roop shine more in their roles as stressed survivalists than in their chemistry-lacking roles as boyfriend and girlfriend. Whether or not MacDonald, who also wrote the script, meant to paint them as a mismatched couple or not, their lacking communication skills put both of them in danger. If Jenn had been able to communicate her disinterest in camping better; or if Alex had compromised with her by not taking her on a complicated first camping trip; or if Jenn had put her foot down about going off-trail; or if Alex had been honest about the signs of danger he was noticing on the trail, well, let’s say a few conversations would have gone a long way for these two. And this is where MacDonald’s film most resembles a slasher film, where victims somehow prove they “deserve” their fate. Usually it’s in the form of promiscuous sex, here it’s for being uncommunicative with one’s significant other.

But Backcountry does at times feel more like a ’80s slasher film than a true-story survival tale. The scares are long-lasting and shocking, and the end mirrors the fight-to-survive standoff of ’80s horror films. The cinematography does the most to keep the film from falling into any of the camp one associates with that genre, however. Christian Bielz, the film’s cinematographer, is most experienced in reality television and he certainly does a great job of focusing on the sorts of details that allow for mood manipulation, mostly by paying close attention to the telling faces of the characters.

The film is smart to project many possible outcomes for the couple early on, though the movie’s poster hints to some obvious conclusions. There is plenty that can go wrong on a trail, the interesting part of Backcountry is that it is human error that most gets them into trouble, the danger they couldn’t predict just providing another level of horror on top of what they were already experiencing. And this is what will stay most with audiences: 25% of the film’s atrocities are highly unlikely, but the other 75% are entirely the fault of the characters and that means any one of us could find ourselves in the same situation.

Backcountry is in theaters and on VOD Friday, March 20. 

Opening with the camera tracking towards an unseen but, based on the sound design, grisly sight, Backcountry immediately foreshadows a nasty outcome for its characters. Corporate lawyer Jenn (Missy Peregrym) reluctantly tags along with boyfriend Alex (Jeff Roop) on a weekend camping trip in Northern Ontario. He wants to show her the old hiking trail he used to take as a kid, but she’s clearly the type who prefers to stay in the city rather than venture into the wilderness. Things immediately start on the wrong foot. Jenn over-prepares, bringing bear spray and a road flare, while Alex stubbornly refuses to take a map, bragging about how he knows the area. Question: Do you think Alex will come to regret that decision? (Answer: Yes)

With an early reference to Michael Haneke’s Funny Games, writer/director Adam MacDonald similarly spends his time slowly but surely building up discomfort and tension. The film keeps its options open, presenting more than several grisly endings for the seemingly happy couple. Should they heed the park ranger’s warnings about “yahoos” wandering the trail? Or should they watch out for black bears, given that they’re known to wander the area? And what about their unsettling encounter with a park guide (Eric Balfour) on their first night camping? It’s hard to guess what exactly will occur as Jenn and Alex go deeper into the woods, and this unpredictability only adds to the film’s underlying tension.

With lean, smart pacing and no hesitation to get nasty in its showcase of nature’s cruelty, Backcountry is a strong entry in the survival thriller genre. MacDonald’s script certainly follows a lot of familiar story beats, but he cleverly subverts expectations more than once. Missy Peregrym and Jeff Roop are convincing as the main couple, putting a lot more depth into their roles than one would expect in this kind of genre-based film. But it’s Peregrym who steals the show, using her charm and physicality to carry the film on her shoulders by the final act. Wild may be the survival in the wilderness movie everyone will be talking about at TIFF this year, and while Backcountry is a completely different beast of a film, it should be admired for how well it pulls off such a familiar genre. It’s good filmmaking all-around.