Alex and Jenn decide to take a weekend camping trip. They arrive at the visitor center and are greeted by the park ranger who warns them about late season remoteness and upsets Alex after warning him that the trail the latter wanted to take is closed. Alex refuses to take a map and ignores the warnings, confident that he knows the park well because he has visited multiple times. After a canoe hike, Alex injures his foot flipping the canoe. Alex also pokes fun at Jenn, a rookie hiker, who he thinks has overpacked by bringing bear spray and a road flare. On their first night, they encounter and have dinner with a more seasoned hiker and tour guide, Brad whose presence annoys Alex; Brad provokes Alex by implying he'd be more of a man to take Jenn into a closed trail, where a scenic waterfall and lake are. Though Alex and Jenn initially planned on not hiking far, Alex decides to lead her off-trail deeper into the park to the lake. As they hike, he spots a bear paw print, but does not tell Jenn, and the two later encounter a mauled, devoured deer, which worries Jenn. The two finally make it to where Alex believes the lake is, only to realize that they are lost, with no lake in sight. Alex reveals that he had taken Jenn's cell phone and left it in the car, that he has no map, and his experience in the area is far less impressive than he claimed; he admits that he has not hiked the area in many years and has not been confident in his surroundings for hours. Jenn lashes out at him, reminding him that she never wanted the trip and calling him a loser desperate to impress her. He admits that he wanted to come to the lake to propose to her. Jenn later apologizes, and the two make up as they make camp and fix Alex's foot, unwittingly attracting predators due to Alex's blood. Alex asks her if she wants to see the ring, but she declines. The couple is later startled by an odd noise from the nearby blackened woods, prompting Alex to yell and scare the animal away. In the pre-dawn hours, the pair sleep unaware as a black bear approaches and sniffs their tent. Later that morning, they find that all of their food has been eaten and destroyed. Not only lost, with no means of communication, food or water, matters are made worse when they spot a bear bed. Realizing the danger literally at their tent door, they try to hike as far as possible before dark and then camp for the night. However, the bear catches up to them the next morning and attacks them in their tent. Jenn is clawed on the arm and Alex, in trying to protect her, has his leg nearly torn off. Though Jenn briefly wards it off with her bear spray, it returns and drags Alex out of the tent. Alex screams for Jenn to run as the bear is eating him alive. Jenn flees, taking only Alex's ring with her. Now without food or shelter, Jenn sleeps in a tree and wakes up to the sound of a helicopter overhead, but fails to get its attention. Stalked again by the bear, Jenn manages to escape it by climbing down the waterfall, but slips and breaks her leg. Using a makeshift splint, she limps through the park at night, using her road flare as a guide. After collapsing against a tree, spirits broken and suffering from her wounds, she wakes to see a deer grazing in front of her, motivating her to continue. Miraculously, she makes it back to their canoe. Paddling back to the lodge, she collapses on the beach in sight of Brad, who is leading a tour and he races over to her.
Casting began in October 2013 with Missy Peregrym, Eric Balfour, Nicholas Campbell and Jeff Roop being named for the script. The movie was filmed in Powassan, Ontario as well as Caddy Lake, Manitoba.
On review aggregatorRotten Tomatoes, Backcountry holds an approval rating of 92%, based on 49 reviews, and an average rating of 6.97/10. It's consensus reads, "Tense, well-acted, and at once atmospheric as well as brutally impactful, Backcountry marks a memorably assured debut from writer-director Adam MacDonald." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 62 out of 100, based on 5 critics, indicating "generally positive reviews".
