2014’sBackcountryis a survival horror movie that actually has its roots in a true story that happened a decade earlier. Thewoods have always been an ideal setting for horror moviesandBackcountrymakes the isolated wilderness terrifying without even a single witch, headless girlfriend, or kid killing themselves all over someone’s property. Starring Missy Peregrym and Jeff Roop, and few other actors,Backcountryfollows a couple, Alex (Roop) and Jen (Peregrym), who go backpacking in an isolated wilderness. There they attempt to repair what begins to feel like a waning relationship.
As they hike deeper, Alex soon reveals that he and Jenare lost in the woods, and he doesn’t know how to get out. Worse, they see signs that a bear is stalking them, a bear they come face-to-face with when it finds their tent.Backcountryis a startling and atmospheric horror film that pulls no punches when it comes to the brutal bear attack at the climax, and the lead-up and events afterward are just as thrilling and engrossing. Chillingly,the events depicted in the film are based on a real bear attack in the 2000s.
Backcountry Is Loosely Based On A Real Bear Attack That Occurred In Ontario, Canada
The Real Attack Happened To A Married Couple In 2005
Backcountrywas based on a story that MacDonald read about while plotting out his, “Open Waterin the woods,” idea (viaCollider). On August 03, 2025, a husband and wife couple, Jacqueline Perry and Mark Jordan, both 30, were hiking in a provincial park about 50 miles north of Chapleau in Ontario, Canada (viaCBC). The black bear attacked them while they were at their campsite, going for Perry first. Jordan managed to stab it multiple times with a Swiss Army knife, which stopped the bear from dragging Perry into the woods.
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The couple were on a two-week holiday camping and kayaking trip when the bear attacked them. It was unusual that it was a black bear at all, considering howfew fatalities have resulted from the smaller species of bear in Ontario. Bear expert with the Ministry of Natural Resources, Keith Scott said,
“There’s only been four fatalities in Ontario through black bears dating back to about 1978. This one in this particular case, it’s early in the investigation, but it appears to be a predatory-type bear. These bears have learned to and often prey on humans.”
Jordan was able to carry Perry, a family doctor, away from the site and onto their kayak, all the while being tracked by the wounded animal. He managed to paddle Perry to a nearby campsite where a father and son from Pennsylvania spotted them (viaCBC). They flagged down a passing boat that had a doctor from North Carolina on board as well as an off-duty police officer. The doctor attempted to treat Perry on the ride to the park office, butshe passed away before anything more could be done.
The highest award for bravery within the Canadian system of honors is the Star of Military Valour, which is only awarded to members of the Canadian Forces.
Jordan ended up requiring 300 stitches and in May 2007,he received the Star of Courage from Gov. Gen. Michaëlle Jean, the second-highest award for bravery within the Canadian system of honors. The award is given to people for “acts of conspicuous courage in circumstances of great peril”.
Director Adam MacDonald Took Some Creative Liberties With Backcountry
Character Names Are Changed And The Drama Is Ramped Up
When director Adam MacDonald began thinking about hiscamping trip horror film, he began looking into any real stories about bear attacks,
“…I started writing the script and I started doing research and I came across this story of a couple that encountered a predatory black bear in northern Ontario about 10 years ago. I used the same elements, the same thing that happened to them and all this stuff, but then there’s a huge spark from my creativity in the piece.”
There are quite a few liberties taken with MacDonald’s film, of course, beginning with the characterization of the couple. In the film, Alex and Jen are in a long-term relationship, not married, though Alex intends to propose on the trip. The couple is also going through a rough patch, with this camping trip being something of a Hail Mary to save the relationship. This is all fiction, and effective at that, at getting the audience to get close to the couple and be invested in their survival.
In reality, there is no evidence that Jordan and Perry were lost, nor that they had any idea that there was a dangerous bear in the area.
The bear attack is also foreshadowed in the film. Alex and Jen get lost in the woods, and they stumble on signs that there is a bear in the area, one big enough to eviscerate a large deer. In reality, there is no evidence that Jordan and Perry were lost, nor that they had any idea that there was a dangerous bear in the area.The biggest change MacDonald made to the story was swapping the genders of the charactersand the real people. InBackcountry, it’s the man, Alex, who is killed by the bear, and unlike in real life, his partner is unable to retrieve his body.
The bear inBackcountrywas played by two trained bears, Chester and Charlie.
The wounded bear did stalk Jordan and Perry back to the kayak, but likely not in the same dramatic way as depicted inBackcountry. The last third of the film is devoted to Jen fleeing from the bear, eventually escaping after struggling on a broken ankle through the wilderness. Instead of encountering a random father and son, Jen meets back up with Brad (Eric Balfour), a character she and Alex met earlier in the movie.
MacDonald Wanted Backcountry To Be True To The Emotions Of The Real Event
Backcountry Is A Realistically Horrifying Experience
While MacDonald’sBackcountrychanged some key parts of the true story,the emotions of the film feel consistent with what really happened. MacDonald was more concerned with recreating the emotions he felt hearing the story, rather than ensuring every plot point matched,
“I thought about them a lot, the real couple, when I was shooting. It was a tragic, heroic and extremely emotional story, so I wanted to feel that in the movie constantly. That’s what I went for.”
Backcountryis filled with tragedy, heroism, and true desperate love between Jen and Alex, particularly during the attack when any minor issues they were having suddenly dissolve in the face of something wild and savage. MacDonald effectively created the intense atmosphere of a real-life animal attack in the long and disturbing sequence of Alex being attacked by the bear. It’s incredibly violent, with the giant bear slowly making its way toward the tent as the couple realizes what’s about to happen.
When the bear crashes through the tent, the animal feels as big as the Tyrannosaurus who pushes its head into Julianne Moore’s tent inThe Lost World: Jurassic Park. Alex heroically pushes Jen behind him, but he’s soon dragged screaming out of the tent and quick camera cuts are not enough to hide some truly gruesome prosthetic work of the bear tearing apart Alex’s face.Despite the blood and gore, the scene never feels gratuitous, which is what MacDonald was going for,
“…I wanted to respect anybody who’s been attacked by a wild animal in a way where it’s not a joke. It’s serious, serious business. When people have seen the attack in this movie, they’re really taken aback and they can feel it, and that’s what I wanted to do. To be honest, I think it would be such a disservice if someone saw the movie and went, ‘That’s not how it happens at all…’ It’s disrespectful in a way. I just wanted to convey [that] it’s so ferocious, so instant, so powerful and that was my mandate; I wanted to make something as powerful as it would be in real life.”
MacDonald nails that feeling inBackcountry. It’s one of the most brutal animal attack scenes in movies, thanks in part to Roop’s intense acting. It never feels exploitative though. One of the big successes ofBackcountryis that the entire movie leads to this bear attack and instead of rewarding viewers with aTerrifier-esque phantasmagoric sequence, MacDonald’s is much more real and gritty. It’s not hard to imagine that Perry and Jordan’s ordeal was something similar and, in that way, MacDonald andBackcountrypay respect to the true story.
Backcountry
Cast
Backcountry is a 2015 survival thriller directed by Adam MacDonald. The film follows a young couple who embark on a camping trip in the Canadian wilderness. Their adventure turns perilous when they realize they are unprepared for the dangers posed by the wild, leading to a harrowing struggle against nature. Starring Jeff Roop and Missy Peregrym, the movie explores themes of survival and human vulnerability.
