Back Country

2013, 160 minutes

A thriller set in the Blue Mountains of Australia surrounding the evil force that inhabits baron land

Kurt Michaels - young, obsessed, American - has what it takes to be Hollywood’s next wunderkind A-list director. Just ask him. Kurt is a hyperactive tidal wave of creative energy who has lived and breathed movies his whole life. He has a starving hunger to be the next Tarantino and he’s convinced that ‘Blood Redemption’, his no-budget indy feature, is his ticket to overnight success. With his best buddy and aspiring heavyweight producer Brian Slade in tow he blows his college fund on two tickets to Australia to make his own Blair Witch Project Down Under. Kurt loves the limelight so he’s preserving every thrilling moment of his audacious adventure on his ever-present handicam for his movie website. The story of B-Roll will unfold through the lens of this camera. Kurt loves horror and the film he is making, ‘Blood Redemption’, is an adaption of a journal written by his ancestor discovered in the attic when he was a child. Although predating it, the diary bears a resemblance to Heart of Darkness and Kurt’s heroic ancestor gives an account of a murderous tyrant, Edmund Greindl, an active prosecutor of the Tamanian genocide. Once Kurt and Brian hit Sydney they kick-start their wild adventure when they enlist Grant a hard living, hard drinking, cynical ex-news cameraman as their cinematographer. Grant, shellshocked from his time in war zones, is now trying to climb out of his boozy haze by kick starting a career as director of photography and their project seems as good as any place to start. Shae is also a veteran – for eight long years she has trying her very hardest to crack Hollywood and win her place in the sun but despite her great looks, her obvious talent and experience in soapies, TV commercials and stage she has not made a single dent. Several years ago Kurt bumped into her on one of her fruitless sojourns to Hollywood and, unknown to Shae, has been obsessed with her ever since. Blocked by her agent he has been unsuccessful in contacting her and has now come to Sydney with the purpose of casting her opposite himself in his film. When accosted with this madcap plan she rejects him out of hand. However Kurt’s charisma and starving adoration has made an impression. Katie finds herself playing second fiddle off camera as well but she’s the level headed one and tries to focus on getting the film made. Their whirlwind ride comes to a crashing halt when all the film funds are ripped off. However Shae has now come to the conclusion that an insane spin of the dice maybe her only option to achieve her dream. She impresses upon Kurt that she has run her race, can no longer emotionally sustain the travails of the actor’s life and can only do his film if he is sincere in his promise to make his dream a reality. He does make this solemn vow to her. She donates a meager fund she saved for herself to return to Hollywood and the film is restarted. With cash, cast, crew and camera they enter the menacing back country of Australia’s Blue Mountains and as they descend into the long shadows of the valley it is clear that they are not alone. Tailed by spectral entities and haunted by the creepy, otherworldly sounds of creatures unseen, Kurt’s cast and crew are now facing the same fears as the fictional characters in the film he is trying to make. Despite the excesses of Kurt’s lurid script the worst part is that the reality is overtaking the fiction. As each photographed incident has its mirror in the real world they realise they must stop filming before they share the fate of Kurt’s doomed characters. But there is no way Kurt is stopping before his film is finished. Exchanging his humanity for madness Kurt is prepared to pay any price to see his film completed including sacrificing the lives of his cast. Lost in the bush and manipulated by the lying Kurt they are easy game for the warrior spirit sent to avenge the deaths of those who died at Kurt’s grandfather’s hands. When Katie and Grant fall Kurt is unnerved but it’s the death of his compadre Brian that jolts Kurt from his mania. A final reckoning must be paid and the endgame is Kurt. Kurt sought love and respect and now is consumed with fear and loathing. Obsession has cost him everything including the life of his best friend but now a greater price must be exacted for the blood debt owing, a price that only he can pay. Kurt has lived his short life as if it were a film and now in his final act he learns a fundamental of cinema – in films one has to earn their happy ending.

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