Backtrack (2015)

People are voting emotionally.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

This was a really interesting 90 minutes. A few plot problems but it grabbed my attention right away trying to figure out what was going on.A little slow moving but fun, with a few scares and a lot of twists.I don't really understand the bad reviews, and people trying to figure out and disagree with the motives of ghosts.So, it's a mystery with a little bit of horror sprinkled in. I know some of the scares were old hat but I liked them anyway.I don't see why everyone is raving about the acting of Adrien Brody. It wasn't that great I think any decent actor could have pulled it off. Didn't matter, it was the story that was good. I did really love the small part of Sam Neil though! Who throws in one of the first interesting twists.Possible spoiler: everyone is comparing this to other movies, but the one I think it's most like is "Stir of Echoes" with Kevin Bacon.Overall: if you don't like slow movers, you might not like it, but I thought it was great. Just hang in there for a while it gets better and better until the very end.

Consummate actor Adrien Brody treats us yet again to a brilliant performance as a troubled psychiatrist suffering from selective amnesia. Everything he plays in is 75% better because he's there--and that honor generally only goes to Johnny Depp and Anthony Hopkins. This ghost story has a few twists, and the CGI helps tell the story instead of overpowers it. The first part of the film is quite a bit better than the last 45 minutes, but I like ghost stories without additional detective work and sequences which include revenge--even if it is ghostly. To me, BACKTRACK Part 2 should be about the psychiatrist's father and how he plans to pay his victims back--or just explain it all to God--or maybe both. In this film I would have liked to see the old man break down and confess instead of getting chewed up by a passenger train. All in all, this one's worth your time if you like spooky stories. I could have done without the jump scares, though.

This was clearly not my cuppa tea, but seen as part of AACTA member screenings for 2016, 'Backtrack' has some significant qualities, most of all the committed performance of Adrien Brody who not only keeps the viewer thoroughly hooked and tense, but delivers a surprisingly convincing Australian accent in this horror/mystery/supernatural melange of a movie. Casting George Shevtsov as the father to Brody's character was a stroke of genius as there are few actors on the planet with the sort of aquiline features that the Oscar winner has. And to find an actor in Australia who has the gravitas to match! This lends important authenticity to an otherwise pretty bizarre and twisted tale. There is something very nasty & violent at the core of 'Backtrack' despite Brody's sympathetic portrayal, I was mostly disinterested in the content; especially the zombie/ghost inclusions.Like I disclaimer-ed, this is not my sort of movie, but the soundscape is suitably moody and tense, and the camera work with masterful editing give this film its very self conscious and abrupt narrative. Having Sam Neill in the cast is always a bonus, but the film is all too often too moody and arty for its own good, with the viewer left scrambling to make head or tail of what has or hasn't happened to the protagonist. The score is a little too intrusive and signposting the text and the subtext, instead of allowing the ideas to present naturally. I can see 'Backtrack' finding an audience, as it is most definitely a genre piece and there is a hunger for this sort of entertainment. It is well made, and on the whole well acted. Robin McLeavy is especially convincing in a supporting role and has terrific presence on screen. I watched the movie as Adrien Brody is a great actor, but there's enough tragedy and dysfunction in the world for me to be too engaged or enraptured with 'Backtrack' and its psycho horror tale. At the end of the movie, it is for all intents and purposes, a pretty conventional mystery dressed up as much more. For the aficionados only@!

I read the blurb and thought this might be worth a watch. Though, after reading one of the reviews, I prepared myself for an average film.I was pleasantly surprised with a great story. A couple of twist and a good ending. The acting was good. I loved the locations as I myself am from a regional Victorian town. It is a shame though that the film had limited release and is not widely known. Also loved the jump scares. This would make a great drive-in movie. I also liked the touch of having a female local cop. The only change I would have made would have been to move the earlier reveal to a later stage of the movie. Otherwise, I would recommend this movie to anyone.