Nerds That Geek Movie Review: ‘Backtrack’

Written by Scott Edwards

​Have you ever wanted to be able to forget something from your past? Sure, we all have. But it is not as easy as turning a switch to make it disappear, and most of the time even when you think you have forgotten it, it comes right back up. When this happens, most people try to adjust their memories, not forget it entirely, but change a couple aspects of it so it no longer hurts when they think about it. Although this can be done, it takes years to accomplish and such a move may be worse for you than facing what you are trying to forget from your past.

After moving to his new practice, psychiatrist Peter Bower is ready to start his life over again, but there seems to be something strange about his patients that were been referred to him by his doctor, Duncan. While his patients seem to be stuck in the past, Peter thinks that there is something strange following him, but when Elizabeth Valentine comes to visit him, he knows that something is completely off. Without saying a word in his office, Elizabeth seems to need help, but when Peter tries to do something for her, she runs away, but leaves him a note with only numbers on it.

Thinking little of this, Peter tries to go on with his troubled life. Thinking about how he lost his daughter and how much life has changed since then, he sees Elizabeth in his office once again, but this time she almost dies in his arms. Disappearing when he tries to call for help, Peter thinks that he is going mad, but starts to research the names of all of his patients and discovers they all share a disturbing similarity. Finding out that they all died on the same date in 1987, Peter takes this news to Duncan for an explanation, but since Duncan is the one that referred them all to Peter, he comes to realize that he has been dealing with a ghost. Tracking where all of his patients used to live, Peter follows the train tracks that they must have traveled on and it leads him back to his childhood home.

When arriving there, Peter and his father pick up where they left off after Peter’s daughter died. Going around town, Peter finds his old childhood friend Barry drinking in the bar and wants to talk to him. Wanting to come clean about what happened back in 1987, Peter has to clear his conscience and hopefully the ghosts will leave him alone. Even though Barry is against it, Peter goes along with his plan and tells Constable Henning his story and leaves his best friend out of it. But the ghosts continue to come after Peter and now they are getting more violent towards him. With more research on his part and Constable Henning at his side, the two are searching for the truth of what happened on that terrifying night that claimed the lives of forty seven souls that Peter has put on his shoulders for so many years.

I had no idea what I was getting into when I started this movie, but Netflix said I would like it and they were right. Even though it is started out a bit slow, it was apparent that Peter had demons of his own that he needed to face and his sessions with Doctor Duncan led you a bit deeper into his mind than expected. I was blown away by the fact Peter was able to leave his wife at home, alone, when he went back to his childhood home, as she was heavily medicated. The effects were pretty good, and the jump scares are effective, along with a decent storyline that leads you to an ending that you did not want to see coming. Not a bad movie at all and I am impressed with the cast they were able to secure for it, since you have a couple big names that do a fantastic job. Stay Scared.

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