Tori (Malia Baker) shoots bullets out of a rifle while her grandfather Ben (Roy Dupuis) watches – sixteen year old girls like her are usually in school but she’s taking a mental health break. For the most part, the break is good for her, Ben reconnecting her to her roots. But the family gets threatened. That threat comes from two brothers, Sam and Miles (Robert Naylor and Jonathan Lawrence respectively). The brothers took their snowmobile, her phone, and shot Ben, which tests her dormant survival skills.

Hair of the Bear comes from directors, producers, and writers James McClellan and Alexandre ‘Sasha’ Trudeau. Both are working with producer Juliette Hagopian, who produces films about complex characters and deviant behaviour. Fitting the bill for the latter are the brothers, who seem like they really need Dan’s help. Sam and Miles don’t reveal their intentions yet but that’s what the music cues are for. Their modus operandi seems to be to pretend to fall from the ice which somehow works.

Sam and Miles’ woefully predictable heel turn in this ‘rant a cabin make a movie’ kind of movie. It comes a bit after the half hour mark, which leads up to the climax when Sam and Tori snowmobile from and to the cabin. Hair of the Bear‘s climax takes place at night, which, that’s when bad things happen. I’m giving this film the benefit of the doubt with its decisions about when things happen. The thing about filming at night though is that events need to be visible – not here, sadly.

Viewers of Hair of the Bear only know what’s happening thanks to Tori panting through darkness. And I imagine other viewers waiting for the sun to come up so they can see what’s happening. I am, however, not faulting Baker here, even if she’s also an executive producer for this film. She makes for a decent stand in for the viewers as a protagonist out to survive violence. Tori is the script’s strongest aspect in capturing a teenager, flailing yet fighting.

Strong, sadly, is not the same word I’d use to describe Hair of the Bear‘s villains, though I can’t call Miles a villain even with that one gnarly act he violently inflicts. As ‘GQ’ Sam, Naylor does his best to mustache twirl his way through this supposed thriller. Sure, I understand why the film doesn’t reveal his intentions for breaking into Dan’s isolated cabin. But if it’s being obtuse about its characters’ intentions, why should the viewer care about them?

Hair of the Bear is available to watch in select Canadian theatres.