Starring Alex Pettyfer, Jennifer Morrison, Nicola Peltz, Robert Patrick and Juliette Lewis, the film centers on a young man living in the Pennsylvania backwoods who must care for his three younger sisters after his mother is arrested for murdering his father.

Harley forgoes his college education and – by 1985 – is working two dead-end jobs to pay the bills and raise his siblings, which include the rebellious and promiscuous Amber, the withdrawn and newly adolescent Misty, and the pre-teen Jody.

Their abusive upbringing, destroyed futures, and family secrets consume the siblings; Amber, like Misty before her, shoots and kills the perceived threat to her incestuous happiness – Callie.

[1][2] In 2011, Andrew Garfield, Jennifer Garner, and Marcia Gay Harden were reportedly attached to star, with Lyne directing from a script he co-wrote with O'Dell.

[4][5] Pettyfer left out the more sexual elements in Lyne's original script and went in a darker direction that focused more on the "exploration of family drama" and trauma.

The website's critics consensus reads: "Uneven yet ultimately intriguing, Back Roads serves as a memorable calling card for star and debuting director Alex Pettyfer's talent behind the camera.

[13] Monica Castillo of RogerEbert.com said, "While the dark family dynamics may bring to mind Winter’s Bone or this summer’s much-discussed miniseries, Sharp Objects," the characters and affair subplot are underdeveloped.

[14] Owen Gleiberman of Variety wrote Pettyfer "does a skillful job of establishing an atmosphere of small-town service-economy desolation" and Lewis is "superb", but concluded that the film "is more audacious than it is convincing".