Ellen Page on Into the Forest's intimate apocalypse

Ellen Page's new film Into the Forest isn't your typical end-of-days movie. Forget the zombie attacks or fire and brimstone, this drama from writer-director Patricia Rozema looks at the psychological side of complete loss.

The movie, which Page produced and co-stars in with Evan Rachel Wood, is based on Jean Hegland's novel of the same name. Upon reading the tale of two sisters who struggle to survive in a remote country house after a continent-wide power outage, Page brought the novel to Rozema.

Page calls Into the Forest a metaphor for grief. The way the sisters believe power will be restored, groceries re-stocked and things will go back to normal play into our own fears of change and impermanence — all expectations and attachments we ultimately have no control over.

"They're dealing with just an overall sense of grief, and loss of what they've known and what they were about to expect, which I think is just a huge part of what being alive means," Page says.

Page also touches on the decision she made two years ago to come out as gay as "the best decision I've ever made."

"I still get a little emotional talking about it," she tells Shad, "I feel like a different person and I feel so lucky, so fortunate for that, because that's not the case for a lot of people who come out."  

WEB EXTRA | Watch the beautiful, suspenseful and eerie trailer for Into the Forest, which opens in Canada this Friday and hits American theatres on July 22.