Devil's Pass
3/4
Starring: Holly Goss, Matt Stokoe, Luke Albright, Ryan Hawley, Gemma Atkinson
Rated R for Some Violence/Disturbing Images, and for a Sexual Reference
As I sat down to watch "Devil's Pass," I was grinning to myself. I was hoping to get spooked by learning the horrifying "truth" behind the Dyatlov Pass incident, a mountaineering expedition that ended in the deaths of the entire party. I eagerly awaited the tension of feeling the hairs on the back of my neck stand up and wondering what terror lay beyond the camera's light.
I wasn't disappointed. "Devil's Pass" may not be the scariest movie ever made (far from it), but it contains enough shocks and chills to warrant a viewing for those who enjoy this sort of thing.
College students Holly (Goss) and Jensen (Stokoe) have received a grant to investigate the Dyatlov Pass incident by taking the same route as the ill-fated hikers. Going with them are two expert climbers, JP (Albright) and Andy (Hawley), and Denise (Atkinson), the sound girl. It doesn't take long for mysterious signs (warnings?) to appear, but like all horror movie characters, they soldier on, but perhaps not to their benefit.
This is a "found footage" horror movie like "The Blair Witch Project." It lacks the 1999 chiller's innovation (the genre has had numerous entries) and its expertise. There are too many establishing shots. For example, on the hike, there are long shots of four climbers walking up the mountain. At that altitude and in that much snow, would you really believe that anyone would take that time to get a shot from fifty feet away? Didn't think so. That, and the superior image, limits the effect.
The performances are good across the board. They're never less than convincing. Holly Goss is terrific as the slightly-obsessed leader, and Matt Stokoe is also good as the conspiracy theorist. Neither one descends into caricature, which helps us accept their characters. Luke Albright and Ryan Hawley are also very good as the hunky experts, and Gemma Atkinson equals them as the obligatory oversexed female.
The level of acting is surprising, considering that director Renny Harlin has never been concerned with that (see "Deep Blue Sea" for an example of how little attention he pays to actors). Harlin is an odd choice for a director. He's always done big budget action movies, but never horror, and nothing he's done has had a "found footage" element. His sense of atmosphere, which is essential to any horror film, is so so, and robs the film of much of its tension. Still, the story is developed nicely and the characters are interesting enough to follow through the admittedly long set-up.
The film has been marketed as a "midnight movie." IFC has released it under its IFC Midnight banner and The New York Times proclaimed it as such. That's probably the best way to look at it. Expectations for movies like that are a little lower and are of a different vein. This is a movie that you watch late at night with your friends and giggle at whoever gets spooked.
Starring: Holly Goss, Matt Stokoe, Luke Albright, Ryan Hawley, Gemma Atkinson
Rated R for Some Violence/Disturbing Images, and for a Sexual Reference
As I sat down to watch "Devil's Pass," I was grinning to myself. I was hoping to get spooked by learning the horrifying "truth" behind the Dyatlov Pass incident, a mountaineering expedition that ended in the deaths of the entire party. I eagerly awaited the tension of feeling the hairs on the back of my neck stand up and wondering what terror lay beyond the camera's light.
I wasn't disappointed. "Devil's Pass" may not be the scariest movie ever made (far from it), but it contains enough shocks and chills to warrant a viewing for those who enjoy this sort of thing.
College students Holly (Goss) and Jensen (Stokoe) have received a grant to investigate the Dyatlov Pass incident by taking the same route as the ill-fated hikers. Going with them are two expert climbers, JP (Albright) and Andy (Hawley), and Denise (Atkinson), the sound girl. It doesn't take long for mysterious signs (warnings?) to appear, but like all horror movie characters, they soldier on, but perhaps not to their benefit.
This is a "found footage" horror movie like "The Blair Witch Project." It lacks the 1999 chiller's innovation (the genre has had numerous entries) and its expertise. There are too many establishing shots. For example, on the hike, there are long shots of four climbers walking up the mountain. At that altitude and in that much snow, would you really believe that anyone would take that time to get a shot from fifty feet away? Didn't think so. That, and the superior image, limits the effect.
The performances are good across the board. They're never less than convincing. Holly Goss is terrific as the slightly-obsessed leader, and Matt Stokoe is also good as the conspiracy theorist. Neither one descends into caricature, which helps us accept their characters. Luke Albright and Ryan Hawley are also very good as the hunky experts, and Gemma Atkinson equals them as the obligatory oversexed female.
The level of acting is surprising, considering that director Renny Harlin has never been concerned with that (see "Deep Blue Sea" for an example of how little attention he pays to actors). Harlin is an odd choice for a director. He's always done big budget action movies, but never horror, and nothing he's done has had a "found footage" element. His sense of atmosphere, which is essential to any horror film, is so so, and robs the film of much of its tension. Still, the story is developed nicely and the characters are interesting enough to follow through the admittedly long set-up.
The film has been marketed as a "midnight movie." IFC has released it under its IFC Midnight banner and The New York Times proclaimed it as such. That's probably the best way to look at it. Expectations for movies like that are a little lower and are of a different vein. This is a movie that you watch late at night with your friends and giggle at whoever gets spooked.
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