The Horror Show
Devil's Pass
Directed by Renny Harlin
And again, we get another found footage movie, a subgenre I am starting to hate more and more while its gain in popularity (for some reason) skyrockets more and more in these recent times. There is a reason for my loathing.
In a previous review I stated why found footage movies typically do not work with a couple of exceptions that of which included the forefather of the genre: The Blaire Witch Project. This movie worked for me because at the time it came out, nothing really compared. Sure there were found footage movies in the late 70’s and early 80’s (and maybe even before those times), yet the realism of this movie overshadowed all of those previous to it and overwhelmed the audience with the belief that the movie could have been real. It had great marketing behind it, the indie/low budget aspect made it look that much more authentic, and the realism was furthered by having near to nothing happen in the film. The movie was built by suspense and creepy atmosphere, and yes some people hate it because there is no real pay off, but that is what makes it stand out to me still to this day. The movie hit every mark it had to for it to be a found footage film, it felt like someone actually found authentic footage of documentarians getting lost in the woods and becoming entangled by the folklore behind these woods. We as an audience had to use our imaginations to fill in the gaps between cuts, or to fill in the things that were not captured on camera.
Devil’s Pass is a faulty attempt to recapture this movie’s spirit, and yes, it did fail badly at doing so. First of all, the indie movie was directed by Renny Harlin, who is known for films like: Die Hard 2, Nightmare on Elm Street 4, Cliffhanger, Deep Blue Sea, and 12 Rounds among others. I’ll admit, after finishing this movie, I did, you know, hate it of course, but I gave it a slight pass at leaving me strung along and questioning, slightly similar to The Blaire Witch Project’s string on me. Slightly. Though, after looking up the director’s filmography, that slight pass turned into a complete dislike. Yes, most of his movies are honestly not that special, but they are a hell of a lot better than this one, and with his resources you’d think this movie’s special effects could’ve been way better.
I passed the part where I was supposed to say what the movie is about (whoops), although, what is there to say other than it is half a rip off and half a horrible SciFi Channel quality movie. It is very loosely based on a true story called the Dyatlov Pass Incident in Russia where nine climbers died mysteriously on a snowy mountain (it doesn’t sound that mysterious, I know, but trust me it is, the movie says so), and a couple of American documentarians search for answers about it by smartly doing the exact same thing as the previous dead climbers. The only deviation is the stray from suspense in the third act where bad CGI monsters are introduced, very bad CGI monsters.
I mean, I have seen worse, like 2012’s The Bay among other found footage movies that try to capture a sense of realism and a sense of, “this could happen, be scared.” The dialogue ranges from good to people-would-never-say-those-things-in-real-life, the cinematography is alright though not so realistic (sound-wise), and the suspense is skewed into the waiting game – waiting for these characters to die, like what the audience expects in all found footage movies now. And I think that is the problem, the predictability. I have seen this movie a thousand times before, and despite what the director or writer did with the plot at the end with all of its silliness, it is still the same movie as virtually every other found footage movie anyone has seen. It brought nothing to the table, which is, to me, the worst mark any movie can make. It just felt useless.
Recently I reviewed V/H/S 2, a recent found footage movie where I plugged in The Blaire Witch Project along with it as well. The previous review I was talking about earlier. Now, this movie is silly and does have some corny and predictable stuff about it, but it does bring something to the table for its viewers. The differences between this and Devil’s Pass is that one: it is an anthology film, so if the audience hated one of the segments, they wouldn’t have to stick with it for very long at all and may like the next segment; and two: it took an overused setup and made something creative with it, had fun with it, made it into something subtly new with a minimal thought process. Devil’s Pass is a movie where it’d impact nothing if it didn’t exist, and that, sadly, is the state of this subgenre where it will continue to stay.
I may sound overly cynical here, and maybe unfair towards the director and others who were behind this movie, because I am sure some of the things they had to do to film it were challenging. The work, in my opinion, however, doesn’t amount to much when the final product is nothing special, tiring, and easy to hate. So I’d say - a stray away from horror - go watch Die Hard 2 to see this director at his finest, and don’t bother with his one as it seems to represent his lowest.
Spencer Collins, HMS
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