DEVIL'S PASS is another missed opportunity

A.K.A. The Dyatlov Pass Incident 

RATED- R
RUN TIME- 100 MINS
WRITER(S)- VIKRAM WEET
STARRING- GEMMA ATKINSON, RICHARD REID, AND MATT STOKOE
DIRECTOR- RENNY HARLIN



Synopsis taken from IMDb
Five young filmmakers retrace the steps of a doomed group of hikers in pursuit of an unsolvable mystery.

I'm actually behind on this one. I've seen a few fellow bloggers have reviewed it, so I jumped on the bandwagon and figured why not? 

After watching this film, I was actually angered. Here is yet, another wasted opportunity to do something new. I'm so tired of films having such potential and failing miserably. Remakes are all we get nowadays, so you've got people, like me, who are always saying that there's good horror out there, it's just not getting a chance. Then when a new and original film gets a chance, it fails miserably. Totally discouraging. People should take the time to make flicks like this one better, so we can have a new original horror film to be proud of. Instead of throwing all possibilities down the toilet due to laziness. 

Like "The Frankenstein Theory" and "The Chernobyl Diaries", this is another film about a group of young adults that stick there nose into the wrong places. Like the films just mentioned, this motion picture has something in common with both of them, and that is that it ended terribly. Huge realistic build-up for a less than lackluster payoff. These found footage films as of late don't seem to know how to end, and they just ruin the whole experience.

I actually was enticed with the film when it began. I saw that it had a good story, and that they could go anywhere with it. Unfortunately more sooner than later, the five filmmakers start falling into every cliche in the book. The leader of the expedition, Denise Evers (Gemma Atkinson) leads the gang blindly into the unknown and then uses her convincing capacities to make the other four colleagues stay overnight, against their wishes. I'm sorry, I will protect a woman if she's being hurt or about to be harmed, I have no problem being the gentleman. But, I'll be damned if I let some chick make me stay where I don't want to.

I wouldn't have blamed any of the guys or girls if they'd left Denise there by herself. Her selfishness ruins their lives, which is exactly why you don't follow people like that. If what she wants to do is so important, she can do it without my help. If the rest of the crew was smart, they'd have taken a page from my book and ditched her.

As the conspiracy unfolds, the movie becomes less and less interesting, which of course, is never  a good sign. Then, the film goes from bad to worse when they find a hidden bunker and enter it, only to discover they stepped onto the set of "I Am Legend". We're faced with cartoon cgi creatures/ people that look just like the vampires from the Will Smith film from 2007. Nothing entertaining about this at all. I stopped reacting to the movie at this point and officially gave up.

As I stated before, I'm almost certain that most of these found footage film's endings are just winged. There seems to be no need to satisfy the viewer. The ending to this film, and many others is a total let down and a cop-out. If this ending really took thought, it hardly shows. Scratch that, it doesn't show at all. 

The only thing that I walked away from the movie caring about is the actual case of the Dyatlov Pass incident from 1959. I have a need for my knowledge to grow on the topic. All this cinema did is make me want to know more about the real story behind the film, forgetting all that I just watched.

There's no scares, hardly any story and character development. There's nothing about this film that makes me ever want to see it again. Complete and utter disappointment.