FROM THE BACK OF THE BOX:
Five young filmmakers retrace the steps of a doomed group of hikers in pursuit of an unsolvable mystery.
FROM THE BACK OF MY BRAIN:
Renny Harlin made a found footage movie. The problem was that it was a fan-film knock-off of “The Blair Witch Project”. Hell, they even had pretty strong knock-offs of that original trio. Gemma Atkinson is the only one that I recognize in the cast, but I feel like I’m mistaking her for someone else. Take that for what you will.
“Devil’s Pass” is Harlin’s attempt to reconnect to his horror roots. The Dyatlov Pass Incident provides for enough background to provide scares in the terrifying Russian side. The problem is that it keeps going “Blair Witch”, when it should be a little more “Descent”. No one cares about retracing true tragedy, as much as they want to see people get mangled and body parts to fly around. Viewers want to bullshit themselves and suggest otherwise, but box office results say that’s crap.
But, what does that mean for Harlin? Well, not a whole lot. Harlin’s gonna work on whatever he gets hired to do, The Exorcist prequel showed off that he’ll work for a paycheck. Is that the worst thing for a creative talent anymore? Not everyone is going to be Ozu or even Jack Hill. I just want to see the talents from my childhood/early teens doing better work. Harlin crafted my first look at Freddy Krueger, he shouldn’t have to be settling for this crap.
The DVD comes with a director’s commentary, deleted scenes, featurette and a trailer. The A/V Quality is pretty strong with a crisp Dolby 5.1 surround track. The transfer is pretty flat, even for standard definition. Still, I could tell what was going down. In the end, I’d recommend a purchase to the curious.
RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW!