Previously posted on blog and written by B. Demeter
Devil’s Pass (2013) does a pretty good job of taking a real world event and taking it to an absurd conclusion.
The film is based on what is known as the Dyatlov Pass Incident. In 1959, a group of nine ski hikers died mysteriously while camping in the Ural Mountains. There are a lot of theories about how/why they died but no true answers. The ideas run the gambit between psychological breakdowns and Abominable Snowmen to avalanches and aliens. It is a fascinating and sad story.
Devil’s Pass (alternately titled The Dyatlov Pass Incident) is a found footage (Ugh!) movie chronicling a group of American college students who are trying to solve the mystery. They gear up and head out to the exact location where the nine hikers died in 1959. Oddly enough, when they get to the site weird shit starts happening.
Up to a point, the movie is following in the footsteps of the previous doomed 1959 group. The group is at the campsite. There is an avalanche which may/may not have been set off by the Russian military. The group is then approached by what they think are rescuers but instead are shot at so they retreat to the hatch.
Now this is where things get weird.
So the remaining members of the group are stuck in this bunker in the side of a mountain. The bunker is all torn to shit and it is clear that some nasty business went on there. While searching around they find a video camera… the very same video camera that they’re filming with, and it has video of them finding the video camera! Crazy, right?
The film takes a dip when the mutants show up. The special effects on those guys aren’t so special. There are two things I could do without in this film and the dumpy CGI on the mutants is one of them. Regardless, the mutants push the plot along and get the last two survivors into the wormhole tunnel.
This might all sound crazy, but the film does ratchet up that quickly. My expectations were about mid-range going in and were totally exceeded. This is a truly good movie… except for the mutant CGI. But I did say there were two things I hated.
Found-God-Damn-Footage! I have come to completely hate found footage. Too many people are using it and it rarely adds to the experience. Personally, I hate it because the constant camera movement gives me a migraine. Just pick a perspective and film the movie that way. Any time I see a found footage movie I always wonder what it would have been like as not found footage and I feel like it would have enhanced the film.
That being said, I really did like this movie. For all the aggravation the found footage style gave me, I’d gladly pop some Excedrin and watch this movie again.
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