20131220: Thriller Review--Devils Pass

Devil's Pass (The Dyatlov Pass Incident)

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. American/Russian live action feature length film, 2013, rated R, 100 minutes, thriller, mystery. Spoken word is mostly in English with some Russian; English subtitles.
2. IMDB: 5.5/10.0 from 4,251 audience ratings.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 53% on the meter; 26% liked it from 499 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 3.2/5.0 from 3,335 audience ratings.
5. Directed by: Renny Harlin.  Written by: Vikram Weet.
6. Starring: Holly Goss as Holly King, Matt Stokoe as Jensen Day, Luke Albright as JP Hauser Jr., Ryan Hawley as Andy Thatcher, Gemma Atkinson as Denise Evers.


2. Setup and Plot
1. Five Oregon students get a grant to replicate the disastrous Dyatlov expedition in the Ural Mountains of 50 years previous.  The Oregon students vanish as well.  The Russian authorities go looking, but do not find them.  Conspiracy theorists obtain a copy of found-film from the Russian authorities.  That is what the bulk of the film  consists of: running that particular found film.


2. Holly leads the expedition; Denise is the sound person.  Jensen is the video recorder.  Andy and JP are experienced guides.


3. They follow the path of the previous expedition to the Mountain of Death.  They place where the members of the first expedition died.  The keep going, and find a door, of all things, only slightly buried in the snow and ice.  Three days out, they have some real problems with a minor avalanche.  Denise is buried in the debris.  Andy's leg and face are messed up badly.


4. Some people show up; for whatever reason, Andy decides to start shooting; the 'rescuers' shoot back.  JP, Jensen, and Holly make it to the door; this time it's open to them.  They find a so-so electrical supply in the tunnel below.  Someone turns off the electricity, so they have only the light from the camera for a little stretch.  They find a lot of stuff in the tunnels, including documents in Russian.  They find pictures of the hikers of fifty years ago.  Plus they find many photos of the USS Eldridge, the supposed location of some time travel experiments in 1943. They discover a nuclear reactor which is still supplying electricity.


5. Holly and Jensen continue; JP seemed to be having trouble walking.  The pair keep recording.  They find a recently killed military man, lots of bones, and more documents, tunnels, and doors.  JP gets injured further or probably killed by the others in the tunnel.  They find a camera that is the same model as theirs, and view more found footage.  Then the strange stuff begins.


6. Will Holly and Jensen make it out alive?  Will the full story ever get out?


3. Conclusions
1. The door in the ice was just too much like the hatch in the TV series Lost.
2. One line summary: Retracing the path of a doomed expedition leads to more losses.
3. Three stars of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 4/10 Supposed to be found footage, but much of it looks too good for that.  Unfortunately, visual quality went south toward the end of the film.


2. Sound: 8/10 Usually good.


3. Acting: 8/10 Better than I expected, given the script.


4. Screenplay: 5/10 Unlikely and not that believable.