DVD Review: Devil’s Pass

By Brad Henderson

Renny Harlin has brought us many great films throughout his career, making a name for himself through action films. So what happens when Harlin wants to do a found footage horror film? I’m down. Recently Harlin brought us Devil’s Pass, a.k.a. The Dyatlov Pass Incident, which was inspired by true events.

Back in college, I remember discussing the events that occurred in the late 1950s so when I heard they were making a film out of it my interest was piqued. I also read more about the true-life incident so I was up to speed on what was happening. As soon as I had a copy of the film, I turned out the lights and pressed play with my heart pounding. I’m not kidding by the way; I’m a total nerd when it comes to movies and get excited about stuff like this.

I was immediately hooked and sitting on the edge of my seat.

During the film we come to the realization that our camera crew is being hunted by someone or something. The crew unveils certain things on the mountain and starts to uncover the truth of what happened. The film spoke about the real history as well as the theories of what happened on that fateful day and what people are saying at this point in time about what really happened to the nine hikers.

Now, this is the part where I tell you I started to be very disappointed. Once it is unveiled what is going on it gets pretty ridiculous. It’s just not the story that’s ridiculous, it’s also the CGI effects during the whole discovery. To be honest, the film wouldn’t have been so bad if they wouldn’t have used such terrible effects in order to tell the rest of the story.

I haven’t heard the general consensus about this flick but I’m interested to see if the shitty effects ruined the film for others as well. It’s also a little weird that Harlin went in this direction for this story. I had high hopes for this one so maybe that’s why it was a huge letdown.

Devil’s Pass was released on DVD by Anchor Bay Entertainment UK on December 17, 2013.