Devil's Pass and The Devil's Rejects

Alrighty, a Devil's kinda double feature. Here's today and yesterday's films. One week to go!

10/24: Today I watched Devil's Pass, a movie based around the Dyatlov Pass Incident. If you haven't read it about it it's a fascinating story about a group of 9 Russian hikers that died in mysterious circumstances in the middle of the Russian tundra. Donnie Eichar wrote a stellar book about the incident that is definitely worth a read. He puts forward what I think is the most plausible explanation yet of what happened to these young hikers.

Notice how I'm talking about the incident and not the movie? Yeah, that should be telling. While the incident is fascinating and worth study, Devil's Pass is not. What Devil's Pass constantly reads as is the director Renny Harlin being interested in the incident and trying to create a half-ass movie around it. Devil's Pass is lazy filmmaking at it's finest which is really unfortunate as the Dyatlov Pass Incident is ripe with storytelling potential. The movie centers around 5 modern day students going back to the region where the hikers were lost to retrace their steps. (Stupid) Shit ensues, and their fate ends up much of the same as the Russian hikers. 

Harlin is actually a man after my own heart as he pulls in many supernatural topics and unexplained phenomena into his film. However, he sucks as a filmmaker and doesn't know how to tie these topics into anything cohesive; instead he just lazily throws them all in there and hopes somehow that they'll be good. They're not. Devil's Pass is horribly acted, cheesy, utilizes the tired found footage trend, and, much like The Descent, the monsters are shoehorned in and not needed. How disappointing for such great source material.

2.5/10

10/25: Tonight's film was Rob Zombie's The Devil's Rejects. I've made it pretty clear in past binges my hatred for Rob Zombie as a filmmaker, so it was with great trepidation that I walked into The Devil's Rejects. I couldn't stand House of 1000 Corpses and Lords of Salem was pretty horrendous as well, but I'm pleased to say that The Devil's Rejects is probably Rob Zombie's best work yet. Now, is he a good filmmaker? Let's not push it. This one, though, is at least entertaining.

While this movie is still a mishmash of horror and B-movie influences like the rest of Zombie's work, at least this time around we have enough of an original story that it can stand on it's own. TDR is part road movie, part serial killer flick, and part revenge tale. It actually has something to say about revenge and the potential for justice that is thwarted. I think the most successful aspect of the film is the cop-turned-monster angle as the local sheriff who is chasing the murderous trio ends up becoming like them in his attempt to punish them for their crimes. He becomes just as much a killer himself but you find yourself rooting for this type of torture as it feels more like justice. 

I think the fact that Zombie has something deeper to say with this film is really what sets apart and actually may go down as a horror film I would recommend and say I enjoyed. It's nothing mindblowing, but it's a fun and entertaining mishmash of a horror film. Zombie nails the B-movie aspects and 70s feel. More like this and you may win me over yet, sir.

8/10