K-SCORE: 25
Director: Renny Harlin
Writer: Vikram Weet
Spoiler Level: Minor
Devil’s Pass is a horror mockumentary about American students that recreate the journey of some Russian hikers that wound up mysteriously dead in the Ural mountains some decades ago. I wish the film was even half as evocative as its poster, which depicts the back of a shirtless woman at twilight alone in windy, cold mountains. Though satisfyingly creepy at times, it offers nothing more, nothing deeper. Bland characters, a broken narrative - we’ve all been to this devil’s pass before.
The beginning is far too slow and the end is unhinged bordering on insane, combining messily spliced time travel elements with demons, teleportation, and Soviet science experiments. Linking these elements in some cohesive way would have taken hundreds of hours of storytelling dedication and with only a few minutes to work with, the filmmakers substituted eerie snapshots in place of firm answers to the ever-growing list of questions, the most important one being: what the hell is going on? Lopping off the ends wouldn’t have been a solution to the film’s issues, but it would focus your attention on the most enjoyable aspect. Sadly there is no good foundation nor answers to be had for the chilling mysteries uncovered by these American hikers. And unlike other horror films that aren’t as serious in tone, there’s little joy to be had watching the young people die off.