RNV-DEVIL'S PASS

Welcome back to yet another installment of Random Netflix Views, where yours truly watches a random film that I've never seen before on Netflix. This time, the film witnessed is a found footage film simply known as...

Devil's Pass

Initial Thought-I've never been a huge fan of found footage films,one of the main reasons is that most have the most impractical reasons for the leads to even be recording the events. Devil's Pass is admittedly a competent enough film from the get-go, film students interested in uncovering the mysterious Dyatlov Pass use the cameras because they're making a film, that's why they hold on to them even when it's obvious that they shouldn't. I didn't have high expectations regardless of smart reasoning for the story, my feelings to most found footage movies just aren't that great, so I expected the same here.

How I Stumbled Into It-A first on this series of posts; I actually was suggested this film by a friend, I decided to give it the benefit of the doubt due to that reason. To be honest though, I had a tough time watching it, the audio for whatever reason would cut-off, I'm not sure why it just did, despite anytime I'd watch anything else the sound would play fine, if this is an issue coming from Netflix I hope it's fixed soon for others.

Thoughts After Watching-It's actually alright, not a masterpiece as there are flaws, but it holds together for the most part. The mystery built up actually held my interest, despite the slow reveal I felt it came through just right; even when the twist became obvious through the final minutes I never felt like it was forced. A bit of negativity comes from the actors though, they're fine for the most part, never going too far in douchebaggery as many horror films do, but on some occasions they would come off as unrealistic. Eventually we get mutated creatures haunting our leads, aside from feeling like a rushed third act horror sequence, the creatures are a bit too cheap looking for my taste. Despite my negative views on certain areas of the film I still found myself hooked on trying to make sense of the situation, it's a pretty good fictionalized mystery of the actual mystery. I'm not sure if I felt like this was a unique film, but it definitely stood out from the usual found footage stuff I've seen.

Final Verdict- Devil's Pass is alright, I wouldn't recommend it to everyone, though I would recommend it to horror/ found footage fans. As a film where build up was necessary, I felt this was pretty solid in the build up, despite the mistakes made that keep it from being better Devil's Pass is a fun time.

Written By Octaviano Macias