One Paragraph Review - Devil's Pass (2013) (SPOILERS Ahead)

Sweet!!!! Renny Harlin, the auteur responsible for Cutthroat Island - sorry..."the masterpiece of the cinematic form Cutthroat Island" - decided to give us just what we all have been clamoring for; another found footage horror movie. Yay! A group of bland documentarians (except for Gemma Atkinson, pictured below, who is no way bland) head to Russia to look into the Daytalov Pass Incident (an actual event in 1959 in which 9 people on a sky trip died under odd circumstances; you can read all about it at wikipedia the font of all knowledge in the universe). Stuff happens, people die, we find out that the Soviets had some kind of underground base in the area where they were working on teleportation and time travel, the Philadelphia Experiment is name checked, and we get one of the most telegraphed "twist" endings I've seen in a long time. Like most found footage movies, it has plausibility problems (why would a cameraman keep filming when horrifying monsters and hostile gunmen are following him?) and the bonus issue of how some of the footage is found. Given the story, there is no way anyone would see all of the footage we are shown...a real problem when that is your central conceit. The monster CGI is poorly done and the creatures are cliched in design, tall gaunt pale skinned creatures with big mouths (see I Am Legend, Rec, The Descent, etc.). The cinematography is the usual found footage mix of dull static shots, shaky cam and shots that no one actually using a handheld camera would get, given the circumstances. It's not brain cancer inducing; it's just dull and unoriginal in execution. Which is unfortunate, since the idea for the story (what really happened to the first expedition...something that isn't actually answered in the film) and, in the hands of a better director, could have made a good movie. Oh, and please, no more found footage movies. That is one cinematic style that needs to be retired.

Gemma Atkinson at no point wears this outfit in the movie. That might have made it worth watching.