One Paragraph Review - Yellowbrickroad (2010)

In 1940, the entire population of a small town in New Hampshire heads into the woods. 300 are found dead. Only one survivor is recovered; the rest of the people are missing. 70 years later, a small group of documentarians heads down the trail - the Yellow Brick Road - to reach its end and solve the mystery of where the people of the town were heading. Well-shot and fairly well-acted (although, as with most low-budget films, the performances are uneven), Yellowbrickroad is a nice mix of supernatural and psychological horror with overtones of H.P. Lovecraft. It is hampered by a conclusion that seems more like a random "twist ending" than a satisfying finale...and which features ludicrously bad CGI. After seeing the movie twice, I can say that some (although not all) of the things that seemed to be plotholes the first time around make more sense. But, the ending...it looks like the filmmakers knew they had set up the viewers for a stunning conclusion, but ran out of money and said "eh, whatever, let's just do some Jacob's Ladder rip-off." Still, the film does get points for having some genuinely disturbing moments and for being different. In an era of remakes, sequels, reboots and rip-offs, Yellowbrickroad is an attempt at telling an original story with the caveat that the filmmakers seem to be fans of Lovecraft and his brand of sanity-shattering weirdness. Check it out.