THE DYATLOV PASS INCIDENT starts off promisingly enough as another of these 'found footage' horror movies, basically summarised as THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT in the snow...it sees a group of college stunts taking a hiking trip to the Ural mountains in Russia, where they hope to solve a real-life mystery from the 1950s...
The best thing about the film is this real life mystery after which the film is named. Google it - it's as intriguing as the Bermuda Triangle and all the other weird real-life stuff out there. Unfortunately, after a promising first hour with some decent attempts at suspense-building and some great location photography, THE DYATLOV PASS INCIDENT starts to fall apart as a film.
I blame Finnish director Renny Harlin, who hasn't made a decent movie since DEEP BLUE SEA and who can't resist on going over the top when it comes to the plot elements. Before long we've got references to The Philadelphia Experiment and time travel and it all gets very silly, very quickly; Harlin should have insisted the writer scale some of that sci-fi stuff back, which would have resulted in a tighter, more compelling narrative.
And that's not even the worst of it. My bugbear with this current crop of horror flicks is that they usually resort to having characters chased by dodgy CGI sprites, and that's exactly the case here. GRAVE ENCOUNTERS made the same error, and it's all very tiring and passé. The acting isn't that hot either, and come the end the film's become a huge, head-scratching disappointment absolutely loaded with plot-holes. A real pity.
The best thing about the film is this real life mystery after which the film is named. Google it - it's as intriguing as the Bermuda Triangle and all the other weird real-life stuff out there. Unfortunately, after a promising first hour with some decent attempts at suspense-building and some great location photography, THE DYATLOV PASS INCIDENT starts to fall apart as a film.
I blame Finnish director Renny Harlin, who hasn't made a decent movie since DEEP BLUE SEA and who can't resist on going over the top when it comes to the plot elements. Before long we've got references to The Philadelphia Experiment and time travel and it all gets very silly, very quickly; Harlin should have insisted the writer scale some of that sci-fi stuff back, which would have resulted in a tighter, more compelling narrative.
And that's not even the worst of it. My bugbear with this current crop of horror flicks is that they usually resort to having characters chased by dodgy CGI sprites, and that's exactly the case here. GRAVE ENCOUNTERS made the same error, and it's all very tiring and passé. The acting isn't that hot either, and come the end the film's become a huge, head-scratching disappointment absolutely loaded with plot-holes. A real pity.