The Devil's Stomping Ground is a North Carolina independent found-footage horror film that tells the story of a group of college film students. On May 1, 2021, they decide to make a "professionally made" horror movie called "The Devil's Stomping Ground", after the famous North Carolina campsite without any plant growth, and they decide to go to said location to shoot both the film and its documentary at the same time. Once they go there, the supernatural superstitions may seem to be real, the inner demons and temptations of each of the cast and crew start to resurface, and suspense and terror ensues.
If you've seen my reviews of Scream (2022) and Along for the Ride (not to mention George & Tammy), I worked as a background extra on those productions due to them being filmed in my hometown of Wilmington, North Carolina. Due to this, I know some of the people that have worked on this film personally, but taking that aspect away, how did I feel about this film? As found-footage horror films or films with an extremely low-budget go, I absolutely loved it!
Now, obviously, the set up is something we have seen before. I mean, a found footage movie about a group of college film students filming out in the woods to document a famous legend and then encountering the supernatural terror that lies ahead? Sounds a lot like The Blair Witch Project, doesn't it? Of course, Blair Witch is one of my favorite horror movies of all-time and is a clear inspiration for the style and the plot of this movie. However, the way it's executed here feels very fresh and original. This is a very ambitious independent, low-budget found footage movie, and this time, the ambition really does pay off. What I mean by that is that this movie has four different camera styles used to tell the story and I think they blend together very nicely. First off, there's two different found footage style cameras used to tell the "behind the scenes" story: one 16:9 camera and then one 4:3 head camera that the main character Robin (Marc Bellinger) wears throughout the film. Then, when it covers the "fake movie within the movie", it actually looks like a professionally made 24 fps horror movie presented with clear cinematography and a CinemaScope ratio. Even a GoPro was used effectively in this movie! I think it's just a unique and fresh way to visually tell the difference between when the "movie within the movie" subplot is happening versus when the "behind the scenes/documentary" subplot is happening. The Devil's Stomping Ground also has a very effective use of wipes to transition the different subplots, and also when things start to get scary in the "real world", the found footage camera would glitch, and it's just a visually interesting way to let the audience know that things are getting sinister.
On top of that, the way that the found footage story is written and directed so well by Jonathan Landau is just a huge love letter to the movie making process: from the terminology used on set to the different cast and crew positions that the characters fill in, whether it's the director, the writer, even the hair and makeup and wardrobe crew. More specifically, it feels like a love letter to the resurgence of "Wilmywood" which has taken place ever since the pandemic. As a horror movie, the movie does not rely on cheap tactics like jump scares, but rather the suspense and the tension, as we slowly start to realize that the superstition is indeed real "on set" as it is in the "film within the film." The basis of the scares in this movie is the fact that with these supernatural forces, the characters' dark sides and/or their "biggest sins" start getting unleashed, whether it's characters becoming more aggressive, more violent, or even sexual desires starting to emerge. In a way that I won't spoil, the movie is also a cautionary tale about set safety, telling us that maybe we should not film in a "dangerous" location for authenticity or we should not bring real life weapons and instead resort to props, so that nothing tragic happens on set. The last thing I will bring up as far as themes is how film could be used to discover big secrets, more specifically covering the "cinéma vérité" style of documentary filmmaking.
All of the actors in the movie are all local North Carolina actors, and although they definitely are not "professional" actors by any means, they are very convincing with the material that they are given, and they all do a really good job with their delivery. The people who stood out the most are Will Ross, Marc Bellinger, Laina Martinez, and Colby Burton. Will Ross was the scene stealer as the director Jonah, who casts his girlfriend Kelly (Peyton Belcher) in the lead role and is very insecure about her kissing other men, and over-time becomes the aggressive prima donna director. Marc Bellinger (who is a real life production assistant on a few projects I worked on) has a lot of charisma as the main character Robin, the man in charge of the "documentary" who wants to tell it in the cinema vérité style. Laina Martinez is very charismatic and even over the top as one of the lead actresses Ginger, and Colby Burton shows his range with his delivery and his expressions as the young priest turned side actor Robert.
Not only is the movie very spooky, but the humor really works too. There is one visual gag involving something written on a chalkboard that is particularly funny, which I will not give away. Alex Beard composes a solid horror score that is haunting and dramatic, but is also used sparingly during the "documentary" subplot and is mostly used effectively in the "film within a film."
The movie is only shown at the Stone Theatres in both North and South Carolina, so if you live in Wilmington, Fayetteville, Myrtle Beach, Indian Trail, and Indian Land, you have a Stone Theatres near you, so I strongly urge you to go see this film before it's final run this Thursday. It's got a very ambitious but effective blend of visual storytelling, a great script, actors that hit the mark despite not being "professional" actors, suspenseful scares, great humor, effective utilization of its extremely low budget, and a crazy ending that I will not spoil, this independent local North Carolina film does "stomp" all over some of the studio funded blockbusters playing at the same time. I strongly urge you to show your support for this film if you have a Stone Theatres near you, and for those that are aspiring to be filmmakers but are worried about not being funded by a studio, then the "Devil" might inspire you.
10/10: A GREAT movie!
