Devil's Trail

A couple of buddies go out to the woods in search of the Jersey Devil. Dallas (John Hambrick) and Hank (Henrique Couto), try pronouncing his name. I'd fail miserably. Anyway, they go out into the woods to shoot a reality show of their search for the Jersey Devil.

Early in their journey, the encounter three witches, one of which tells them to get out of the woods. They do not heed her warning they choose to continue with their journey.

We get the back-and-forth banter and teasing that guys do with their buddies. Insulting each other and jokes at one another's expense. Bets on who can find found first, etc. The film gives off that survival show type vibe. We have the guys talking to the cameras and showing us how to catch fish.

The guys do, unfortunately, find what they are looking for. They've got motion cameras set up at their camp that show us the viewer what is going on.

Not bad for what it is. A little slow moving.

DEVIL's TRAIL tackles the lore of the Jersey Devil, a cryptid in the Pine Barrens of South Jersey, said to be a biped with hooves and wings and a mythology going back to the 1700s. Two survival show streamers go there to search for it within the framework of a 21-day survival challenge. Early on, they encounter a coven of witches and from then on their endeavor seems to be jinxed.

Other than the cryptid in question, this movie offers little that hasn't been in done countless other found footage movies before.

On the positive side, the Dallas character did do a fairly good job of portraying an awkward introvert who almost cracks under pressure. Also, there was some interesting information about outdoor survival (for example, prior to this movie, I had never heard of a Steripen), even though these two seem to still have done many survivalist faux pas that even I can recognize e.g. Not bringing gloves, maps or lighters.

The ending, which presents two twists back-to-back, is especially poorly executed. The first twist did not give enough information about exactly what was fake and what was real, and the second twist shows a horror scene exactly in the same style of the horror scene before the first twist. This seems like an amateur error in film-making: if you want to convince the audience that things are different now, show them differently!

So, I learned about the Jersey Devil and some basic aspects of survivalism (and that is why I did not rate the film lower), but everything else about this film is forgettable.

Ok, so i the acting was decent--two bickering friends bickering rather well. But the PLOT?!?! Random naked witch chicks for no reason (i was not so lucky as to have seen the pixelated version--i got the uncensored, full frontal nudity version.) Survivalists with ZERO survival instinct. No gloves,no water, no alternate fire starting, no food. Even a day hiker will bring three energy bars and a bottle of water. NO ONE starts a hike with NOTHING! ( oh wait,one guy brought his SUNGLASSES). They find things---do they KEEP THEM for their own use?!?!? Nope! Use it and abandon it as if it won't come in handy later. Because leaving equipment and wandering off unprepared AGAIN is good survival advice. And that "monster"?!?!? Glowing LED eyes and mechanical shrieking made it seem like home depot outdoor halloween animatronics. Nothing scary about it at all. Oh,and they didn't FORAGE, or even follow any of their own "survival" advice and mark anything. Way too much energy for freezing,starving,thirsty lost hikers. End kind of explained why, but by then it was too late, i already wishing for their demise.

Not exactly groundbreaking but certainly enjoyable - as long as you don't mind found-footage films.

This does well to build the growing sense of paranoia and doubt (which leads on to mistrust and accusations) between the two leads, while not forcing in too much shaky-camerawork.

Minor gripe: the glaring red eyes of the 'devil' are just too bright. Too clearly seen. What made Blair Witch so enjoyable for me was that you could never quite say categorically what the peculiar noises in the woods sounded like. Here the sounds emanating from the sinister entity dwelling in the woods sounds very much like the grumbling of a territorial lion and the eyes/lights are just too clear - and clearly not a crane.

Ive seek positive and negative reviews of the ending. For me it felt tagged on and rushed, so I was slightly puzzled at it, but overall a satisfying outing.

It's just a shame they didn't run into a drunk Glaswegian terrorising the Scottish Highlands during their hiking trip there - now THAT would be truly terrifying.

Nothing happens in this movie. Nothing. Some witches, and that plotline went nowhere. A red-eyed beast, whose eyes are all you ever see, and two "survival" guys who fight the entire time. Things change up in the final five minutes of this monstrosity. Seriously. I think the movie was written around those final five minutes. Not worth your time. It certainly wasn't worth mine.