The trailer for THE DEVIL’S GROUND had me. It looked, in some ways, like it had been done before, but it also looked well made and downright scary, especially bearing in mind it was made on the lower end of the budget line. And hey, Daryl Hannah’s in it, and Daryl Hannah wouldn’t steer me wrong, would she? The answer is yes—yes she would.
Here’s the official summary:
While unearthing an ancient burial site, a group of archeology students may have triggered an earthquake. The tremor is a harbinger of the evil lurking below. Stalked by a deadly presence who mirrors their every step, the students fight to survive. The lone survivor will hold the key to the mystery of the Devil’s Ground.
Now, that leaves out a lot. For one, there’s no mention of Hannah. She plays a motorist named Carrie who has embarked on a road trip cross-country to make up for NOT tagging along with her now-missing husband when he made such a trek. Driving on a spooky road at night after a particularly unsettling encounter with a disheveled gas station attendant, Carrie almost runs over an obviously traumatized young woman named Amy. Battered and bloody, Amy’s story eventually unfolds—seems she and her fellow archaeology students, while working on a class project, set off some sort of evil earthquake, foreshadowing the deadly massacre of all of Amy’s friends—and as Carrie learns the horrible truth of what her passenger has endured, she also learns there’s even more to the story than Amy is willing to admit.
So, the beginning is actually really good and full of potential. The chase scene is shot well, and even though I was pretty sure the girl we eventually know as Amy would get away, I still held my breath a few times. By the time we switch to Carrie at the Gas Hog and her awkward moments with the longhaired attendant (who bears a sneaking resemblance to the guy we saw chasing Amy), things are feeling scary. Or maybe awkward tension just freaks me out. Either way, the film was heading in the right direction. Back out on the road, it’s building … and BAM! Carrie almost hits the weird bloody girl, who eventually starts to open up about her decidedly unpleasant condition. So, now we’re in THAT story, and we kind of know where it’s going to end up, having seen Amy chased all through the woods, but we want to know everything that led up to the running and the carnage. So we get in at the beginning, getting to know a little about our intrepid band of travelers …
Then, out of what seemed like nowhere, a big chunk of unnecessary political spew reared its way too obvious head in the form of a debate about what amounted to environmentalism versus capitalism. I’ve got nothing against either side—at least not anything I’m going to toss in to a movie review—but the soap boxing brought whatever momentum had been built up to a screeching halt, and for no good reason. The exchange was so deliberate and drawn out that it allowed time to think, though not about the issue at hand. No, instead, I was thinking about why these people hadn’t been having this argument at any time prior, like in the trailer for all those hours—then we wouldn’t have had to hear it. Whatever suspense or tension had built up was gone.
From there, it just gets worse. There are a few possibly frightening bits when the group visits the gas station and meets Billy, the attendant with no hands, but soon everyone’s back in the woods. Was the sex necessary? Did five supposedly intelligent college students really think that Billy Stump-Hands actually cared enough about them to recruit his hick buddies and try and scare them by shaking their trailer? And, without giving away anything, there are some of the most unrealistic reactions and atrocious lines of dialogue throughout. Performances range from forgettable (I never could tell the two girls who weren’t Amy apart) to good (Twan Holliday could have a huge future, and Daryl Hannah starts off great but falters as the words she has to say become more ridiculous), and it’s that very thing that detracts from a film that had potential—everything about it is uneven. Pacing goes from suspenseful to non-existent, competent camera work and effects are forgotten when the story can’t decide what it’s doing, and a well-sprung twisty ending is mired down by a murky explanation. There were a few times I was actually scared, and had the writer chosen to follow the path he started on, this one could have been good. As it is, I’m not mad, I’m just sad to think of what could’ve been.
– Amber Goddard
- Interview with J.R. Bookwalter - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
