Donner Pass
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| WARNING: This review may contain spoilers. |
The tale of the Donner party is one that is well-known throughout the world. However, apparently there is a legend that the people in and of the surrounding areas of Donner Pass believe in. If you taste of human flesh in the Pass, then something comes over you and you won't be able to control yourself and need for human meat. Supposedly this is what happened with George Donner, that he brought the party to that area to kill and eat them all. It's been many years since that event of cannibalistic survival occurred, and now we're given a modern Horror take on the event entitled Donner Pass, a horror story that twists and distorts the events that have been reported.
This is how the film actually kicks off, explaining the "supposed" alternate take on history. It involves a few surviving members of the party trying to stay alive while George Donner (Eric Pierpoint) returns for them with food. But, when they start to eat, he kills them all, string them up, and while preparing the meat a young girl in the party escapes. He sees her, she screams, they run, he gets her, then cuts to the car where we find our four main characters driving towards a cabin for a weekend away. Thomas (Erik Stocklin) is a rather nervous member of the group and it's his family cabin they are all heading to, and Nicole (Adelaide Kane) seems to want nothing to do with him. Mike (Colley Bailey) and Kayley (Desiree Hall) are boyfriend and girlfriend who seem to be taking charge of the whole trip. But, once they get there, it turns out Kayley invited her boyfriend along who shows up with three other people who end up stuck there due to the roads being closed.
Of course, these four people are your typical jocks who end up pushing everyone around and manipulating them to get their way and have their brand of "fun." This includes drinking beer, making a mess, fighting one another, and even driving drunk when the beer gets low. Once again, this is how the Horror aspect of the film picks up. After some poor supporting cast acting, one of the additional four is convinced to go ahead and get the beer, but this is where the murders start to happen, and bodies begin showing up half-eaten. The group begins to think it's a man they saw on a newspaper article named Epstein (John Kassir) who the police were searching for, but Thomas believes that it's George Donner. After this scene from a passing car murdering Derek (Dominic DeVore) in the car, as well as Valerie (Krystal Davis) being killed in a hot tub, the man is seen, both as a silhouette in the winder later, and by A.J. (Brandon Morales) who was not too far away from Valerie during the murder. However, there is also a little side plot going on to this film that plays a bit of an important role to the characters, and begins to develop some of them deeper.
Of the latter party to show up, there is a history involving Nicole, Derek's girlfriend, and A.J. at a party. Nicole reveals what happened between her and A.J., leading to a subplot that involves more than one killer to the story line and actually builds up some additional tension nicely. Thomas is wrapped up in all of this nicely, which is actually a dead giveaway given his nervous attitude the entire movie, but this lays the groundwork for the legend to come true and have one of the characters become a cannibal as well. But, when it's revealed, this does end up coming off more like a modern zombie attack than a hungry cannibal. On top of that, there also is a forced explanation towards the end that explains how the one character is the way he is, why the killer hungers flesh, but this feels dragged out a little too long. You also can't help but face palm during the final confrontation as the logic just doesn't make any sense no matter what situation a person is in.
But, with the ending not quite being too great, Donner Pass actually is pretty good. Despite its faults, the move has a good story line going on with plenty of twists and turns, though the end result between A.J. and Valerie and what they do ends up being a bit too hard to believe, but if you could get away with it, or think you could, it does seem a logical explanation, especially if you happen to be in love. On top of that, the characters do end up developed pretty well. Even the latter party that shows up, who you immediately loathe for being pushy, arrogant jocks who bully the first party around the entire time, soon grows on you and make you feel like they're part of the group. You do feel bad for them later on, but definitely not towards the start when they begin dying off. The acting from most of the major players here is actually pretty good, while the rest is just alright, but still somewhat suiting. You never feel intimidated by any of the jocks, though Derek does a decent job of pushing everyone around despite the viewing feeling like you could take him down at any time without much of a fight.
Donner Pass starts off like some kind of teenage slasher flick, but it eventually grows into something more. There's a rich story to all of it, though most feels forced in at times, and plenty of red herrings to through what seems like an obvious killer out of the list of usual suspects. The production quality is pretty good too, and only a few times, such as the end with the bear mace, do some elements seem edited in the studio with sound effects, but never really any cg visuals or anything like that. The film looks practical, and aside the visual and audio levels, the actors play their parts well enough to cater to the stress and darker tones that gradually build toward a very dark atmosphere, always leaving you feeling tense from the second act on. It's not the most gripping or unique experience you'll have, but if you happen to see this one sitting around somewhere pretty cheap, and you're a fan of Slasher flicks but hate today's glitzy or meta-fueled subplots with easy to identify killers, than Donner Pass actually makes for an enjoyable experience.
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