Devil’s Pass is a 2013 Russian/British horror film.
8 out of 10 stars. For a found footage film, it’s pretty good. And like most horror films there are people so annoying you kind of want them to die.
In 1959, nine experienced Russian climbers led by Igor Dyatlov are found dead in the Ural Mountains of Russia. They are found in various stages of undress, thought to be paradoxical undressing from hypothermia. Some of them are found with crushed bones, although there are no bruises or defensive wounds.
In 2012, Holly King, a University of Oregon psychology student puts together a group of five students to make a documentary about the Dyatlov Pass Incident. The other four students are Jensen Day (the videographer and a conspiracy theory enthusiast), Denise Evers (the sound expert), Andy Thatcher (the experienced cilmber and playboy), and JP Hauser (another experienced climber and friend of Andy’s).
When they reach Russia they discover that their driver Sergei has an aunt who was one of the people who found the 9 climbers in 1959. She tells them they found the nine climbers with distorted faces and bodies then further north they found another two climbers with even more distorted faces and bodies for a total of 11 climbers.
Their first night, someone walks through the camp without being noticed. In the morning they find massive footprints (as in bare feet). There is no beginning or ending to the prints. It’s as if the two people were dropped in the middle of camp and walked around for a while. That day, the 2nd day, they hear strange sounds and upon following those sounds find more footprints. They also find a weather station with a little box. Inside the box is a human tongue. One of the 9 climbers was found without her tongue.
Andy, who specializes in hiking hookups and filming the women he sleeps with, tells Denise that Holly is doing all of this, putting a rift between the team of five. In addition, their compasses and GPS equipment are not functioning.
That evening, Holly and Jensen go out with the geiger counter to measure radiation. They are led to a patch of snow that’s really thin. When they dig through the snow, they find a hidden door and behind the door a cave system built into the side of the mountain. But when they return to camp, they don’t tell the others.
That evening, Andy hooks up with Denise and films her naked in his tent. He’s so busy filming her naked that neither of them pays attention to the large boom and the impending avalanche. Andy dresses quickly, grabs his gear, and leaves Denise to die on the avalanche. He ends up with a broken leg while trying to escape. The remaining four make it through the night, but can’t find where Denise is buried under the snow.
In the morning, which is the third day, two Russian soldiers come toward them. They have no packs and pretend to be climbers. But when they get close they start firing. Holly, Jensen, and JP run toward the door of the cave and Andy is shot by the soldiers. So much for hiking hookups and men who videotape their lovers. 🙂
Holly, Jensen, and JP are in the cave system. They’ve closed the door behind them to stop the Russian soldiers from following them. But it’s dark inside and the tunnel leads two directions. They go to the right. JP is shot, so Holly helps him walk. Then Holly screams when something touches her in the dark.
The cave system they are walking through is man-made. There are doors and laboratories where apparently they performed experiments. Some of the labs have been closed and have chains around the gates. They find one that’s open and go inside. In the log books are photographs of Russian soldiers with dates they died during the experiments. They also find a photo of the USS Eldridge 1943 Philadelphia Experiment on teleportation. Apparently they found crew mates fused to the ship.
They reach a door that is like a vault door and must be turned to open. Holly and Jensen go through it and leave JP behind. Behind the door is a tunnel with fresh air. Inside this tunnel is a room where they obviously performed experiments on people. There are deformed corpses and bodies that have been fused together. There are hooks hanging from the ceiling like you’d see in a slaughterhouse and bullet holes in the wall. There’s also blood on that wall. They find what appears to be a nuclear power source that is giving the tunnels its electrical power. They also find Holly’s videocamera.
They hear JP screaming and run back to him. In the dim light they see two deformed creatures eating JP. There are more deformed creatures who attack Jensen. Holly swings a chain around that deters them and she and Jensen run down the tunnel. They reopen the vault door and close it behind them, locking the creatures out. Left with nowhere else to go, they venture down through the tunnel which lights up as a rock travels through it. They assume it’s like the Eldridge and a teleportation tunnel.
Days later, two Russian hikers find Holly and Jensen’s bodies outside the mountain face down in the snow. They are approached by two Russian soldiers who hold them at gunpoint and force them away from the mountain. The soldiers then take Holly and Jensen’s bodies into the cave. One of those Russian soldiers finds the videocamera and takes it with him into the cave. They carry Holly and Jensen’s bodies into the last room and it’s clear this is some time in the past when the laboratories were manned by Russian soldiers and scientists. The Russians have never seen clothes like this and don’t know what the videocamera is. They remove the clothes from the bodies and hang Holly and Jensen’s bodies from the hooks. They are grossly deformed and still alive.
It’s implied that the one of the two Russian hikers at the end was Sergei’s aunt back in 1959 and Holly and Jensen were the two extra bodies found.
8 out of 10 stars. Uniquely scary.
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