User reviews

Thought the first half of the film was pretty good, was like Blair Witch in the snow, going through the motions of interviewing people, getting a bit of a background on what they are trying to do.

When they set of on their own and the 'strange' things start happening, it kept you intrigued, but then when you find out what is really going on.. you find out why films like Blair Witch decided not to reveal their monster, because it was truly disappointing.

Not only that, but the whole story at the end was just a bit silly, too out of context with the build up of the film. And the fact that this is meant to be an explanation to the disappearance of real people is pretty weird!

First half of the film is solid enough though, worth a watch if you like found footage horror films.

The Dyatlov Pass Incident itself is a super intriguing incident and it is weird that no one else has made a fiction film about it before. I highly recommend reading up on it, if you haven't already.

This film on the hand is not... super intriguing, or indeed even recommended if you're looking for a theory about what happened on the Mountain of Death. It's not a terrible film, but it's not about the Dyatlov Pass Incident. Halfway through the film I decided to put what I know about what really happened aside and just watch the film.

It is a found footage film. Sort of. The camera stays steady mostly and it's easy to forget that it's supposed to be found footage, which, honestly, I find to be a good thing. No need for sea sickness medication.

The good: The middle part of the film is visually stunning, the views are just breathtaking and I found myself at one point craning my neck to see more. It's definitely the best part of the film.

The bad: The story wobbles all over the place and leaves loose ends. Touch of Russophobia, but no more than the average Hollywood film.

Overall: Fun little flick if you don't take it too seriously. Take it about half as seriously as it takes itself and discard anything it tries to tell you about the 1959 incident, and you'll enjoy it.

Overall, I was entertained by the film. Although I don't usually watch horror, I found that this one had enough to it that I could watch and enjoy it without being very disturbed. Granted, it is frightening at points, particularly the last third of the film, but it was paced well. The way this film takes the found-footage theme is quite well done with good twists and turns, keeping your attention. The acting is quite good, the characters were well-defined and funny when they wanted to be and the camera work is very well done. The visuals, background, camera-work and atmosphere are some of my favorite parts of the movie. It doesn't look like it's being recorded on a roller-coaster until it wants to and when it does, it does it very well, disorienting you until there is something it wants you to see. In conclusion, it is a well done movie, but it feels a hint rough when it comes to story. Pretty good concepts, but just a little rocky coming off. I would recommend watching it if you like found-footage films or if you like suspenseful horror.

As a "found footage" lover, I appreciated this clever contribution to the genre. The movie was cautiously arranged, but, more significantly, it perfectly justified all the conventional features of f.f. horrors; The setting is fascinating and the adventurous spirit of the characters is inspiring. It all goes smoothly until the end : the final plot twist ruins everything. The visual effects in that scene are kindly considerable as "cheap" , so shockingly bad that the lack of technical quality ends up covering the actual meaning of the last sequence. Beyond this controversial point, the movie is generally thrilling and worth watching. I remember feeling pleasantly challenged as it began : I kept asking myself what kind of tragedy was going to happen to the group of hikers. A storm? Wild monsters? No, nothing like it. Let's conclude by saying that this movie was an absolute surprise.

Greetings from Lithuania.

"The Dyatlov Pass Incident" is nothing more than a true story + "The Blair Witch Project" + crap. The setting is good, i loved snowy Russian mountains. The actor also did a very good job, they are in this place and they are playing it straight, no one is acting out "oh we are in a found footage film" - they are there, USA + Russian production also feels kind a fresh, especially in these kind a movies. Sure, it's not a new The Blair Witch Project" movie, it doesn't come close to it.

Overall, if you are looking for some new "found footage" movie, this one not that bad at all.

This is not the best Renny Harlin can do, that's for sure. Being a fan of both movies and outdoors, I expected "The Dyatlov Pass Incident" to be a movie about the Dyatlov Pass incident. I was wrong, of course. But even not considering this, the movie is sloppy and bland, notwithstanding a couple of "horror" scenes.

Somewhere in the middle, the whole story falls apart entirely and what follows is just a series of most ridiculous plot twists that one can imagine. The plot is so illogical that at some point it's not even funny anymore. Throughout the whole movie, characters act like mindless creatures although they should be college students and at least two of them should be experienced backpackers.

The only good thing probably was that Russians were actually speaking Russian, not some mindless gibberish. But this gets only 1 star for this movie.

I did not expect much from this movie but was really impressed by the authentic Russian language and atmosphere. Most films portray Russia poorly and actors butcher the language. The plot itself was definitely a stretch, but it was for Hollywood. I think it was a success, because if you hadn't known about the Dyatlov Pass Incident before watching this movie, then it definitely piqued your interest to do some further research!

And no, not every Russian speaks English over there! However, you will find wild dogs, humble bars/cafes, beautiful sites, and lots of history!

The Dyatlov Pass Incident has some good surprises in it.

First of it all, it has some good scaries. In a time where found footage movies are over satured, the director made a really good effort in this. Its not excellent, don't get me wrong. It passes pretty far from being original but its a solid fun for a Saturday night. The movie is a slow burn but the end is really good. The plot slowly start to make sense and when you finally discover whats really going on, you find yourself surprised with such a good plot in a horror movie. Secondly, its a kind a blair witch project in structure and style and this is not a bad thing, to me at least, cause blair witch is my favorite horror movie ever and in the end it looks like a tribute to me.

Lastly, if you like Blair witch but the end was lame to you, get this movie because its pretty much blair witch less scary but with better plot.

THE DYATLOV PASS INCIDENT starts off promisingly enough as another of these 'found footage' horror movies, basically summarised as THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT in the snow...it sees a group of college stunts taking a hiking trip to the Ural mountains in Russia, where they hope to solve a real-life mystery from the 1950s...

The best thing about the film is this real life mystery after which the film is named. Google it - it's as intriguing as the Bermuda Triangle and all the other weird real-life stuff out there. Unfortunately, after a promising first hour with some decent attempts at suspense-building and some great location photography, THE DYATLOV PASS INCIDENT starts to fall apart as a film.

I blame Finnish director Renny Harlin, who hasn't made a decent movie since DEEP BLUE SEA and who can't resist on going over the top when it comes to the plot elements. Before long we've got references to The Philadelphia Experiment and time travel and it all gets very silly, very quickly; Harlin should have insisted the writer scale some of that sci-fi stuff back, which would have resulted in a tighter, more compelling narrative.

And that's not even the worst of it. My bugbear with this current crop of horror flicks is that they usually resort to having characters chased by dodgy CGI sprites, and that's exactly the case here. GRAVE ENCOUNTERS made the same error, and it's all very tiring and passé. The acting isn't that hot either, and come the end the film's become a huge, head-scratching disappointment absolutely loaded with plot-holes. A real pity.

As a movie, especially one from the category of wobbly shaky camera films, it is not that bad. It's a cliché, from the start to the end, but you can't really blame it for not being the first to do what it does. I also know nothing about the Dyatlov incident and I suspect the movie has little to do with it, other than the name.

Weirdly enough, the name was what drew me to the film and I have no idea why someone would rename it blandly "Devil's Pass", which has absolutely nothing to do with the plot and is probably one of many movies to be thus named.

Anyway, the film: young maniacally happy Americans go to investigate, equipped with apparently a new type of recording device that needs no recharging, since it keeps going for days. They get there, die from various reasons which border from implausible to funny, then end in a kind of Twilight Zone way, with lots of bad CGI.

The idea wasn't really bad, either, just the execution. All in all, it was a classic hand held camera horror, without being scary, though. I liked the sci-fi twist to it all, but not the execution (or the characters, or the actors). I liked that they really went to a place where people actually spoke Russian, not mangled the language horribly in the hope that no viewer actually speaks it.

I can't rate it average. It had too many plot holes, bad cgi, etc. But it was close.

one thing i can say with certainty is i had no expectations ( no high ones at least), and i was expecting something quite mediocre when i saw renny harlin's name attached as director. certainly his career has been on a downward trajectory of late. but, i have to confess, i found this kind of compelling. there are certainly some interesting ideas even if they don't resolve satisfactorily some of the time . it definitely goes some strange places i wasn't expecting. the mountain scenes are really atmospheric, the actors do well with the material they have. and what starts as a 'found- footage movie' gives way to a sci-fi/horror hybrid. i watched it on a rainy night and didn't feel i'd wasted my time - it got me interested in looking into the real-life mystery so it had some positive effect. i recommend it. it's uneven and sometimes fails to hit the target but this is certainly atmospheric and creepy and shows that the die hard 2 director still has some shots in the sling... i'm going to give it 6 for effort at least : )

Before watching this one should understand this is not so much about the Dyatlov Incident as it is about a group trying to come up with their own answers by experiencing the Mountain of the Dead for themselves. There are references made about the incident but it really is more about what this group is experiencing.

I thought that this was a decent enough film. There are many different theories and considering the horrific nature of the what happened to the original group, films referencing the incident can easily find their place in the horror genre.

The incident has been one of fascination for me and I love that someone finally decided to put their creative spin on the subject. While the film isn't bad I wish it would've taken a different approach. I hope more folks will take a stab at it. If you are interested in the Dyatlov Incident, check it out. It was interesting.

"Devil's Pass" (aka. "The Dyatlov Pass Incident") is one of those types of movies that sets out to accomplish way to much than it could actively deliver. And to top it off it is even in the God-awful found footage mockumentary genre, complete with the obligatory questionable camera-work.

A group of Americans travel to Russia in order to unravel the mystery behind the mysterious Dyatlov expedition, but they eventually find themselves way in over their heads.

I must admit that the movie was somewhat of an ordeal to sit through because it was uneventful, incredibly slow-paced and the characters had the personalities and traits of wet cardboard.

I loathe the found footage movies, especially with the shoddy and questionable camera-work that is all over the place. When I sit down to watch a movie that I paid money for, then I expect to get a proper movie with proper production value, and not just something that I could have filmed myself.

This was a very dull movie experience, and one that I can't recommend to anyone. It is simply just not worth the effort.

After sitting through the previews on the DVD, I thought this was going to be another cheesy scary flick I'm going to wish I hadn't ordered from Netflix. Especially in light of being a found footage film. I hate all that bobbling around but this flick is more high quality than most. Well filmed, well acted and a story line that surprised me with its' uniqueness and inventiveness. I really enjoyed films based on real life unsolved incidents and this one was one I had never heard of. While the film could not offer a confirmed answer to the mystery, it offered a way out of the box explanation that showed some serious creativity. I rarely come across a film that surprises me as this one did. Since IMDb covered the story line I will just recommend it and leave it at that.

OK, most (i hope) viewers of this film will know, it is "kind of" based on real tragic mystery that happened in 1959. There are lots and lots of different theories about what has really happened then on the Mount of Death. No one knows.

So, from all of the possible happenings (including UFO, Secret Military station, Yeti and just an ordinary avalanche) the plot suggested in the film was the most absurd and in some cases just stupid. It hardly will be accepted by anyone who is familiar with the history. Especially the possible relatives, friends and just anyone that knew the victims or where somehow involved in investigation.

If the story was not taken from real history, this would be just another Hollywood mystique thriller to watch with a bunch of Pop-corn.

BUT, as it is not someones written story, and if you know the history, this is not the scenario to shoot about it.

By the way, the name of one of the man in Dyatlov's team was changed in the film. Maybe it needed to be done?

There actually was one interesting thing about the movie. The found footage genre.

So if you're not interested in history and want another "little scary" evening, go on and watch it. But otherwise, I'd say the film might insult the memory of those 9 young people who left the world of living in such strange and tragic way.

This one ended up being a lot better than I was expecting. While the whole thing was entertaining, it didn't get super interesting or exciting until about an hour in, leaving you with about 30 minutes of action.

Again, while interesting, the first hour was a lot of filler, background and lots of antiquated sexual banter. You could tell they had a decent budget for this or just utilized it well, despite the kind of poor CGI (this was over ten years ago). There were also some really nice acting moments throughout, along with some very cringe ones as well.

I think if they had gotten to the action a little quicker and if the first two acts weren't so stilted I could have easily given this a 7 cause it definitely was a fun, spooky ride. 6.5 rounding down to a 6, would recommend.

This is just so 1990s. One would expect something more original from Renny Harlin. Yes, this is a bit better filmed than the average found footage film in that it doesn't look like a homegrown You Tube video, but the same stupid plot that hasn't deviated much from The Blair Witch Project is trotted out one more weary and overused time.

This is "based on" a real story. The true story is a tragedy that has been embellished many times over from being ricocheted around the Internet into some sort of paranormal mystery involving Yetis, UFOs, and in this movie The Philadelphia Experiment and teleportation.

It's a sorry way to serve the memory of the real tragic young hikers, but Hollywood has done worse by other "true stories", so this film is no more fraudulent in that regard than some more high profile "based on" movies.

I just don't think it's worth wasting time on if you've been alive and old enough to experience burn out from the constant bombardment with this creatively bankrupt film genre since 1999. You've already seen it before . . . too many times.