The Devil's Ground

2008
4.3| 1h29m| R| en
Details

While traveling from California to Bangor through a lonely road, Carrie Mitchel is advised by the gas station attendant Jimmy to rest in a hotel; however, she decides to continue driving through the night and almost hits a wounded teenage girl with blood on her face. She gives a lift to the girl and listens to the tale of her passenger and her friends.

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Reviews

Flyerplesys Perfectly adorable
Bergorks If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.
Ezmae Chang This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.
Phillipa Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.
Scarecrow-88 A California motorist (Daryl Hannah, in the film for name recognition value) is on her way to Bangor passing through a stretch of Pennsylvania where the road leads through forest on both sides, when she comes across a frightened young woman (Leah Gibson) who seems to have been through an emotional roller coaster (and has blood on her). This shaken woman reveals her name to be Amy Singer and forewarns that something evil is lurking in the woods out to get them. Amy will provide a narrative for how all her friends wound up deceased to Carrie (Hannah) on their way to the next nearest town. The film opened with an ominous figure, dark and not easily recognizable, carrying a bloody machete, pursuing Amy, so immediately established is the Lurking Evil certain to pop up before the fade to black.Backstory: Amy and fellow Boston U students, majoring in Environmental Studies, can get an A if they collect soil samples and study an ancient Indian Burial Ground known as Arrowhead where coal miners (over 200) died in a mining disaster. What they encounter could be something monstrous, chained and hidden inside the barn of a sullen, greasy, rather creepy gas station attendant named Billy (Daniel Probert) who claims that many of the locals consider Arrowhead the "Devil's Playground". Amy doesn't forget this and is the only one of her group who treats him with a modicum of decency (the others toss around insults about him behind his back). The rest of the film follows the basic "city kids fall prey to backwoods psycho beast" plot.Disorienting camera-work, an editing style that doesn't allow for characters to be positioned in frame for more than a manner of seconds, and way too much time where the camera is right in the face of the actors (not to mention, too many shots of the sky and crows squawking) instead of following the action, "The Devil's Ground" doesn't have the technical merits to surpass the generic, "we've seen it all before" story-line. It is hard to react to a menace that is never established in a way that causes us to dread his presence, and the film fails to generate any creep factor whatsoever.Cheap and ugly, with few redeeming qualities at all, this film would remain buried in obscurity if not for Hannah's name in the credits. I hope you like Leah Gibson's face because we get plenty of it in close up throughout the movie. Even worse is the fact that this film has one too many endings (including a couple twists regarding Billy's family members revealed), none of them exactly worthwhile. Amy Singer's fate seems like an interesting twist if the film had ended with Hannah's discovering something peculiar about her passenger during the movie (the film goes back and forth between Singer's story and in the car with Hannah telling it), but the screenplay just doesn't know when to quit. Probert's scowl, worn on Billy's face exclusively, seems as if he were sucking on a sour lemon throughout his time on screen.
mmgjason The video looks great. It doesn't strain the eyes to watch which is rare for video. Good looking solid young actors for the most part. The music, the sound, the lighting, the foley, the directing are all very good but. Why take all the time to make and 89 minute movie? 90 minutes is a minimum to ask full admission in theaters. Distrubuters wont think about picking it up unless its at least 90 minutes. They couldn't find another minute in post? Stock footage? Anything? How about a bikini scene with Daryl Hannah. Definitely worth watching but I would have been on the editing floor with a bull whip trying to squeeze in another minute to have a chance to get into a few theaters and generate some P&A...
zfiany It's not that bad really! It still can be on the shelf of your horror movies to enjoy it some night with friends. And I guess it can be watched more than once. It has good elements. Good acting , minimum level of required tension, some spooky things like the fact that Amy turns out to be a ghost and the killer has one damn family that refuses to end their killing tradition.I still don't think that it's as bad as everybody talked about it. There is something good about this movie and if you have watched almost all horror movies and your addiction keeps nagging that you need to watch a new movie and you haven't watched it yet, then just do it as it will still satisfy your thirst for horror.
Aka_Who By no means groundbreaking, however The Cycle still manages to be a somewhat tense and rather entertaining film. The story is interesting and changes up enough to remain fresh all the way through. The acting was on the mark (even the over-actors you can't help but like) and the action did well to keep you on edge. The death scenes would have benefited from a little more attention as they are a bit on the tame side and over too quickly. Overall I don't see the film as being something that will stick with you long after viewing however it does provide for an entertaining viewing. I would recommend giving it a chance.

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