Donner Pass

Donner Pass has a well-known and macabre history -- the place where George Donner and his party got stuck in the winter of 1846 and were forced to resort to cannibalism to keep from starving. But what if it was not just history?

This is your standard young people alone in a secluded area type of horror film. There is some attempt to connect it to the legendary Donner Party, but it is done in such a way as to seem gratuitous and really outside the overall tone and thrust of he film.

If someone were to make a film inspired by the story or actually set at the time, I think it could work well. "Ravenous" was a great film, for example. This one, though, is nothing special.

Another "what if the legend is true" movie. This is about the story of Donner Pass, and how a family was abandoned in the forest. This leads to dinner time for crazy George Donor (Eric Pierpoint). So now we know this is a movie about cannibalism. Fast forward about 150 years (they may have said exactly, but was already bored) and 4 kids are going to stay at their parents cabin for the weekend in Donnors Pass. So now the stage is set to find out if the legend is true.Of course the obligatory "extra friends" show up to crash the party (which is good, we needed more people to kill). Well, the obvious occurs and the group is picked off one by one. Not particularly extremely gory or really well written either. There is one kill that is absolutely asinine it is almost worth watching just for it. Well the characters aren't worth wasting time commenting about, they are all poorly played and given nothing really to work with, so blame whomever you like (The chick that played the stuck up bitch was spot on for the girl all you women hated in high school). The scenery was very nice (I am a sucker for snow covered mountains, too bad they didn't utilize this more) and is filmed quite nicely for the budget I am sure this had. If by now you haven't figured it out, the movie is not very good at all. No scares, very little story until the writers must've all of a sudden had an epiphany and decided to pull the story together(should they be vampires, or zombies, or just cannibals). IF you have nothing else to watch and you DON'T have to pay for it, then I guess it is up to you. But make sure you meet those guidelines. Also if you really have a need to watch a movie about cannibals and would like to see how they can be made well, watch "Ravenous", you will definitely be happy you did. Anyway, I will stop degrading this movie as the worst ever, it really isn't, it just has so many flaws that it makes it tough to swallow (kind of like human flesh, not that I would know ;) 3.6/10 IMDb 4.6 (many cast members must be voting)

In1846, in the Sierra Nevada Mountains in the area known as Donner Pass, a starving man kills three others to eat their flesh during the winter, but a boy witnesses the murders and flees.

In the present days, the teenagers Kayley (Desiree Hall), her boyfriend Mike (Colley Bailey), her cousin Nicole (Adelaide Kane) and the outcast Thomas (Erik Stocklin) travel to the house in Donner Pass of Thomas's parents that are in Europe. Thomas recommends his friends to be careful with the house since his parents do not know that they are spending the weekend there. They learn that the police are hunting down the criminal James Michael Epstein (John Kassir). Out of the blue, the troublemaker boyfriend of Nicole, Derek (Dominic DeVore), comes with his friends Brody (Antonio Trischitta), Valerie (Krystal Davis) and A.J. (Brandon Morales) in his SUV to stay with Nicole, despite the protests of Thomas. Soon their beer runs out and Brody drives the SUV to buy some more in the town. Brody goes missing and soon Mike, Kayley and Thomes find his body eaten. Meanwhile Valerie is murdered near the house and the car has flat tires. Who might be the cannibal that is attacking the group?

"Donner Pass" is a terrible slasher with an awful gore story of cannibalism and one-dimensional characters. The explanation for the anthropophagy is ridiculous and most of the characters are non- charismatic. In the end, watching "Donner Pass" is a complete waste of time. My vote is three.

Title (Brazil): Not Available

True story: in 1864, a group of emigrants travelling through Donner Pass, California, became trapped by such heavy snow that some of them eventually resorted to cannibalism in order to survive.

Not quite so true story: in 2014, BA_Harrison resorted to chewing off his own legs in order to relieve his frustration at watching yet another run-of-the-mill slasher in which a bunch of unlikeable teens get slaughtered by a homicidal maniac.

After a reasonable intro in which we witness the gruesome events of Donner Pass, 1864, this film follows a group of present-day teens who travel to a remote cabin for a weekend break only to be bumped off one-by-one by a mysterious killer. Ho-hum.

To be fair, Donner Pass does get slightly better towards the end, when the plot takes a strange turn involving rape/revenge, and a cannibalistic antagonist who can pass 'the hunger' to his victims, but for the most part it is routine teen-friendly nonsense the likes of which we have seen countless times before.

A brief bit of topless action from a soon-to-be-dead blonde in a hot-tub and some reasonable gore (including one character who gets a pick-axe through the throat AND a claw hammer in the eye for good measure) helps to make the time pass a bit less painfully, but you won't be missing much if you decide to pass on Donner Pass.

Donner Pass (2012)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Everyone knows the legend of the Donner Party but this slasher takes place in the current days when a group of teens head out to the title location and soon they're being slaughtered one by one. Has the Donner's finally came back to life or is it an escaped maniac running loose? DONNER PASS is a pretty good looking movie and I'd say if it had at least one major star in it then it could have gotten a major theatrical release. The past couple years I've been saying that the horror genre is really struggling but this here actually turned out to be one of the better slashers in recent years. There's no question that there are still many flaws to be found but for the most part the film kept me entertained and that's the most important thing. I think one of the best things going for the picture is the wonderful location. Director Elise Robertson really builds up a great atmosphere and the beautiful snow and woods really draw you into the location and makes you feel that you're right there with the teens. I thought the location was a major plus but so were the performances. You really don't come to a horror film like this expecting good performances but that's exactly what you get. Desiree Hall is very good in the female lead and we get nice support from Erik Stocklin as the cabin owner and Colley Bailey as his friend. Adelaide Kane plays one of the most hated characters you're going to see and she's very good in the part but the screenplay really lets us down given what happens to her. The supporting, smaller roles are also played very well by the actors. As is the case with most horror movies today, there's a big twist at the end but it's pretty easy to figure out what's going to happen. When the twist finally does come I think the film starts to fall apart but this isn't a complete death nail. Visually the film is quite impressive and the score is good as well. The only thing really missing is a good third act. Still, the state of horror movies today is pretty weak and DONNER PASS at least offers some old fashion blood and guts, nudity and a nice cast.