Donner Pass

If you've spent enough time watching the indie horrors that appear so frequently on Netflix instant, you'll know by now that only about one in three of them is watchable. Not good, just watchable. Donner Pass is one of the watchable ones.

It's basically a tame slasher movie with a spin on the Wendigo myth thrown in (but don't expect something as good as "Ravenous"). It's elevated above the usual crowd by decent acting and direction, a restrained pace, and an interesting rape/revenge subplot. One thing I very much liked was that when the bad stuff did start going down, the characters made some pretty logical decisions (such as attempting to dig a car out of snow while the others stand guard post with weapons at all four corners). It's always a welcome relief when you don't have to shout "as if you would do that!" at the screen.

Unfortunately, like with so many films of this ilk, the character writing is where it fails. Yet again we're introduced to a group of bickering twentysomethings that I have a seriously hard time believing would ever come together as acquaintances let alone friends. Each character never gets past the standard slasher stereotype - the bitch, the jock, the bad boy, the nerd, and the blank canvas final girl. And worse, most of the characters are so horrible that you never get invested in their wellbeing, which makes every death scene at best empty and meaningless and at worst, a relief.

For any would-be indie horror film maker reading this, I implore you to take this simple formula to heart: "Make a character *we can like* and then put them in danger".

It really shouldn't be hard but almost once a month I see a film where crappy characters are the principle flaw in an otherwise solid horror movie. If only we lived in a world where the first thing they taught at screen writing school was "how to make the audience give a damn".

Rant over, back to the movie: Donner Pass is well made enough that, if you can get past the characters, it is worth watching. The subtle supernatural slant seems to rub a few viewers the wrong way but I actually enjoyed it more because of it (mundane slasher flicks bore me). I give it props for some intelligent plot decisions and for having a bit more of a grown-up feel than many tween-targeted slashers. It's not great, but it's worth watching. 5/10.

I have no idea why this film is classified as a horror. It's a slow-paced borderline thriller with a bit of slasher material. It's ordinary and unoriginal, but still somewhat watchable at least.

The film makers had no intentions of making historically accurate statements regarding the real story of the Donner party. It's a shame, because true accounts of the incident can readily be found in any library or online. A more comprehensible and effective horror story could have been woven from actual facts. Hear Me, producers? A little homework could have made for a more believable movie.

What we have is a movie based loosely around supposed local legends. The plot is mostly able to be followed, yet bizarre and insensible. Thus, the film staggers about stupidly like an old drunk spouting tall tales.

I did like a few moments of the camera work and set and there's beautiful scenery at times. It's unmistakably low-budget, but manages a few nice shots. In large though, the camera work is an amateur production, just shy of shoddy.

There's sexuality and heavy drinking in this movie, plus partial frontal nudity in one scene, so this is not for young eyes. There is gore, but it's no where near as disgusting as the gore you'll find in similar films that have came out recently. It's more on par with the Nightmare on Elm Street movies.

I am unimpressed, but do NOT feel that the experience was a total waste of time given My original expectations for it.

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)

It's not a bad movie, really, has some pretty good ideas, yet, somehow, something just doesn't work out too good.

So, you could call it your average "group of friends go to a cabin in the woods and get murdered" story but it would be kinda ignorant cause the movie is a little more than this. The plot brings some new elements or maybe just ones that aren't used as often as others, so, you might like what you see, even be surprised for a change! The death-scenes on the other hand, quite disappointing, i expected a little more, guess they decided not to stick so much on gore/murders/execution but on plot. Usually i would call this a breathe of fresh air although i would be lying cause in a horror like this, i want to see nice kill-shoots. Overall, the action is OK, one could predict it earlier in the movie or might just go with it to the end and discover then what the action is all about.

Characters are OK also, annoying but guess that is how they were suppose to be, dialogue, a little poor, could have used some humor and last but not least a little nudity as always.

So, don't know exactly if to recommend this one or not, as i said, it is NOT a bad movie, don't know if i can call it a GOOD one, guess ultimately it will come down to everyone's personal opinion. Some of you will be entertained and some of you won't. I just expected more of it, had a lot of potential but it limited itself to far less...