Review : Off The Beaten Path, Jason Stephenson, 2004

OFF THE BEATEN PATH

Original Title : Off The Beaten Path

Directed by Jason Stephenson

Written by Jason Stephenson

With Todd Hanson, Jessie Welsch, Tommy THompson, Carrie Sizemore

Year : 2004

Length : 64 min

Rating : 4 / 10

SYNOPSIS

A trio of thrillseekers led by Chuck Stevens, his girlfriend Dina Duncan and a videoographer friend named Randy Bodine set out for a small Minnesota town called Gateway.

Their intentions were to make a short film for the internet about an abandoned backwoods property with an unsettling past that a local women from Gateway named Brenda Jacobs has invited them to explore.

Not heeding Brenda's repeated warnings to head back after finding ritualistic items, the four of them manage to provoke an evil legend that should have been left forgotten.

Before the night is through, who will live to tell this story...

REVIEW

After 3 short - movies ("SNUFFED", "YOU'RE NEXT" et "YOU'RE NEXT 2"), Jason Stephenson signs here his first movie shot with a digital camera.
From the beginning, on the jacket as well as on the DVD itself, we can notice that this first inspire itself a lot from "BLAIR WITCH PROJECT", and the author take on it entirely ! Just wait for the same effects : the characters running in the forest with a camera, pitching camera moves, alternance between amateurish camera and "professional" camera for the narrative of the movie...
Unfortunately, while it nearly succeeded in "BLAIR WITCH PROJECT", in "OFF THE BEATEN PATH", the suspense doesn't work quite well. It hard to really get into the plot, without a doubt because of the way the actors play, little convincing in their characters. Amateurism once again when we're presented the "ritual items" . And even if in "BLAIR WITCH PROJECT" the three stones could make the viewer shiver, here it's about an accumulation of clichés (Satan engraved on a tree, 666 written on another, a pentacle badly drawn on a book) which make this long - running movie little believable . Let's point out, however, the effort done on the demon make - up, very much inspired by "EVIL DEAD" this time, which fasten the general rhythm which was too slow till that time, without succeeding in keeping us into suspense.
"OFF THE BEATEN PATH" remains an amateurish movie, which could have made it without all these clichés, and only if its theme were more innovator and less copied on other existing realisations . Fortunately, it's only one hour long !
The "BLAIR WITCH PROJECT" fans, which isn't really my case, could for sure find it some other qualities. Left to see what Jason Stephenson can do with a big budget .

Note from Oh My Gore ! : 4 on 10

Published on 2004-07-15