Review of Donner Pass (2012) by Jack S — 23 Jun 2014

The infamous legend of the Donner Party has been the inspiration for a slew of films both directly and indirectly, and the new low budget feature "Donner Pass" takes a contemporary spin on the tale. After a ridiculous and completely unecessary opening sequence set in the 1800's that sets up the backstory, the movie shifts to modern times with the usual group of horny young teenagers being menaced in the woods.

The film is extremely derivative, but it's more "Evil Dead" than "Friday the 13th" with the characters becoming possessed by the spirit of Donner, but that's pretty much saved for the last fifteen minutes. Much of the run time simply builds up to that moment, but oddly enough, it's not as dull as we've come to expect from movies like this. Thanks to some better-than-average directing from Elise Robertson and some shockingly high production values, it held my interest fairly well.

The whole thing, even the finale, seems oddly subdued but I was never really bored by it. There are twists along the way, including an especially unconvincing one at the end, but they only prove to be a whole bunch of red herrings. They succeeded in keeping me distracted. There's even a fairly awful folk song by a singer named Orenda Fink that open and close the film that I enjoyed simply because it fits in with the film so well. It reminded me of the tune from the original "My Bloody Valentine".

I simply cannot in good faith recommend "Donner Pass", but I enjoyed it a lot more that I ever would have believed. It's a most unusual picture.