Such a frustrating disappointment

Good concept, poorly executed.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

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.

"Devils Ground" is a fairly average slasher movie, though it has some resemblance to "Wrong Turn" and "The Hills Have Eyes", without being a copy of either of those movies.What puzzled me was seeing Daryl Hannah appear as the first name in the movie, despite her role wasn't the lead role. But guess having a relatively known name like hers in the movie and flaunting it that way is the way to lure people in.As for the story told in "Devils Ground", then I thought it was actually good, and the plot managed to keep me hanging and wanting to see what would happen next. And there was a nice twist of storyline towards the end, and I for one, hadn't anticipated the story to take a turn like that. But it was a nice surprise nonetheless.The cast in the movie was actually decent. I like Leah Gibsons portrayal of the role of Amy Singer, she was doing a good job with her character. And as usual, to me at least, it is always nice to see Daryl Hannah in a movie, I find her charismatic in a way. And Daniel Probert, in the role of Billy, was also really well cast, and he brought a lot of color to that role, and he played it quite well. I think it was somewhat of a shame that Twan Holliday's character Jimmy wasn't given more screen time than he had, because his character could have added a lot to the story. And Twan Holliday has a really distinct voice.For a slasher movie, "Devils Ground" doesn't offer lots of blood and gore, but it has just enough killing to make it interesting. There was just the right amount of blood and mayhem to keep you lured in, so that worked well enough. However, being a slasher movie, I don't think that "Devils Ground" has enough impact to make a lasting impression, unless you are a fan of someone in the movie. It just lacks something to make it stand out, unfortunately. Then again, it has a really nice surprise twist to it, which many other slasher movies lacks.I like horror movies, and I personally think that "Devils Ground" was actually a good enough entry to the horror genre, just a shame that it failed to leave a lasting impression.

The Cycle is set in the small town of Bradford in Pensylvania as a woman named Carrie Mitchell (Daryl Hannah) drives from California to Bangor via the back-roads of the US. While driving along at night Carrie has to stop suddenly to avoid running into a teenage girl named Amy Singer (Leah Gibson) standing in the middle of the road, Amy is blood stained & incoherent as she ask's Carrie for help. Inside the car Amy tells Carrie that her four friends have been murdered by a deformed redneck & that a mass grave of murdered people is nearby & they need to tell the police. Carrie heads for the nearest gas station & phones the police but discovers that Amy isn't quite what she appears & that Carrie herself is in great danger...Also known as The Devil's Ground in Canada this Canadian production was written & directed by Michael Bafaro & starts out like your average uninspired teen backwoods slasher but totally changes direction for the last fifteen minutes & becomes some sort of supernatural ghost story & it's a very abrupt change that comes across as very awkward & for me didn't work, much like the rest of the film really. The whole set-up is that of a woman finding a teenage girl wandering around in the woods & giving her a lift to safety & the girl tells the story of how all her friends were killed which means we know from the get-go who is going to live & who is going to die out of the usual faceless teen character's which doesn't help matters, the lack of gore or memorable kill scenes doesn't help either & after a straight forward tale of a few teens being killed off by deformed backwood Rednecks before a rather striking change in direction as The Cycle becomes a ghost story that leaves more questions than answers. The whole thing is dull, at 88 minutes it's too long & it takes ages to get going, the teen slasher part is extremely routine & predictable while the ghost twist ending is confusing & doesn't work. The character's are all dull, the plot tries but fails to do something different with the tired old slasher genre & it's not very fun to watch. Also I have no idea why it's called The Cycle, sure I understand that the teens being killed by the Rednecks is part of a cycle as more teen turn up & get killed over & over again but you could say that about any backwoods slasher flick so I really don't particularly get the significance although I must say when I first heard the title The Cycle for some bizarre reason I thought it would be about bikes!To be fair to this the film is competent & looks alright, I am not sure why there are constant shots of Crow's or Raven's or whatever those birds are but hey the director knew what he was doing, right? There's not much blood or gore here or much to get excited about, there's a chopped off hand, a few quick stabbings & a bit of blood splatter but basically nothing else. This really could have done with some gory kills to make the film just that little bit more memorable. There's fair suspense & tension during one or two scenes but not enough.Probably shot in Canada this has decent production values actually & is quite well made but as a whole there's nothing that special about it. The acting is alright, one time Hollywood star Daryl Hannah really scrapes the bottom of the barrel these days but at least it's not as bad as Shark Swarm (2008).The Cycle isn't actually about a bike & doesn't even feature a bike which I found disappointing but not as disappointing as the dull pace, the predictable backwoods teen slasher plot & the lack of any sort of meaningful gore or special effects. You could do worse but you could do better as well, not recommended.

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...