Shookum Hills Thanks to inspired media reports and global hysteria associated with flights to Mars and other extraterrestrial objects, we began to turn our attention exclusively to distant space distances, forgetting how many mysteries are right under our feet. As some researchers have said, the world's oceans are now much less studied than the solar system, and although this statement can be argued, it is impossible not to admit that the Earth is still full of mysterious mysteries, some of which may well put our civilization on the brink of survival, if you do not take appropriate action in time. At the same time, it should be noted that the secrets of the world's oceans are not the only ones that should be seized to a more serious extent. If you look at the boundless green surface of the Amazon forests, even now you can find tribes and species of animals unknown to science, not to mention possible resources and minerals. Periodically, information about the discovery of previously unexplored cave systems, lakes and voids that can lead us to a separate underground ecosystem, where evolution has taken its course for thousands of years, and how to know what is at the most remote point of such secret places. So our planet is still full of surprises, some of which can be very disturbing, and one of the theories as to what may be underground, decided to present for us director Bradley Parker together with his horror ' Shookum Hills', which received thanks to the Russian localizer designation ' Devil's Ridge'.
So, the plot of the film takes us to the American outback, namely the town of Shukum Hills, Kentucky. The locals worked mainly for the mining company, which provided profits for numerous families, but in the 70s of the last century, something alarming happened here. The mine had to be urgently shut down, the mine stopped, and the workers had no choice but to get away from here in search of a better life. Since then, Shukkum Hills is considered a ghost town, in the vicinity of which there are very few people who have nowhere to go, which means they decided to live out their century near an abandoned workout, where no one else should go down. Nevertheless, urban legends about this place spread throughout the country and some researchers decided that it was time to finally confirm the frightening myths, or vice versa to debunk them. To this end, a group of young men led by Arianna (Alicia Sanz) arrives in Shukum Hills, trying to scout everything related to the mines and once so frightened the locals. Of course, the secrets of the town so simply do not want to open persistent guys, but their persistence in the end leads to the fact that the horror of the dungeon again comes into motion, which means that the researchers ran into serious problems and get out of Shukum Hills safe and sound will not work for everyone.
The greatest advantage of such a production is the original idea created by a duet of screenwriters in the person of Eric Sherbart and Stefan Jaworsky. Of course, in fact there is nothing really original and discouraging, and yet the audience missed the quality of the underground horror in the style ' Descent'. In this story, first of all, the general idea and the atmosphere of mystery, which makes the viewer’s imagination work with a vengeance and assume exactly what is below, wins. The authors gave us certain leads at the very beginning of the production, and nevertheless the absolute weight of the secrets were not disclosed, which means that in the future the researchers could run into a considerable number of fascinating, frightening revelations. And the director for the time being, for the time being, manages to keep our attention at the maximum mark, the characters express very intriguing, practical ideas about what is happening in Shukum Hills, but at some point you begin to catch yourself thinking, and after all, the pressure of the atmosphere, as well as high expectations associated with the whole story, in fact bring nothing special. Nothing truly unique in the ghost town does not happen, appeared before the objective camera monsters are unable to surprise and instead of an intriguing horror thriller, we got a typical picture in the horror genre, which could not fully realize its potential.
Not shining special originality and the heroes who had to arrive in Shukum Hills in order to arouse the audience interest, and then safely lower it into the dark corridors of an abandoned mine. The authors did not consider it necessary to go into the details of the biography and characters of their characters, as they considered this not the most necessary in the context of the story about the ghost town. The whole bet was made on the study of the secrets of the city, as well as the personal charisma of the actors. And if there were still favorable moments with the first, then with the second, the film has significant problems. Young actors may look nice, but something special about their efforts to say difficult. They are here to express phrases, to make assumptions and to be frightened as effectively as possible. In such a situation, the most remarkable member of the cast is the Hollywood veteran Will Patton, who played, albeit not the main, but quite an important and memorable role. However, he is unable to pull the dramatic part of the picture exclusively on his shoulders.
There are also certain problems in the production of scenes of active action. It is not always possible to consider all the details that interest you, and in general you can see that the Devil's Ridge & #39; does not belong to the most expensive and large-scale genre productions. But again, if we compare this work with many other similar crafts like 'Caves', we can say that the director did not do such a bad job, but he could be more enthusiastic about what he does, and then the result could be much more interesting. Still, we have many examples of when even for mere pennies it was possible to create a spectacular spectacle capable of competing with large studio projects.
In the end, I want to say that ' Devil's Ridge' is a film that had interesting ideas, and some scenes were actually alarming, but in general, this show turned out to be quite mediocre. Apparently, the director simply lacked inspiration, which is why many successful developments were averaged, and in general the production was not as promising as it looked at first. But it is also not possible to call it a complete failure.
5 out of 10