Pass on this Incident
Five American students lead by Holly King (Holly Goss) head to Russia to make a documentary where they plan to recreate the journey which nine Russians took 50 years earlier when they all died in mysterious, unsolved circumstances. But things don't go to plan with only their found footage giving clues to what happened to these plucky students.
I guess that knowing that back in 1959 there was a Dyatlov Pass incident might be a good place to start when watching Renny Harlin's "The Dyatlov Pass Incident". Then again knowing the facts and then being presented with the garbled facts in this POV/found footage movie might not fill you with enthusiasm. Having spoken with someone who was aware of the mystery of what happened in 1959 their impression of this movie was not favourable and urged me to look at other documentaries and read the books on the true incident as that is a lot more interesting than this. I haven't yet but I expect they are as this movie didn't grab me one bit.
Now for those who don't know I don't care much for POV/ found footage movies they tend to never ring true to what real life would be and those which manage to feel real end up tedious because of course most of every day interactions are tedious. But of course what "The Dyatlov Pass Incident" really wants to do is get you on the edge of your seats as to what happens to are five adventurous students and what they discover but in failing to create characters to draw you in it is incredibly, in fact nigh on impossible to be drawn in to the situation and what you quickly realise in their impending doom. Yes it is one of those movies where you have to plough through a long and dull build up to what they find but even then it isn't spectacular enough to make sticking with it worth it.
What this all boils down to is that I have to say that Renny Harlin's "The Dyatlov Pass Incident" is a miss, another found footage movie which highlights how difficult these movies are to make as this struggles from the word go to draw you in to the mystery and are five plucky characters.
