Devil's Backbone, Texas

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10/12/2015 a group of metrosexuals go to a haunted area in Texas. the horror is juvenile in quality able to scare only those with no nuts. the cinematography is an insult to the Blair witch style. The acting can be summed up in one word: Horrible. See more 09/10/2015 Effective--if unceremoniously cheated in its execution--Devil's Backbone, Texas blends perfectly with films like "The Houses October Built" and "The Taking Of Deborah Logan". See more 08/25/2015 This movie was surprisingly awesome for the lack of attention it got... also I have a weakness for mockumentaries admittedly. Reminded me a bit of the very well recived lake mungo. If you can, give it a watch! See more 04/12/2015 Documentary style horror. A little uneven at times and somewhat rushed at the end, but overall pretty good. Fans of this style of horror will appreciate it. See more 04/06/2015 Knowing nothing at all about this film going into it, i genuinely thought that this was a real life documentary, the fact that for well over half the movie I still considered it to be and only in the final 3rd having it crumble beneath me, left me completely and utterly dissapointed and rather sad at the lack luster ending. Since found footage started to get a bit old, a new trend has came out the woodwork, mainly in horror, where we are led to believe that what we are watching is a documentary, The Last Exorcism, The Conspiracy and many others have attempted this and although all these films have mixed reviews, they have been of commendable work, to the extent of believability. For a start the Devil's Backbone, Texas is without a doubt the strongest and the weakest of the entire catalogue here, being in that is pulls out every single punch to make you believe its real, that in its lazy 3rd half not only is the rug swept from under your feet but your treated to a shockingly bad ending, one that does the film no justice what so ever. Why film makers feel the need to create such wonderful experiences and worlds only to shatter them with stupidity near the end, is just baffling. It almost feels as if they feel like if there are no big scares in the final reel then it wont work. It's rubbish, because the entire experience should be one of intrigue and horror, not just the last moments of cheap scares. Backbone starts of extremely well, setting the scene by showing us a man named Jake, whos father Burt, was a horrible man, a lousy husband and after moving into a historical part of Texas, ultimately lost his mind and eventually died under suspicious circumstances. Jake wants to take a cameraman and a group of friends up to his fathers final living spot, The Devils Backbone and scatter his ashes. Only when they get there, the lines of his fathers insanity and the supernatural begin to blur, after the group stumble across bizarre memorabilia and interviews from the locals. Its all wonderful, the acting is naturalistic, the contributors all do a wonderful job of selling the piece. The film also manages to hold your attention, you really feel like your watching something real unfold in front of your eyes. It is essentially brilliant stuff, all the camera angles make sense, it doesnt come across as notable, most of the time, that the cameraman is in fact a crew and it all feels fresh and wonderful. It slowly begins to get more and more preposterous however and although the 2nd twist before the final one almost turns it into a, "If this was true this would be one hell of a documentary" film, then it does as all these films do, fling in the hocus pocus nonsense that ruins it all. I have to say, im not sure if this genre of film is meant to work or not because after finding out youve been tricked, it really shits all over your experience, however i am interested in finding out if a director is capable of making one of these films work. This almost goes there, it has moments of questionability and some far fetched ideas at times but on the whole up until 3/4's of the way through you are completely invested. Completely dissapointing on so many levels, yet commendable on so many other levels. If you like the genre youll love it, for me, its a tried and tested forumla that almost got me and when i caught the trick the film went from a 5 star down to a 3. And in 15 minutes thats a pretty hard thing to do. See more jesse o 04/04/2015 What I like about this movie is that there's an air of authenticity to everything that leads up to Jake going on the search to find out whether his father's claims were true. I've honestly tried to look for as much information into this movie as I can but, as far as I can tell, everything with Jake interviewing his sisters, his brother, family friends about Bert and his claims seemed to be 100% legit. I say this because there's old video footage of Jake and his siblings, or photos, and these do not look doctored at all, well with the exception of the obvious footage that's made specifically for the narrative of Bert's White Woman ghost that he claims to have 'met'. So, in some ways, and correct me if I'm wrong, this might be the first example of this type of film. Where they take some very real interviews with Bert's children and his friends about what type of man he was and incorporate it into a horror film. It may have been done somewhere before, but it is the first time I've seen it done, at least in a horror setting. I thought that was pretty unique and it did give the story a little bit of a twist. The problem is the fact that the story, outside of the real-life interviews with Bert's sons, daughters and friends, was honestly a little bit muddled. The movie loses a lot once they start talking about Bert hiring different companies to excavate on his property to see if there's Spanish treasure underneath his land and Nazi POWs in Texas during the war. I honestly, after having watched it, have no idea what this was supposed to accomplish. Absolutely zero fucking idea. Maybe they want to tie it to all the people that died in this area and how their spirits are still lingering and that's what Bert was feeling, or what drove him nuts, but I honestly don't think it works. It just made an otherwise good movie fairly nonsensical. It just doesn't make a whole lick of sense and it was easily the worst part of the entire film, by a country mile. Which is a shame cause I thought the combination of horror/documentary, like real documentary-style interviews, was a pretty clever way to tell this story of this man who just wants to know whether his father lost his mind or not. The climax itself is pretty damn good, it's well-shot and there's a good deal of tension. They do ruin it a bit with a 'twist' but they immediately get back on track for the last scene of the film. I found the twist to be really lame in the sense that, if it would've stuck, it would've negated everything we just saw for no real reason whatsoever. I don't think it honestly would've made one lick of sense given that there was no indication that Bert was known as a prankster or anything of the sort. But, again, the film at least makes up for it in its last scene. And you're not left thinking that watching this movie was a waste of your time. Pacing could've used a little work as did the story. The stuff about the Spaniards' gold, the Nazi POWs , the minerals should've all been cut out of the film. It serves no purpose and all it does is muddle the experience. Other than that, this is a pretty unique approach to a horror movie. I'd only call it average at best, some good stuff here, but there's a lot that holds it back from being a good movie. See more Read all reviews

Devil's Backbone, Texas

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