The Dyatlov Pass Incident
Tags: murder

Plot synopsis:
Note: The Dyatlov Pass Incident was a real-life incident which occurred in February 1959 on the Kholat Syakhl mountain, part of the Ural Mountain range in what was then the territory of the Russian SFSR, Soviet Union. Nine hikers of Russian origin died in sub-zero conditions after fleeing their tents into the night on February 2nd for unknown reasons. Soviet investigators, unable to come up with a viable explanation, attributed the deaths to "compelling natural forces", closing the case due to a lack of evidence of any criminal element being involved and sealing off the site of the incident for three years. The Incident is still subject to popular scrutiny today by people around the world.Note: This film is of the "found footage" genre, and as such, one of the "students" (cast members) is always "filming" unless stated otherwise.----------------------------------------The film opens with a series of grisly black and white images showing bodies of the nine Russian hikers who died in the 1959 incident, with superimposed text stating they were found dead two weeks later after venturing into the wilderness of the Ural mountains. This has become known as the Dyatlov Pass Incident.We cut to a scene of University of Oregon psychology student Holly King (Holly Goss) who does a short description of the Incident and her intent to make a film together with her fellow student, Jenson Day (Matt Stokoe) for a university project. Their psychology professor, Dr Martha Kittles expects her students to "do more than come up with more than a believable explanation", and wants them to put themselves in the place of the original hikers in order to better understand why they did what they did. Day seems highly skeptical of the official account of the Incident, and declares that "we're gonna find out the truth".King further outlines the specifics of their trip to Russia, flying from Oregon to Moscow and then to Chelyabinsk, before reaching the mountain. Ominously, she outlines the etymology of their destination, Kholat Syakhl, the "mountain of the dead", supposedly named as such by the local Mansi tribe due to a "number of mysterious deaths and disappearances throughout history"Joining them are veteran climbers Andy Thatcher (Ryan Hawley), JP Hauser (Luke Albright) and audio engineer Denise Evers (Gemma Atkinson), also students from the university. The team trains on local skiing slopes until they depart for Russia on January 25th.The next scene is a news report on 5 missing Oregon students - ostensibly our protagonists, and describes a search by Russian authorities which discovered remains of a campsite with personal effects belonging to the students. Another news report then comes up, this time a Russian channel, which hosts several "experts" who offer theories ranging from a tragic accident to the "Yeti", to "extraterrestrial spaceships" to account for the missing hikers. Notably, the local inhabitants from the Mansi tribe interviewed have their own theory, where they believe that the disappearance is attributed to a "place where two worlds collide, where you can step form one world to another into the world of spirits".In a third (and final) news report, it is stated that authorities recovered video footage shot by the Oregon hikers, refusing to release the contents to the public, and a group of hackers managed to acquire and release the footage instead. Part of it is shot in night-vision mode, showing a terrified Holly crying in the dark while a unnerved Jenson tries to comfort her. The footage cuts to black.One month earlier.We have a scene of happier times, where our students have arrived in Russia and are taking a train from Chelyabinsk to the town of Evdel (sic). Holly starts interviewing the rest of her crew, questioning their rationales for coming along on the trip. Andy remarks on an angel wing tattoo that Holly has behind her right ear.They arrive in the town of Evdel, and set about attempting to interview a local inhabitant, Piotr Karov, who was the tenth and final member of the Dyatlov party, but fell sick at the last minute and had to back out of their expedition. Apparently, he had a mental breakdown after the Dyatlov incident and has been warded in the town's psychiatric facility ever since. The students approach the sanitarium, and an orderly-in-charge (Leonid Lutvinskiy) flanked by two other orderlies comes out, and angrily demands that they stop filming, later imploring that they leave and go home. Holly asks why they can't interview Karov, but the in-charge claims that Karov is dead, and again angrily demands that they leave before storming off. Moments later, the students see an old man in the window of an upper floor, and wonder aloud if that is Karov, before the old man holds up a hand-drawn sign with the Russian for "stay away" on it. Naturally, our students don't understand, but before Holly can ask the old man to clarify, he is escorted away from the window by two orderlies.That night, they all find a local bar and the bartender puts them in touch with Sergei, who is going to be driving a truck to the town closest to the trailhead they'll be departing from, and the next morning they get to the town. Sergei asks them if they'd like to interview his aunt, who was one of the searchers who went up to recover the Dyatlov group. At the interview, she relates that there were 11 hikers found, not the official 9 and that the last two had a "machine" with them and were "worse than the others".The party finally heads out on foot. Andy and Denise begin to become playful with each other. They spend the night in their tents and the next morning find large yeti-like footprints around their tents. However, these footprints begin suddenly and end just as suddenly. JP and Andy are not amused and accuse Holly of making the prints. She denies this strongly. At one point during the day they see more prints, and hear strange noises. They find an abandoned weather station and are shocked when they find a severed human tongue inside it. At a stop, Holly and Jenson are separate from the others and discuss how they each had events in their lives that foreshadowed this trip. With Jenson it was during an acid trip and with Holly it was recurrent nightmares and seeing "a door". In the far background are seen two humanoid-looking figures slipping by, but none of the party notices them.The second night, they arrive early at the pass. Too early as it turns out, something strange has happened to time. Also, none of their GPS devices or compasses are working. Jenson and Holly go exploring and pick up radioactivity on their Geiger counter. This leads them to a heavy metal door buried in a hill side. They note that it locks from the outside (to keep something IN), and that the lock is open. However the door is stuck and they decide to go back and not mention it to the others.Around the campfire, Andy and Denise flirt and retire to a tent together where they make love. Holly and JP also pair off. Just at dawn, their is an avalance that kills Denise and breaks Andy's leg. The avalanche was started by explosives and some of the party speculate that the military is trying to kill them while others ridicule the idea.After much discussion, they decide to fire off a flare gun to summon the local townspeople. Shortly after doing this two men come up and as they approach ask if they are alright. Holly or Jenson become very suspicious about the men because they have arrived way too soon. They begin to run away, leaving Andy, and the two soldiers begin to fire, killing Andy and wounding JP. The party makes it to the door, unsticks it, and enters the bunker.Inside they see a power handle and turn it and surprisingly, the lights come on showing two tunnels leading away. They start down the right tunnel, but the lights pop out and so they turn back. In the dark, Holly feels something brush her.Going down the left tunnel, they come to an abandoned and trashed lab. There is a book containing files of Russian soldiers, each one stamped "killed in action". There is a wire cell containing numerous meat hooks. And, they come upon a recently-killed soldier who is missing his tongue. Holly speculates that he was sent inside to see if the threat that caused the placed to be sealed up is still there. Going through another heavy medal door, they see several skeletons of weird human-like figures.Holly and Jenson leave JP propped against a wall and continue their searching. Amazingly, they find a cell phone. JENSON'S cell phone. But he still has his cell phone with him. This is an exact duplicate right down to having the videos that Jenson has taken on the expedition. Suddenly they see two tall monstrous figures who attack and further injure (eat?) JP. The creatures appear and disappear, teleporting around the cave. They successfully herd Holly and Jenson through another metal door, and the two lock it to keep the monsters out. Apparently they can't teleport through the doors.Inside this last cave is a time portal. Have passing what could be a day there without light most of the time, they decide to go into the portal together, visualizing the area just outside the bunker and hoping it takes them there. There's a bright white light that feels the screen.Now, we are back in 1959. Two figures (presumably Holly and Jenson) are lying outside the bunker. Two figures (Sergei's aunt and father) come up and discover the bodies, but immediately Russian soldiers interrupt and send them back to the village. The soldiers take the two bodies into the bunker. One begins to swing Jenson's cell phone around (which is still recording), and then abandons it where it is found later by Holly and Jenson in 2013. The soldiers remark on the two's ultra modern dress. They strip them to their undergarments and hang the two, who we now see have mutated into monsters,on meat hooks, and leave. The last scene of the movie is the two monsters (mutated Holly and Jenson) coming out of their comas and looking around.

Review: Thought the first half of the film was pretty good, was like Blair Witch in the snow, going through the motions of interviewing people, getting a bit of a background on what they are trying to do.When they set of on their own and the 'strange' things start happening, it kept you intrigued, but then when you find out what is really going on..
The way this film takes the found-footage theme is quite well done with good twists and turns, keeping your attention.
I think it was a success, because if you hadn't known about the Dyatlov Pass Incident before watching this movie, then it definitely piqued your interest to do some further research!And no, not every Russian speaks English over there!
I also know nothing about the Dyatlov incident and I suspect the movie has little to do with it, other than the name.Weirdly enough, the name was what drew me to the film and I have no idea why someone would rename it blandly "Devil's Pass", which has absolutely nothing to do with the plot and is probably one of many movies to be thus named.Anyway, the film: young maniacally happy Americans go to investigate, equipped with apparently a new type of recording device that needs no recharging, since it keeps going for days.
Greetings from Lithuania."The Dyatlov Pass Incident" is nothing more than a true story + "The Blair Witch Project" + crap.
The actor also did a very good job, they are in this place and they are playing it straight, no one is acting out "oh we are in a found footage film" - they are there, USA + Russian production also feels kind a fresh, especially in these kind a movies.
Sure, it's not a new The Blair Witch Project" movie, it doesn't come close to it.Overall, if you are looking for some new "found footage" movie, this one not that bad at all..
The plot slowly start to make sense and when you finally discover whats really going on, you find yourself surprised with such a good plot in a horror movie.
Secondly, its a kind a blair witch project in structure and style and this is not a bad thing, to me at least, cause blair witch is my favorite horror movie ever and in the end it looks like a tribute to me.Lastly, if you like Blair witch but the end was lame to you, get this movie because its pretty much blair witch less scary but with better plot..
Take elements from "The Descent," "Frozen (2010), "The Blair Witch Project" and add some Sci-Fi zest, and you have the recipe for "Devil's Pass." It's an effective horror/thriller about the true story of how 9 Russian mountain climbers mysteriously died in Dyatlov Pass, and the movie does explain it fairly well, while mentioning some of the strange true elements of the event, but it takes us on a weird route later on, the explanation of the incident is a little eccentric, even though it's fiction based on non- fiction, it gets a little silly.
Yes, this is a bit better filmed than the average found footage film in that it doesn't look like a homegrown You Tube video, but the same stupid plot that hasn't deviated much from The Blair Witch Project is trotted out one more weary and overused time.This is "based on" a real story.
The true story is a tragedy that has been embellished many times over from being ricocheted around the Internet into some sort of paranormal mystery involving Yetis, UFOs, and in this movie The Philadelphia Experiment and teleportation.It's a sorry way to serve the memory of the real tragic young hikers, but Hollywood has done worse by other "true stories", so this film is no more fraudulent in that regard than some more high profile "based on" movies.I just don't think it's worth wasting time on if you've been alive and old enough to experience burn out from the constant bombardment with this creatively bankrupt film genre since 1999.
OK i read a lot of reviews here complaining that this movie doesn't really show true information on the dyatlov incident or that it turned the whole story blah blah blah news flash: this is a fictional movie, it isn't supposed to be a documentary.
I thought the movie was great and I don't think it's fair to blame it for being similar to the Blair Witch Project (which I also thought was very good) or one of the other "found film" movies.
However, the movie even having a very solid Plot and a history behind it, failed to deliver on that,miserably.Start of the movie, though builds a little interest and then suddenly the director takes cue from Blair witch , World war z,Apocalypse now, and many more and ends up making one spoiled broth.
I don't even know where to begin.Believe me I'm a real Horror Fan and i watched too many Horror films.When i saw this,i was really excited,because as i said it is a special case for me that is unexplainable and bizarre.Today i got the chance to watch this film and It was horrible!I mean really bad!!!The shooting is bad,the plot is bad(They ruined the whole incident and turned it into a crap!),the acting is bad.
There are many different theories and considering the horrific nature of the what happened to the original group, films referencing the incident can easily find their place in the horror genre.The incident has been one of fascination for me and I love that someone finally decided to put their creative spin on the subject.
Overall I wouldn't say this was a must see but it is worth watching if you are a fan of the found footage genre.After watching the film it is well worth looking up the real 'Dyatlov Pass Incident' as it is quite fascinating..
i watched it on a rainy night and didn't feel i'd wasted my time - it got me interested in looking into the real-life mystery so it had some positive effect.
Without giving anything away, all I can say is, its a horror movie, I can almost say it lives up to its name in that sense however its some clichés mixed with a weird and honestly complex ending that let this move down a little.Overall, this movie did a decent job with the mixture of fact and fiction, my advice is, if the real life incident interests you, I would still watch it, just remember the movie will be given a make over, if you just like horror movies, again its a good watch, but I'd advise that you study on the incident first before watching it as the movie does leave out quite a few details.
Based on the true story of The Dyatlov Incident, Devils Pass is a pretty interesting watch.
The Dyatlov Pass Incident, a genuine Russian mystery from 1959, is about nine hikers who were found dead in the Ural Mountains.A mixed group set-out to film and retrace the steps of the original hikers on the mountain Kholat Syakhi, also known as the Dyatlov's pass.
With believable acting and an interesting story, while being based around true events, Devil's Pass is definitely worth a watch for horror fans and conspiracy theorists..
When i got to the final scene of the film, I wasn't sure if I liked what it was all about but after the movie had ended I loved it.
There was some stunning scenery in the middle parts of the film - almost made me wish I was up on the mountain with them enjoying the views at times (before I realized what was about to go down of course)A couple of times in the movie I swore I was seeing things in the background of the shot - I'm not sure if it was just me or not but the point is that the movie had me engaged and looking for the answers seemingly as much as the characters were at the time.
The utter mess is so bad that it's almost physically painful.The original Dyatlov Group story is a sad tragedy, which sure is mysterious, but this ridiculous "explanation" is both stupid and IMO almost insulting towards the people who DID loose their lives.I hardly know where to start bashing this movie - it's such a catastrophe.
Let's make it simple; if you watch this movie, you will think the following phrases, at least 100 times each;1; "Why would he/she/they DO that?" 2; "How did he/she/they come to THAT conclusion?" 3; "WHAT?" 4; "SERIOUSLY?" 5; "COME ON, REALLY?..." 6; "How many minutes left until it's over?"The dialogue is weird and awkward and constantly has to explain all the far-fetched theories and events since pure logic fails to do so for the viewer.
The situation here closely resembles that of "The Blair Witch Project": a group of twentysomething documentarians sets out into the wilderness to solve a possibly supernatural mystery, unknown forces cause them to lose their bearings, things go terribly wrong, someone or something is chasing them, there's a spooky abandoned building, and we're supposedly seeing these events through "found footage" from the documentarians' video camera.
We even get a night-vision recording of the terrified female protagonist in hiding, a moment clearly borrowed from the most famous shot in "Blair Witch." That said, "Dyatlov" is definitely the better movie; it helps a lot to have professional actors, a competent (if not brilliant) professional script, a spectacular mountain setting, and several million bucks to spend on better production values.
There are undoubtedly many people in Hollywood that must sit back at times and take stock of where there career's went oh so wrong, people such as Tara Reid thinking back upon pie filled good times, Val Kilmer remembering what the bat suit felt like upon his once toned figure and directors like The Dyatlov Pass's Renny Harlin, a man once trusted with hanging Sylvester Stallone off cliffs (Cliffhanger) and making sure Bruce Willis made people Die Hard (Die Hard 2) but now makes schlocky big budget Hercules films and even worse found footage horrors like this insipid effort.It's actually in some weird kind of way sad to see Harlin make a film this low in the standard of quality, for the man has shown in the past a great talent in making action movies seriously entertaining, with myself in particular finding great enjoyment in throwaway films of his such as Deep Blue Sea and I know my co-blogger Jordan has a special spot for Harlin's great in a cheesy type of way thriller Mindhunters.
With success and failures (Cutthroat Island ekkkkk) in his career Harlin shows none of his strengths here and also finds new failures in creating a film that features not a single interesting cast member and wasting a ripe true-ish story on a slowly paced and in the end extremely daft attempt to create a new Blair Witch/Paranormal Activity in the snow.The group of college students/film makers led by Matt Stokoe's annoying Jensen and Holly Goss's equally lame Holly that you will be taking the journey to the Dyatlov pass with are a totally forgettable bunch of brats and twats that you couldn't care less if the Yeti himself came out in the first 5 minutes and ate them all for brunch.
Making matters worse is the potentially classic scenarios that could play out in the journey riffing off the real life incident (that by the way is all types of strange and worthy of a Google) but things consistently remain unbelievable and at times utterly stupid that it never gets into any type of mojo.Absolutely not worthy of your attention and another sad step in the career of Harlin, The Dyatlov Pass Incident is budget filmmaking at its worst and horror at its least scary.
This should have a 4 rating, and its 5.7 is mind boggling.The real life incident this is based on is a near perfect premise for a found footage horror film, however all potential is thrown away on a terrible script and useless unsympathetic characters.Featuring a talentless cast completely devoid of charisma, all of whom are incapable of channeling anything resembling realism.
Disclaimer #1 - I love this story, which is based on actual events.Disclaimer #2 - I love the #AlienTheoristsTheorizing podcast, and they tell this story, oh so very well.., So well in fact, It will scare the snowflakes out of you.The movie isn't terrible, considering the trail of kernels I've left behind on this year's horror film adventure.
With a scifi fictional spin on the tragic true story of Dyatlov Pass, where nine people lost their lives writer Vikram Weet's convincing script and link to the Philadelphia Experiment, Bigfoot and other UFO conspiracies keeps Harlin's technically well made film intriguing throughout.
After watching this I was prepared to say it was a surprisingly good low budget POV film in the tradition of 'The Blair Witch Project' until I saw the closing credits, "Directed By Renny Harlin." Renny Harlin?
Sure it steals directly from several other POV films but it has an effective story and scares.The acting is poor but the characters are interesting because just like 'The Blair Witch' project we learn NOTHING about them!!!
Based on a real life incident involving nine hikers in Russia who were found dead on the snowy mountains in 1959, this film presents a speculative(and fictionalized) account of what happened, as five young American documentary filmmakers(three men and two women) retrace their route, and meet with equally mysterious fates...
Surprising film is on the one hand obviously inspired by "The Blair Witch Project", but on the other takes an unexpected story turn that puts the narrative in an entirely new direction.
The Dyatlov Pass follows a group of American students on a trek to investigate the true life mystery of nine Russian skiers who befell unexplained deaths while skiing in the Russian mountains in 1959.
that story of creatures and those guys passed the lightening path at the end turning into some kinda monsters was completely cheesy in my own idea.what a waste of time on this movie!
There are many people to this day who feel the deaths were part of a Russian government cover-up.Devil's Pass a 2013 (Rated R) UK-Russian horror film, directed by Renny Harlin).
It feels like it is meant to leave you wondering "what really happened?".Overall, I would recommend anyone who is curious about the Dyatlov Pass incident to watch this movie.
This is rubbish to be honest, because it's BY paying attention to it you get to the conclusion that it indeed doesn't make sense.Devil's Pass isn't too bad of a film to watch, and it raises interest in the actual Dyatlov Pass incident if you didn't already know about it, but overall it's nothing to write home about..
My opinion on this so I was definitely not expecting it to be as good as I thought it was, due to the reviews I read before purchasing the movie, "that it was a terrible found footage movie", and "what a waste of time making this film" and so on, But my overall review of the film is superb and just let let you know that it is worth watching, the storyline kept me in suspense the build up is what makes it what it is a was wanting to know more and the fact it is based on a actual events makes it that bit more interesting, some of the acting is a bit over rated, but apart from that 'The Dyatlov Pass Incident' is one of the best found footage films I have seen this year..
THE DYATLOV PASS INCIDENT starts off promisingly enough as another of these 'found footage' horror movies, basically summarised as THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT in the snow...it sees a group of college stunts taking a hiking trip to the Ural mountains in Russia, where they hope to solve a real-life mystery from the 1950s...The best thing about the film is this real life mystery after which the film is named.
Unfortunately, after a promising first hour with some decent attempts at suspense-building and some great location photography, THE DYATLOV PASS INCIDENT starts to fall apart as a film.I blame Finnish director Renny Harlin, who hasn't made a decent movie since DEEP BLUE SEA and who can't resist on going over the top when it comes to the plot elements.
Five conventionally good looking American students get a grant to go off and make a film about the The Dyatlov Pass Incident, a genuine mystery from 1959 in which 9 climbers died under mysterious circumstances in the Ural mountains.
The Dyatlov Pass Incident is a found footage movie, based on a real mystery.
The original mystery is pretty interesting though and certainly worth checking out.Any horror fan is going to enjoy this, it may also appeal to people who are interested in conspiracy theories (get your tin foil hats on people!) It's not anything genre breaking, clever or psychologically scarring but The Dyatlov Pass Incident is good entertaining fun and as good a found footage romp as you are likely to find..
They travel to Russia expecting to find the truth about the unsolved mystery; but they find death instead."The Dyatlov Pass Incident" is another movie that uses "The Blair Witch Project" style of footage and honestly I am tired of the clichés of using handy camera to give the sensation of documentary.
If you want to gather friends to watch a "so bad it's good" movie, then "Dee-yatlov's Pass" is a way to go.
(5/10)Support Cast: Filled with the Russians that tell the story, try to stop them but mostly very rarely seen.Director Review: Renny Harlin – Unlike most found footage films this gets a well know director putting his experience stamp on directing.