Directed by: David
Winkler
Starring: Jensen
Ackles, Shannyn Sossamon, Dominique Swain, Teach Grant, William Sadler, and
Alan Ackles
Genre: Horror,
Thriller, Supernatural, Occult
Rated: R
On his twenty-first birthday, Jake Gray's best friend signs
him onto "The Pathway," an internet game where players provide their
personal information and get calls from the game telling them to do things. Not
long after Jake is signed into "The Pathway" things begin to take a
turn for the worse, he loses his job, he begins to have violent visions
depicting him harming his loved ones and himself, and his friends begin to die
off. As things become progressively weirder, Jake becomes determined to find
out what is behind the strange occurrences in town and the deaths of his
friends. But Jake will soon find that sometimes the truth is better left
untold.
Despite Jensen's numerous warnings at various conventions,
this movie isn't as terrible as it could have been. I went into this expecting
a disaster. What I got was a flawed, mediocre attempt at a thrilling occult
story involving Satanism and devil-worship. Mr. Ackles and I may have different
tastes as to what constitutes a terrible film, but after some of the horrible
flicks I've sat through, this just rates as "meh."
The story seems to have a slight identity crisis. It starts
off with the evil internet game seeming to slowly change the behavior of those
who have signed in. It seems to prey upon the hidden secrets, insecurities or
fears residing within the players and convinces them to do something about
these things. Those that play the game begin to die at their own hands after
committing a brutal act of violence. Of those playing, Jake is the only one who
seems able to resist the game's coercion, enabling him to investigate what is
really going on and discovering it has everything to do with a group of devil
worshippers. All of this leading up to the slightly incestuous twist ending. I
didn't mind the twist, but it could have been done without the incestuous
aspect.
The acting was well-done. For it being his first feature
film, Jensen Ackles carries the film well. I felt he did especially well in the
scenes of conflict between him and his father, Paul, played by Jensen's real
life father, Alan. The two work well together in displaying a strained
father/son relationship that, to this fangirl's knowledge, does not exist
between them in reality.
For example, this scene:
My only fault with Jensen's performance is the Luke
Skywalker style "NOOOO!" he lets out at the end of the film upon
discovering the last two victims. To someone who has seen this man nail
numerous highly emotional scenes since the release of this film, this was a
surprising acting choice on his part.
I thought Dominique
Swain did a good job portraying the inner conflict of Dakota, a girl who comes
off as "easy" but, the movie hints, is dealing with a history of
sexual abuse by her father. She made Dakota sexy and silly with a sadness or a
void lurking just beneath the surface. She made the character more than just
the "token slut" and into someone I could easily care about. I wanted to get to know this character better, but aside from one scene in class, Jake's birthday celebration, the scene at the restaurant where she works, and a slightly hot but mostly awkward sex scene between Dakota and Jake, her character is mostly pushed to the side in favor of far less interesting characters.
The rest of the performances weren't very noteworthy, even
Shannyn Sossamon, who plays Jake's love interest and the closest thing to a
leading lady this film has, was rather dull. Did her character, Marisol, and
Jake make a cute couple? Yes. But, until the last ten minutes of the film,
she's pretty bland. This is not the fault of the actress, the character was
written poorly. An actress can only do so much with a bland script.
The characters themselves were pretty flat. Jake is a
college student who works as a computer tech and hunts in his spare time. He
frequently brings his paralyzed mother orchids at the nursing home, and
frequently fights with his apparently ultra-religious father. Oh, and he's been
suffering from disturbing visions that he cannot shake off. Still, he's not
very interesting, and, truthfully, I probably wouldn't have cared much about
him if he was played by a less talented actor.
As described above, Dakota is by far the most interesting,
while Marisol is probably the most boring. Marisol has one quirk, which is her
hobby of reading tarot cards. Otherwise she's just a pretty nurse with laptop
issues that catches Jake's eye one day and slightly aids him in his quest to
solve the mystery of what is happening to his friends.
The one character I didn't really like at all was Conrad,
Jake's best friend and, I think, also his cousin (I might be wrong on that
one). Conrad is introduced with conflict - Jake has to confiscate a gun from
him before he shoots a fellow classmate and that classmate's girlfriend. It is
never explained why Conrad hates this classmate, Darius, so much, or why
(Slight spoiler) he eventually kills Darius, other than "The Pathway"
told him to do it. There is only one scene where Conrad and Jake act like real
friends, the rest of the time, Conrad is either attacking Darius or going on
about "The Pathway." Also, let's not forget, it's his fault Jake got
sucked into the rabbit hole of "The Pathway," in the first place.
Conrad, as an overall character, annoyed the hell out of me, and while Jake was
devastated to see him go, I was not.
Since Conrad's
conflict with Darius is never explained, I felt like the scene where he finally
kills Darius should have been swapped out with Dakota's final scene. Her reasons for doing what she does could be
considered justified, and her crime is far more interesting in my opinion. Many
would argue that the victim had it coming based on his treatment of her from
the beginning of the film. The man was a sexual predator and needed to be taken
out. However, despite her fully developed storyline, her crime and her death
are committed off screen while Conrad's ill-defined storyline gets undeserved
attention.
What is not explained is why the only people that seem to be
affected by "The Pathway" are Jake's two closest friends. Then ending
explains why they were targeted specifically, as well as the others who meet
their end within the film. However, it is stated that this game is popular, so
why isn't there anyone else acting strange in town? No one else at Jake's college
seems to have succumbed to this strange
behavior, nor any adults or teenagers in the neighborhood. I mean, I know this
game is "elite" but you would think at least a few other people in
town would have logged on and become fellow players. This plot could have
developed into something far bigger, but the disappointing reveal of local
devil worshippers being behind the entire thing kept the premise from spreading
too far from the small town the film is set in.
The entire time I was watching this film I kept wondering
why it was even called, Devour rather than The Pathway, which
would have made more sense. I know this was technically answered in a brief,
blink-and-you'll-miss-it shot of a plaque in a church depicting a passage from
the Bible with the word "devour" in it, but it still doesn't feel
fitting to me. "The Pathway" is the initial cause of Jake's problems, and it is mentioned in the film far more than the word "devour," or the Bible verse briefly depicted.
Overall, this film isn't as terrible as Jensen has been known
to claim, but it isn't anything special either. It's a rather tame attempt at a
tale of devil worship that mixes aspects of Stay Alive, The Ring,
and The Omen into yet another mediocre entry in the horror genre. This is not
really worth the watch unless you're a Jensen Ackles fan and want to see some
of his work pre-Supernatural. If you are just curious about the sex scene,
don't waste your time with the entire movie, Youtube has you covered:
You aren't missing much by skipping this one.
4.5/10
Trailer:
