The Barrens

The Barrens delivers
Darren Lynn Bousman has proved to be a quite prolific director, so much so that I was unaware that he was even making The Barrens, let alone it getting a Blu-ray release. He first came to our attention with a triple-whammy of Saw films, all of which I thoroughly enjoy, and then came the rather wonderful Repo: The Genetic Opera. After this it goes a bit ass about tit, with 11-11-11 coming out on DVD around about the same time as his Mother's Day reboot hit shiny. 11-11-11 being a misfire for the most part, although not terrible, and the long delayed Mother's Day being a wonderfully brutal home invasion flick. Now, we have The Barrens dropping on Blu-ray/DVD combo pack, as I wait quietly for The Devil's Carnival to get a wide release. For those that have lost count, that's 9 films in 7 years. Told you he was prolific.
So, after all that rambling, I shall now focus on the case at hand; that being The Barrens. Set in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey, but actually filmed in Canada, The...

Blu-ray Review: "The Barrens"
I hate when I put a movie in I was excited to see and it fails to meet my expectations. That's exactly how I felt when the credits rolled on Darren Lynn Bousman's "The Barrens." This is the perfect example of a film whose beginning and end shine but the middle just drags on for too long. After seeing what Bousman did with "Mother's Day," I really expected more from his next outing.

Richard Vineyard (Stephen Moyer) needs a little time off from his busy life and the trappings of modern civilization. He takes his family on a camping trip to the pine forests of New Jersey called the Barrens. His father used to take him there as a boy. Richard wants to honor his father's wishes by scattering his ashes throughout the area. Upon arriving at their campsite, they are bombarded with stories about a creature spawned from Satan named the Jersey Devil. Richard becomes convinced the monster is hunting his family and the other campers down as gutted bodies start turning up.

I...

A Fast-Paced, Entertaining Tnriller
Reviews on this site for this film have been mixed, but personally I enjoyed it. There is nothing groundbreaking about a movie about a family being stuck in the woods, but the tension and conflicts between the characters are well executed, the movie has a brisk pace to it, and generally the story is pretty solid.

The performances by te cast are hit-or-miss, with the dependable Mia Kirshner being one of the bright spots. The film nearly gets sidetracked in the middle by focusing too heavily on the family dynamic, and yes, of course the family members occasionally do irrational things, but that's just the case with these types of movies. I mean, let's face it, if you've purchased or rented a movie about the Jersey Devil, you should be prepared to suspend disbelief a little.

If you're looking for an entertaining film that won't make you think too much, especially if it's just a cheap rental, then this makes for a decent return on your investment. It won't make you...

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