Gripping story with well-crafted characters

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

A California motorist (Daryl Hannah, in the film for name recognition value) is on her way to Bangor passing through a stretch of Pennsylvania where the road leads through forest on both sides, when she comes across a frightened young woman (Leah Gibson) who seems to have been through an emotional roller coaster (and has blood on her). This shaken woman reveals her name to be Amy Singer and forewarns that something evil is lurking in the woods out to get them. Amy will provide a narrative for how all her friends wound up deceased to Carrie (Hannah) on their way to the next nearest town. The film opened with an ominous figure, dark and not easily recognizable, carrying a bloody machete, pursuing Amy, so immediately established is the Lurking Evil certain to pop up before the fade to black.Backstory: Amy and fellow Boston U students, majoring in Environmental Studies, can get an A if they collect soil samples and study an ancient Indian Burial Ground known as Arrowhead where coal miners (over 200) died in a mining disaster. What they encounter could be something monstrous, chained and hidden inside the barn of a sullen, greasy, rather creepy gas station attendant named Billy (Daniel Probert) who claims that many of the locals consider Arrowhead the "Devil's Playground". Amy doesn't forget this and is the only one of her group who treats him with a modicum of decency (the others toss around insults about him behind his back). The rest of the film follows the basic "city kids fall prey to backwoods psycho beast" plot.Disorienting camera-work, an editing style that doesn't allow for characters to be positioned in frame for more than a manner of seconds, and way too much time where the camera is right in the face of the actors (not to mention, too many shots of the sky and crows squawking) instead of following the action, "The Devil's Ground" doesn't have the technical merits to surpass the generic, "we've seen it all before" story-line. It is hard to react to a menace that is never established in a way that causes us to dread his presence, and the film fails to generate any creep factor whatsoever.Cheap and ugly, with few redeeming qualities at all, this film would remain buried in obscurity if not for Hannah's name in the credits. I hope you like Leah Gibson's face because we get plenty of it in close up throughout the movie. Even worse is the fact that this film has one too many endings (including a couple twists regarding Billy's family members revealed), none of them exactly worthwhile. Amy Singer's fate seems like an interesting twist if the film had ended with Hannah's discovering something peculiar about her passenger during the movie (the film goes back and forth between Singer's story and in the car with Hannah telling it), but the screenplay just doesn't know when to quit. Probert's scowl, worn on Billy's face exclusively, seems as if he were sucking on a sour lemon throughout his time on screen.

The video looks great. It doesn't strain the eyes to watch which is rare for video. Good looking solid young actors for the most part. The music, the sound, the lighting, the foley, the directing are all very good but. Why take all the time to make and 89 minute movie? 90 minutes is a minimum to ask full admission in theaters. Distrubuters wont think about picking it up unless its at least 90 minutes. They couldn't find another minute in post? Stock footage? Anything? How about a bikini scene with Daryl Hannah. Definitely worth watching but I would have been on the editing floor with a bull whip trying to squeeze in another minute to have a chance to get into a few theaters and generate some P&A...

It's not that bad really! It still can be on the shelf of your horror movies to enjoy it some night with friends. And I guess it can be watched more than once. It has good elements. Good acting , minimum level of required tension, some spooky things like the fact that Amy turns out to be a ghost and the killer has one damn family that refuses to end their killing tradition.I still don't think that it's as bad as everybody talked about it. There is something good about this movie and if you have watched almost all horror movies and your addiction keeps nagging that you need to watch a new movie and you haven't watched it yet, then just do it as it will still satisfy your thirst for horror.

I really did like this movie for several reasons and why it has received negative reviews is still a mystery. But the movie was good and I'm going to give it a 7 because it did have a good storyline and good acting as well. To be short, it was a story inside a separate story that led it to a twist ending that was not expected and will leave you thinking and there may even possibly be a part 2. You will need to judge this movie for yourself and ignore these people who say they never post and gave it a 1 of 10. I did find it leaning more toward horror then thriller but either way a good movie is a good movie.