Customer Reviews

Devour

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

Okay, so the unfavorable reviews are somewhat true to life, but since I'd read the reviews before buying the movie, I knew I'd made the decision to buy a really campy movie for like 3 dollars that I'd probably end up watching over and over again at three in the morning.
I actually really enjoyed this movie. No, it doesn't take risks, but sometimes that's just fine. Having high expectations for b-list movies is a gamble anyway.
Ultimately, if you enjoy campy horror movies (guilty) or Jensen Ackles (again, guilty) you'll definitely take pleasure out of watching this movie.
I also want to add that the reason behind why I rated this movie so highly is because, whatwith my given expectations due to reviews and the context of the movie, I got exactly what I expected (and wanted).

Another reviewer commented that this was the worst movie ever made...I can only assume he has NOT seen many movies as I could name about a hundred worse movies without breaking a sweat. That's not to say Devour is good, it's just not awful. Jensen Ackles (Of Smallville) is Jake, a young college guy who suffers from waking nightmares. He's haunted by something he saw or found in the woods in these nightmares. His buddies include a goof off pothead named Martin and a sexually agressive waitress named Dakota who may...or may not be Jake's Girlfriend.

They turn Jake onto an internet game called "The pathway". In a sort of Fear [...] way this game knows everything about its players and calls them on the phone and tells them to do things...or gives advice on taking control of thier lives. When Jake is fired from his job as a PC repair Tech, the place where he worked is promptly robbed the next day. The owner blames Jake but security cameras showed the owner and several other men pulling off the crime. It's never explained what really happened though but this is how the pathway helps it's players.

Jake's daytime nightmares get more violent as he sees himself murdering his father and mutilating his own body. When Martin is found dead, after shooting an enemy and mutilating himself just how Jake had dreamed he begins delving into just what the pathway is. It's as this point that a fairly decent thriller takes a turn for the worst and degnerates into some schlock about satanic rituals. It all ties together pretty poorly in the end. The performances are pretty good. These young actors are vets of numerous roles and they come off quite capable.

Not a bad direct to video film but it could have been so much better with a smarter script.

This movie follows a typical supernatural path that most horrors take. Its centers around the main charcter who is always seeing visions. However, none of the visions make any sense. It is about the internal struggle we all have with good and evil.The longer I watched this, the more confused I got. I DID enjoy watching due to its constant twists and good cast. I liked it for the fact that the movie gets darker and meaner as it goes. It has a pretty original plot and follows pretty well. 4 out of 5 stars because the ending wasn't on par with the rest of the movie.

If you love blood, guts, violence, blonde bimbos running around in an amusingly stupid fashion then this isn't the movie for you. Though classified as a horror, I suppose it would be fairer to call it a supernatural drama. As there aren't any really jumps but has some interesting characters (well i thought so anyway). Also, though the story isn't the most original and some characters come and go leaving you going what?! the acting isn't that bad. Especially, Jensen Ackles so fans of his should have no problem watching this and most probably will love it, though he doesn't crack any jokes like in Supernatural. Devour also tried to have one of those two points of views but after having watched the movie you'll see they put a lot more effort into one side. Okay, in summary not a bad movie and if you like characters which have some depth then you should enjoy this. If your looking for a horror movie or a bad horror movie with violence and random sex scenes look elsewhere like Crocodile or Frankenfish.

I was extremely surprised by this movie because it covertly tells a lot of different stories on a lot of different levels, depending on your perspective. On first screening, I had a very low opinion, and would have switched discs had the acting not been so well done (especially after the entrance of Sossamon). However, the ending threw me so much (wondering "how did they DO that?!") that I had to play it again, and the second time around, it was actually riveting. If you like movies that make you think rather than take you for a ride, this one is definitely worth playing twice. If you like the ride? Well, you'll probably be disappointed.

Somewhere deep inside the messy script of `Devour' straight-to-video occult thriller, a better and more interesting story is buried. Sadly director David Winkler never seems aware of that, and instead of finding and making good use of it, he makes the entire film more confusing and ridiculous with unnecessary additions.

For example, let's see the film's young hero, college student Jake (Jensen Ackles), who sometimes sees waking nightmares. The theme of seeing weird visions is conventional, but could still be interesting with atmosphere and mystery. Sadly there is none of them here. Instead, all you can see is very poorly-shot, red-colored images that are not exactly scary or chilling. Jake's nightmares about the beast or killing actually offer nothing intriguing especially when these images fail to function as neither scares nor foreshadowing.

So the film adds another mystery factor, which again falls flat. Jake also signs up for the strange online `game' at the site named `The Pathway.' Jake receives a call from `The Pathway' and the voice over the phone can tells, or tempts, the game's participants to do what they really want to do. We are told the consequences could be gory deaths, but the idea is hardly credible and effective because the film says it is a deadly game while we don't know any rules about it. After all, if you don't like playing the game, why don't you just hang up the phone and forget it?

Shannyn Sossamon appears as Marisol, Jake's new girlfriend, role of a `good girl' making a contrast to Dominique Swain's character Dakota, one of Jake's friends (and probably former girlfriend), whose wild behaviors look often incredible. Both ladies are nice to look at, and that's all I can say about their roles.

The film rather hurriedly concludes with hackneyed ideas that have been used in the occult thrillers, but none of them works with mediocre direction. The `surprise' ending is hugely disappointing with the incomprehensible twist, and frankly, anyway we don't care. We don't care what happened to Jake, and in fact we stop caring long before the ending, after watching the cheesy effects of the deadly beast and a burning house, which betrays the lack of enthusiasm on the side of the filmmakers.

On his birthday, Jensen Ackles (Smallville, Supernatural) gets a surprising birthday gift. His friends hook him up into a website called "The Pathway" a game where they call you and you tell them what to do and they get it done for you. Suddenly, bodies pile up and nothing is what it seems for Mr. Ackles as he goes down a path which leads to the end where of course for me it was obvious who it was predictable. Sad sad horror wanna be delivers no goods and a wast of a perfectly good cast, well Shannyn Sossoman (40 Days and 40 Nights, The Order) and Dominique Swain (Face/Off, Lolita) arent that good of actresses anyway. Also starring William Sadler (Demon Knight, Die Hard 2), Teach (Limp, Fierce People), Martin Cummins (Ice Men, Just Candy), Alan Ackles (Hexed, Walker, Texas Ranger) and Rob Stewart (Two of Hearts, The Pawn). No fun to be had here only mind numbing boredom.

Nightmares are a common phenomenon among people, as fear comes crawling during the hours of deep sleep. These bad dreams bring about terror, horror, and other anxiety ridden matters. However, when nightmares haunt a person during the wake hours it could turn a life upside down. The instances when visions and dreams come during the conscious moments are often connected hallucinations. People that experience hallucinations usually are connected with schizophrenia and delusional disorders. On the other hand, in this story the audience will see terrifying reveries in a wide awake state.

Devour opens with a young man with a camouflage jacket and a hunting rifle wandering the woods when a wild beast attacks him. This man is Jake Cummings (Jensen Ackles) whose hazy identity begins to unveil from the opening scene. However, one things is certain as Jake shares with the audience in his thoughts that he frequently experiences vivid nightmarish daydreams that he does not seem to be able to shake off. Jake is also a college student who has just turned 21 and he is ready to go head to head with all the freedoms that come with his age together with his friends Dakota (Dominique Swain) and Conrad (Teach).

When Jake does not hangout with his friends he works at a computer store where he also meets the attractive Marisol (Shannyn Sossamon). At home he lives with his father with whom he has a strained, but a fatherly relationship. Marisol works at the nursing home that takes care of Jake's quadriplegic mother where he also meets her. Soon the two find each other, as they begin to fall in love.

One of the things that the three friends come across due to Conrad's birthday present to Jake is a website called the Pathway. The Pathway contacts its members with different and often bizarre tasks to accomplish. Initially, it seems harmless, but it soon turns dark and dangerous. The events begin to turn increasingly more bizarre, as they eventually lead to death and destruction. In the middle of this horrific mess Jake finds himself seeking comfort and help from his new girlfriend Marisol, as he tries to solve the mystery behind the Pathway.

Devour initially has a fascinating premise that actually keeps the audience interested in the story, as it discloses the element of conscious nightmares. However, this premise turns into a muddled confusion, as too many plots and themes begin to intertwine in a delusional manner. There is also an obvious use of iconic horror elements from other horror films such as the Hitcher (1986) and Ichi the Killer (2001). Moreover, there are moments when the characters maneuver themselves with difficulty through the film and script. Nonetheless, there are few moments when the film shows some promise and horror, but unfortunately the director David Winkler does not taking any risks. This leaves the audience with a conventional horror story that feels flat and used, as it it eventually offers a gawky cinematic experience.

Lukewarm pretty much sums this movie up. You won't exactly devour this movie, but it's certainly palatable. By playing it safe at every turn, Devour avoids making glaring mistakes, but it also limits itself from doing anything worth getting excited about. The whole thing is rather formulaic and predictable, so your big payoff at the end consists of little more than a "Yep, knew it" moment. There may be a few elements of very mild suspense, but horror fans won't find much gore here at all - there are a couple of pretty cool deaths, but all we get to see are the staged after-effects.

The premise has been done several times before, but I still like it - and I'm still waiting for someone to really get it right. The objective is to take a computer game to the next level, combining fantasy and reality in a way that truly tests the "player" and usually leaves him surrounded by a lot of dead friends and family members. Unlike some similar films, though, Devour doesn't go the way of virtual reality. This particular game revolves around players receiving telephone calls asking them to do things. Actually, the whole game here is pretty darn vague. The callers basically just criticize the players' weaknesses in an obvious attempt to make them commit dastardly deeds - particularly acts of vengeance against those who have wronged them. The only thing resembling a twist here is the fact that the main character, Jake Cummings (Jensen Ackles), is already prone to waking nightmares.

Once he starts playing the game, Jake begins having increasingly violent, waking nightmares of murder and self-mutilation. Then those around him begin dying in unusual, suspicious, apparently painful ways. Jake doesn't seem too distraught over anything, but that's mainly because Jensen Ackles has only one facial expression in his repertoire (dazed confusion) - and because he has a brand new girlfriend, Marisol (Shannyn Sossamon), to comfort him. After attending a few funerals, Jake comes to believe (in a rather substantial logical leap) that Satan is using the game to possess its players. By this time, we've all learned enough to see exactly where this whole thing is going, but Jake still has to go through all the paces to get us to the end. There's really nothing surprising or climactic about any of this.

The acting isn't bad, the special effects work reasonably well, and the whole look and feel of the film are perfectly satisfactory - there's just no pizzazz. Devour takes no risks, so you're never really emotionally invested in anything that happens. Defensive moviemaking may guard against glaring weaknesses, but it inevitably results in a film that lacks energy and excitement. Horror movies that don't take risks can rarely be anything more than mildly entertaining.

Jensen Ackles is pretty, I know, but even his good looks couldn't keep me from wanting to stab myself in the face. The script is bad, the acting is bad, the directing is bad, and the plot doesn't make a lick of sense.

And for some reason, Jensen's character having sex without taking his pants off was the deal breaker for me. I mean, WTF? If you were his girlfriend, wouldn't you want to take off his pants? Yeah, me too.