Devour (2005)

Film Review

Now here we have a group of young kids but it's not really a slasher. I had reasonably high hopes for this with it's computer-game-that-dares-you-to-do-horrible-things premise, but it pottered along like I was watching Murder She Wrote or something. Jake (Jensen Ackles, Supernatural) gets entered in to an online game called The Pathway. They call you up on your phone and give you instructions on what to do in the situation you are in. Obviously any game like this will eventually start to get evil, c'mon kids! While his friends are clearly carrying out a few devious tasks, Jake for some reason seems immune to it.

To it's credit there are some occasional brilliant moments like when Jake finds his friend, Conrad next to the two people he just shot, with his tong cut out and two pencils jammed in to his ears. See no evil, hear no evil... Don't you just love imagery like that?

I did like the idea of Jake's day dreams or day terrors. He would be doing a mundane task when suddenly he sees himself doing unspeakable things like shooting his father in the back of the head or murdering a priest with a hammer. Then he is back in reality. But don't we all have those thoughts to a certain degree? Does it always mean we are suppressing our real darker characters?

The last scene would sit more comfortably in a better movie. It's daring and unexpected. Throughout the film I never really thought that he would get accused of the murders, or perhaps I just didn't really care. Kissing your long lost mum though, even if she does look like a hot 20 year old, is a definite no-no for me any day of the week. Call me a prude if you like.