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Yellowbrickroad (2010)
Vivendi Entertainment
DVD Released: 8/2/2011
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Review by Mike Long, Posted on 8/5/2011
“They’re in the woods. The camera keeps moving around. I guess they’re looking for some witch, I don’t know, I wasn’t listening. Nothing’s happening…nothing’s happening…something about a map. Nothing’s happening…it’s over. A lot of people in the audience look pissed.”
-- Brian Griffin
Family Guy, summing up The Blair Witch Project
(More on that in a moment.)
I've written before about the difference between a good idea and a good story. A bad writer can have a good idea, but do absolutely nothing with it. On the other hand, a good writer can take a mediocre idea and turn it into something interesting. Unfortunately, it seems to be the former which happens more often. It seems that every week I watch a movie which has a promising premise and then offers nothing else to the viewer. We are left to wonder what happened to whomever conjured up the notion which drove the film...and what caused the engine to sputter. This was my reaction to Yellowbrickroad, an oddly named and disappointing film.
Yellowbrickroad opens by telling the story of Friar, New Hampshire, a small town where, in 1940, the entire population walked up a nearby mountain and disappeared. Jump ahead to the present, where Teddy (Michael Laurino) and Melissa Barnes (Anessa Ramsey) have organized a group to find the path and ascend it, in order to learn what happened to the townspeople. Joined by Erin (Cassidy Freeman), Jill (Tara Giordano), Daryl (Clark Freeman), Walter (Alex Draper), and Cy (Sam Elmore), the group arrives in Friar and immediately receive help from Liv (Laura Heisler), who agrees to help them find the trail if she can accompany them. A few hours later, Teddy and his crew are moving up the trail which bears a maker which reads "Yellowbrickroad". They make their way through the brush, but don't encounter anything unusual at first. However, they soon begin to hear music from the 1930s, but they can't find its origin. Then, the navigation equipment begins to malfunction and the figures kept by Erin and Daryl don't add up. Despite these problems, Teddy decides that they should keep moving forward. But, things keep getting weirder and weirder.
When The Blair Witch Project debuted in 1999, it took a cue from Cannibal Holocaust and revived/reinvented the found footage genre. Since then, we've been bombarded with low-budget, low-rent, low-thrills movies which have ripped off the Blair Witch formula and shown us that having a video camera doesn't make on a filmmaker. (Of course, movies like
Cloverfield and REC have done wonders with the style.) 12 years later, the sub-genre has grown more than tired, but this hasn't stopped them from hitting home video week after week.Fortunately, Yellowbrickroad avoids this copy-cat look, as it's shot like a standard narrative film. However, the story is very similar to The Blair Witch Project, as we watch a group of people who are checking out a local legend and running into more trouble than they expected. The piece starts out as a fairly clear-cut story and slowly begins to incorporate the supernatural.
And just like Blair Witch, as cited in that classic quote from Family Guy, nothing happens in Yellowbrickroad. The movie begins with an awesome idea. The notion of an entire town walking up a hill never to be seen again is a creepy and intriguing one. However, you'll get far more chills from reading the back of the box than from actually watching Yellowbrickroad. The interesting opening soon dissipates into scene after scene of the group walking through the wilderness. When the music began playing and I didn't find it creepy, I knew that the film was failing. This should work, but it doesn't. From there, the movie doesn't try anything else to impress us. There is one murder which comes out of nowhere, but it's so sudden that it seems non-sensical. The last 30 minutes is an exercise in audience patience, as we just watch people walk and complain. The ending...well, it's simply not satisfying.
It's not just the film's title which references The Wizard of Oz. The movie is filled with allusions to that classic movie, and as the original incident took place in 1940, this makes perfect sense. However, just like everything else in the movie, this goes nowhere. It's as if Co-writers/Co-directors Jesse Holland and Andy Mitton had an idea for Yellowbrickroad and then suddenly found themselves in the midst of filming it, not knowing what to do next. Here we have a horror movie featuring adults (as opposed to teens) for once which shows some creativity. However, the end result is a crippling disappointment. The movie is boring and ultimately pointless, making this road one to avoid.
Yellowbrickroad leaves little question as to how the production secured the ATV on DVD courtesy of Vivendi Entertainment. The film has been letterboxed at 1.85:1 and the transfer is enhance for 16 x 9 TVs. The image is sharp and clear, showing little grain and defects from the source material. The colors look good and the image is never overly dark or bright. The picture shows some very mild artifacting at times, but it's never distracting. On the positive side, the image is never soft. The DVD carries a Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track which provides clear dialogue and sound effects. The movie relies on good audio effects and this track does a fairly good job of delivering. The stereo and surround effects help to illustrate things happening in the forest, both on and off screen. This helps to add some depth to the movie.
The only extra on the Yellowbrickroad DVD is an AUDIO COMMENTARY from Directors Jesse Holland and Andy Mitton.
Review Copyright 2011 by Mike Long