Nikolas Robinson
Devil's Backbone Texas is a decent movie for what it is, a fictional documentary building on supposed "real life" paranormal activity in the region. The documentary aspect of the movie could have been more coherent and fluid as the protagonist is investigating his con man father's bizarre death, the claims of supernatural activity surrounding that event, and his goal of spreading his father's ashes on the property...but it works for the purposes of the movie, being amateurs and friends filming the documentary rather than professional documentary filmmakers. It's a slow burn with limited payoff at the end and a few attempted jump scares mingled with some attempts at tense moments during the latter half of the movie...though some of the tension is pulled off fairly well, with some creepy bits and pieces. What truly makes the movie worthwhile is the final couple of minutes with a twist that makes you think one thing followed shortly by another that wraps it all up. If the build up to the conclusion had been a little bit better, the whole movie could have been a pretty great fake documentary, but it stumbles a bit too much coming out of the gate.
FlashCallahan
In January 1996, Robert Stack and Unsolved Mysteries featured a story on landowner Bert Wall's interactions with the spirits that roamed the Devil's Backbone. The tale goes that he was quite a bizarre person, and spent a lot of time in solitude.Nearly twenty years later, Wall passed away, leaving behind tales of an inexplicable terror to those that knew him best.So his estranged son decides to,do,the right thing after seeing the documentary, and go and seek the truth about his father, and lay him to rest in a ceremony....It's another found footage movie that starts off particularly well, and very authentic. The makers go down the Blair Witch route of interviewing townsfolk. Some maybe real, some may not be, but what they are definitely full of boring stories, and the camera focuses on the for too long.What worked with Blair.... was the interviews were extremely short, short enough for you not to think about the myths, short enough to make you uneasy.These just linger, and by the time they reach the place they are supposed to be going to, the films nearly over, and you couldn't care less about them.So the son goes about bonkers, there is a phantom car, and just before you can say Scooby Doo!, its all over after a silly attempt and and really misjudged jump scare.It's as if the jump scare was add to prompt the audience to know that the film is over.Believe me, you lost my attention way before the ending.Don't bother...
scottar-49845
UGH... Did I really just watch this? Stuck on the couch after surgery and wishing this was just a bad post op dream. Bad actors, especially the girls. The castrated metro males are weaker than kittens.A good story idea ruined by bad actors and cinematography. The style is over used and unoriginal. Im no production expert but Im a consumer and this is just plain dollar store quality.The author needs to get with a real professional production company and take this story where it needs to go. story line drifts and some scenes make no sense at all. For example, boar in the trap. So and then what? The location was good for the story, could of made better use of the landscape. everything was from one prospective only, the speechless camera operator.
rosecalifornia
If you can deal with the shaky-cam nausea, it is still a complete waste of time. There really is no spoiler, it is a documentary of someone trying to build something from nothing. It is so void of any substance that it is even difficult to fill in ten lines - mandatory - to post a review. As another reviewer mentioned, no need to waste your time watching this. Even the lack of planning to drive out to the ranch is laughable. Prepare for bugs, but hunters on a ranch. Also I feel bad for the academics that were interviewed for this documentary. I wonder how they feel after seeing the end result with their academic integrity attached.
AD
