The Barrens is a 2012 American horror film written and directed by Darren Lynn Bousman (Mother’s Day) and starring Stephen Moyer (True Blood) and Mia Kirshner. The film was released under different titles in several European territories: e.g. as Jersey Devil in the German-speaking countries and as The Forest in France and Belgium. In the UK the film was released as Devil in the Woods.
Plot Teaser:
It’s known as the Jersey Devil, the winged beast spawned 400 years ago by Satan himself. Some say this creature still inhabits the dense pine forests of southern New Jersey, where Richard Vineyard (Stephen Moyer) takes his family for a rustic weekend camping trip. As the Vineyard family ventures further into the woods in search of the perfect campsite, Richard teeters on the edge of sanity. And it seems that the blood-crazed demon called The Jersey Devil may no longer be just a myth…
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Reviews:
“Told in a pretty straightforward manner, The Barrens moves along at a good pace once the initial character build-up is over with. On the surface it sounds kind of meh, but this actually was an engaging movie. Sure, it has a lot of the cliché stuff that shows up in tons of movies (such as bad relationship between step-mother and step-daughter; psycho dad losing his shit). But the movie really does a great job of throwing in different pieces of information to set up a number of possibilities as to where the story will end up.” Rock! Shock! Pop!
“It’s not a perfect film, in fact after the first viewing I thought the ending was sorta a cheat, trying to be all things to everyone but with a repeat watch I was left with the opinion that this is a really decent pulse-pounder with some definite notes of The Shining as he loses his shit Jack Torrence style putting his son Danny in danger. ” McBastard’s Mausoleum
“I suppose it isn’t completely without redeeming qualities. The creature FX aren’t that bad, and if you like the frantic, overdone visual style of Bousman’s earlier (clearly higher-budgeted) movies, then there are brief moments of that to be found here. And I suppose some of the supporting players turn in some reasonable performances. But ultimately, this is just a turd, and – as the saying goes – there’s just no polishing it.” Brutal as Hell
Read The Jersey Devil – folklore and mythology
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