Alright, lets cut to the chase here, The Barrens, a spin on The Jersey Devil legend, is no uber great movie. Chastised and frowned upon by much of the horror community, you have to wonder just what was expected of a production like this - a pic that's early notices suggested it was never going to shake the earth of the horror crowd?The Barrens is competent film making in the context of the budget afforded it. When you look at some of the films that have been churned out on the various sci-fi and horror channels out their in cable land, then this definitely has more going for it.True! There's the usual implausibilities and director and writer Darren Lynn Bousman has pacing problems, but there's good thought gone into the screenplay here, Bousman looking to add a little more to his film than merely being a "monster in the woods" shocker. There's also decent performances from the cast, which only comes to fruition when things finally go belly up in the last third.Not one to recommend with any sort of confidence, especially to the tough horror loving crowd, but if you are after a "decent" "B" type horror to view while you are pottering about doing stuff in your lounge (or basements), then it proves itself to be more viable than some Syfy channel trash that is churned out at regular intervals. 5.5/10

I think the Story of this movie is great! But the movie is a slow starter and one of those movies that you literally have to be stupid to put yourself in this situation. I barely finished it because i was so aggravated how stupid people were and all that just to make a movie? It is very rare nowadays where there is a movie that without a doubt in your mind you still think "Damn that could have happened to me too!" This movie the whole time has you like. WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT IN THE FIRST PLACE!!!! Watch it yourself and see for your self. Just bare through it :)I would love to produce a movie or be a thought in making it. You would get that type of movie from my script that makes you feel helpless and full about your attempts to survive.

There is legend that the Jersey Devil lives in the titular woods. It came about after a woman had 13 children, but she offered up the 13th child to the Devil so she and her other children didn't have to leave their house. The Vineyard family are going to camp there so the father can release his father's ashes. But while there, they hear that someone has gone missing, and the father thinks it's the work of the Jersey Devil. They move camp site to get away from the rest of the campers only to find that they're in more trouble than they were before. Is the legend of the Jersey Devil real, or is it just another story.....I wanted to give this movie a chance, because the director knows how to deliver a slick horror movie, and the cast wasn't half bad.What I got was just another generic horror movie, where the main protagonist is assumed as being bonkers, but all his fears and rants are real, because hey, there goes that awful CG beast.Moyer is okay as the troubled lead, but toward the end, I was more concerned about wiping his eyes than the danger to him or his family. Supporting characters are just your typical fodder for the beast, and the little boy does the worst scared impression when he sees the decomposing dog.It's like a really watered down version of The Shining, minus the tension, the scares, and the plausibility.There is nothing to redeem this film, it looks cheap, and the cast look very disinterested.If I ever want to see anything about the Jersey Devil, I'll stick to that X-Files episode.On the plus side, its the best film ever made about rabies induced hallucinations.

Darren Lynn Bousman directed some of the more watchable Saw sequels and the cult, horror sci-fi rock opera Repo! The Genetic Opera. Since then, his movies just get worse and worse. After his barely okay Mother's Day, I didn't have high hopes for this movie but it still managed to disappoint me.True Blood actor Stephen Moyer stars as an upper middle class family man that drags his wife, teenage daughter, and pre-adolescent son out camping to the same place he used to go with his father. Once they arrive at a heavily populated camp site, he immediately begins acting crazier and crazier but this doesn't seem to concern his family, who agree to follow him even deeper into the woods. Along the way, he is haunted by visions of local legend the Jersey Devil, a man eating demon spawn that supposedly stalks the woods.Not much of The Barrens makes sense and Stephen Moyer's performance is just terrible. He plays the whole film in the same note of crazed, squinting intensity. He rants, pops pills, shoves his kids, and throws jealous temper tantrums at his wife so frequently that he makes Jack Nicholson in The Shining seem balanced. It's completely unbelievable that his family wouldn't be more concerned by his insanity.Mia Kirshner of The Black Dahlia and The L Word and the rest of his family are better, but they're not given enough personality to impress. Erik Knudson, of Scream 4, Saw 2, and Jericho is also great is a supporting role as a skate punk the daughter befriends and he steals every scene he's in but he doesn't have much screen time.Aside from a cool looking creature, which may or may not only exist in the father's imagination, there's not much to The Barrens and it just limps along like a wounded hiker for the first hour. Things pick up in the last 30 minutes but it's too little too late and down ending seems forced and, like the rest of the movie, has some major logic issues. I just really can't recommend this movie to anyone.