User Reviews

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.

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

Hoping to reconnect together, an estranged family on a camping trip in the Pine Barrens learn the local legend involving the Jersey Devil is real when the voracious creature appears and forces the family to deal with it to escape the woods.

This here is one of the more frustrating and problematic creature features around as there was a chance to do something special here. The setting here is a dark, creepy forest ripe with really terrifying layouts that are perfect for unleashing a voracious creature, it's quite a decent-looking creature with quite a chilling back-story to begin with, and there's some fun to be had when it gets the family lost in the back-part of the woods along the later half, but instead this one tends to involve a slew of increasingly bizarre and outright unnecessary subplots that make this one seem to go on forever. Adding in the usual family drama is more than enough and never really adds much new material to be influenced by this tactic, which feels like a continuation of the clichés anyway, yet the fact that there's so much extra happening going on here that the beginning to this one is so hard to get into it seems to go on forever dealing with the family issues, teen angst, the dead dog and the quest for closure about his father just makes for a tough time overall. All these subplots simply cause the actual attacks to get pushed back so much that the fun attacks in that second half come so late their inclusion is almost an afterthought and a case for being too little, too late to save this one from the potential it could've had about chasing down the revelers in the forest and them getting caught in the middle the way this starts off as, but even without this plot the beast itself and the action in the final half when he's mad and delirious do make this one somewhat interesting and save it somewhat.

Rated R: Graphic Language, Graphic Violence and children-in-jeopardy.

It's not the worst horror movie I have seen and I wished it wasn't a horror movie at all. Basically the "Legend" of the Jersey Devil is just a badly integrated background plot, anything would have done the job here, even a story about a wild bear going rampant...

The opening scenes are like in every B-grade horror movie, a pair wandering through the woods, getting lost, finding strange things and then a sudden cut and the actual movie begins. Of course at the home of a (not so) happy family preparing for a camping trip. After finishing the movie I felt the opening scene completely useless, it does not even set the right mood for the movie that follows.

As the story develops (painfully slowly) we find that the patchwork family is pretty normal, although the amount of problems presented here is a bit too much in my opinion. There are some small references (or should I say stolen ideas) to characters and stereotypes from other great horror movies and authors of the past. You soon learn that the father is a bit stressed out and is pushing the family to some personal goal, not a camping trip.

This is actually the only thing that was kind of well done in this movie. The "secret" about the father and what drives him is well embedded and this part of the story told in a good pace. What couldn't believe is that a living father would ever endanger his family in such a way he does, long before he lost control about his decisions. That guy neglects every signal of impeding danger and he ignores every helping hand, even from his beloved ones. This is too much story crunching and totally unreal.

The middle part of the movie is still the best part, as the plot gets denser and things start to happen. When all hell breaks loose I didn't believe in a monster flick anymore and it felt good. It was way more proper to see this movie as a psychological (horror) thriller...and then the final scenes happened.

Everyone screams too much, stumbles over invisible branches on the floor all the time and a silly scene with a shotgun hobo and a wild cat are added to prolong the really idiotic last scene that spoils the entire movie. Or one could say it completes the circle as the final scene fits very well with the opening scene. Both belong into a C- movie while the middle part is, though over-constructed and a bit far stretched, quite good compared to the rest.

It felt like two movies, the monster version is something I wish I hadn't seen at all, while the middle part had some Hitchcockian elements.

Stephen Moyer and Mia Kirshner play their roles solid and in the last part of the movie really convincingly. The kids, well, Allie MacDonald seems to stay a TV series actress for good reason, I hoped for more but it seems beyond here capability. DeCunha plays Danny Boy like on drugs, don't know what to expect here in the future.

So, the Devil story was silly and the movie will disappoint horror and thriller fans alike. Camera was quite good in some parts, the rest was constructed to uncaring that I wouldn't actually recommend this movie to anyone.

Before I watch a film, I tend to check IMDb. Sadly,the negatives always prove right. Especially with 'The Barrens'.

This film had a positive review, but I struggle to see why.

OK, I like a good low-budget film (e.g. Carriers), but this was too much. The director did try to create tension - a teenage daughter, protecting a young child, a possibly errant wife, etc., but it all amounted to nothing.

I found myself second-guessing the dialogue, and the story. After an hour of suffering, I gave up.

A nice try, but try harder.

Feeling I had seen most everything in the trailer, I was hesitant to actually watch the movie at all. But something 'nagged' at me to do so. I was genuinely surprised to be greeted with a VERY decent and almost original production of truly genuine quality. I won't comment on relatively bad movies, or even above-mediocre ones, or ALMOST good ones that had great potential. What 'hit' me at the end of it was a sense of TRUE collaboration between all involved in the creative process. A sense that everyone listened to everyone else about ideas, directional shots, dialog, and cinematic variances. There was a feeling of a rare 'chemistry' that is very rarely found in movies. Even leaving the best and clearest shot of the beast for last was a new take on an old principal.

The acting was well above par. Delivery of lines and timing was genuinely excellent. The editing and cinematic direction was almost poetry in motion for someone non-skilled in those arts, but simply, rather as a viewer who has seen thousands of films. The ONLY problem I had was with a playing radio and a long-dead dog.

All films have their flaws. But I learned from a wise friend long ago, to never go looking for them. Look for the subtle innovation, the how and why it makes you feel what you do, and simply enjoy what it was that made it "stand out" from everything else.

Good crafting and well delivered on most every level.

Thanks for a great yarn!

The Barrens is a moody and atmospheric horror thriller set in New Jersey's famous Pine Barrens and dealing with it's legendary occupant. Stephen Moyer (whose heavy Australian accent is odd here since he is playing someone who has lived here since childhood) plays an emotionally troubled man taking his wife (Mia Kirshner with delightfully distracting cleavage) and family (Allie MacDonald and Peter DaCunha) on a family camping trip to the Pine Barrens. But, not only is Moyer's Richard a bit stressed, he also has been bitten by a dog that might have rabies. Add to that having possibly seen the Jersey Devil as a child and we have a great mix for a really interesting family outing. Despite it's convoluted set-up, Barrens is actually an entertaining horror. Obviously Moyer starts to see things and then people start to go missing and we are left to wonder is Richard hallucinating or is the Jersey Devil real and poor delusional dad taking blame for it's actions. And I must say Darren Lynn Bousman keeps you guessing and keeps the film filled with an atmosphere of dread as we slowly learn what's going on... or do we? That's what makes this deliberately paced thriller work so well, just when we think we have the facts, we get handed more reasons to doubt. The cast all perform well, Kirshner is a little too deadpan at times but, not enough to hurt the film. I personally liked her hot girl-next-door MILF because she wasn't playing the role that way, it came across naturally. There is some nice gore and make up effects to go along with Bousman's visual style which is one thing he always delivers whether his films work or not. They always look good. All in all probably the best film I've seen on the subject of Jersey's most elusive resident so far and while Bousman does give us a definitive answer by the last shot... you'll have to investigate The Barrens to find out what it is.

Darren Lynn Bousman took a step down from the SAW sequels and the MOTHER'S DAY remake to deliver this cheap-looking, shot on the quick piece of horror trash. It's a largely uninteresting film, shot in the woods and following a family on a camping holiday from hell. What's most apparent is the almost singular lack of atmosphere building which I had expected given the Jersey Pine Barrens setting.

Ostensibly this is a film about the Jersey Devil, with various no-name cast members getting munched on by the mythical beast, but it turns out to be a family drama for the most part instead. That's not good, given that the female characters are annoying and the male characters dull. Stephen Moyer seems to have some cult following after his role in the vampire TV series TRUE BLOOD but I found his jaded role here to be tiring and depressing for the most part. A shame Shawn Ashmore (THE DAY) couldn't have been around for more than the opening cameo.

There's a big twist in the story here which is about the only thing the film has going for it; something entirely unconnected to the Jersey Devil or the setting. I liked it, but even this twist isn't handled very well and it all ends in a disappointingly low key way. A disappointment all round, in fact.

"The deer, his antlers, it wasn't the fence that tore them off...it was the Leed's Devil...Jersey Devil." Richard (Moyer) is a father who can feel his family slipping away. They don't do anything together anymore so he decides to pack them all up and drive them out to the woods where he went as a kid for a weekend camping trip. When they get there the hear of a missing person. Richard begins to wonder if the stories he heard about the Jersey Devil are true. This is a movie for true horror fans only. The movie is pretty slow and not very original but on the other hand it is a very neat idea. The biggest problem with this is that once again the idea of the movie is better then the movie itself. The idea of the Jersey Devil is something that is made for a horror movie, but to me this one was just to slow and not really scary enough to fully expand on the "legend" of the devil. This movie really just boiled down to a family going crazy in the woods, which has been done over and over. Fans of the "Hunters" or even "Wrong Turn" may like this but to me it was just too slow and un-original to fully enjoy. Overall, another movie that had a really good idea but ended up being a cookie cutter horror movie. I give it a C+.

A man takes his family on a camping trip and becomes convinced they are being stalked by the legendary monster of the New Jersey Pine Barrens: the Jersey Devil.

The film opens with a cameo by Shawn Ashmore ("Frozen"). Mysteriously, IMDb is not aware that he appears in this movie, despite his being in the opening credits. (I am sure this will be corrected and this review will look stupid because of it now.) I love how one person on the message board summed this up as "British people should not camp". That is probably very, very true. In fact, everyone's problems would have been solved had this been strictly adhered to.

I am a fan of Darren Lynn Bousman's work, both with "Saw" and after. He has a great style. And, heck, the style here is also pretty darn good. But the film just sort of drags and there is not nearly the level of action this kind of film requires.

First off, this is NOT just a horror film but more of a Hitchcock type suspense film. It's based on the Jersey Devil Legend and involves a troubled man who takes his family on a remote camping trip into the jersey pine barrens in which he begins to believe they're being hunted by The Jersey Devil. Now his own sanity is being questioned not by just himself but by his family as well. Is it the real Jersey Devil or the delusions of a psychopath? The climax is not a certain one as it isn't with most horror type films but this wasn't just a horror film as the director uses suspense more as a tool rather than a plug. As a fan of True Blood, I think this is Stephen Moyer's best performance outside of Bill Compton, and Mia Kirshner who I love in just about anything, always delivers. I saw this in a theater and I did "jump" on a few parts as did others. The director, Darren Lynn Bousman, (SAW II-IV Franchise) who Godfathered "Repo: The Genetic Opera" and my much-anticipated must-see "The Devil's Carnival", brought to life a story that will leave you questioning...does the Jersey Devil exist? Watch it and see...(btw, I'm never going camping again)

A combination of Monster/Horror/Suspense this is a satisfying and mysterious puzzle that is somewhat restrained in the Horror elements (exposed entrails aside). It is a more than competent looking Movie that has a truly creepy, could be real or hallucinatory Monster, one of Mythology's Second Stringers, The Jersey Devil.

Well Acted with a pulse pounding ending where all, or most, is revealed. This Story of a Family Camping Trip was destined for samo-samo status but is elevated with enough Style and tension making it rise above a lot of DTV and other Misfires of its ilk.

The prickly pace and developing despair along with a run for your life momentum makes the Movie a welcome Entry into the Wilderness of Low-Budget, Teen-Oriented Scream-a-Thons. It is much better and smarter than those Cheap Thrill throwaways.

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.

This is my genre, and I watch them all. So very rarely does a film like this pop up and manage to actually terrify the Hel1 out me. The IMDb rating makes me wonder what user's expect when they go into a horror film & maybe they need to stick to a different type of film all together. I thought Stephen Moyer acted brilliantly in this film playing the dad in this with co-star Cynthia Gibbs adding just enough to make things smooth. Here Moyer plays the husband taking his family out into the Jersey Barrens to camp as a form of family bonding. It's more of a selfish act due to the fact his daughter of 17 is cutting loose as is normal at that age & the trip is more of a force fed excursion to scatter his father's ashes.

As they first arrive they find themselves surrounded at the campsite by many other campers, many teenagers partying and other couples to the dismay of Dad who wanted a peaceful family time out in the wilderness alone. So dad, also angry about the boy his daughter met, pulls up camp to go much deeper into the forest where they will be alone. Obviously isolation is never a "good" thing for all parties involved in a horror story and as the mysterious wound on dad's arm gets worse his illness grows stronger. Hallucination, paranoia, panic, frustration, fear and violent tendencies abound as the rest of the story unfolds. It's when the viewer finds out what has been causing dad's sickness as well as to the connection to his arm wound that things really become interesting. It is after that where this film really excels above the rest. Where an average horror would slow this film just keeps ratcheting up the level of fear, you think you know, but you are still taught & unnerved & doubting . If you like horror you will undoubtedly like this, it's a don't miss gem.

No pun intended with that summary line. The movie really sets the bar above average and tries to give you a story you can hang on to. This may be from the guy who did 3 of the Saw movies (as director, he was involved in more than those prior to directing them), but that does not mean you get to see many violent scenes here. You will mostly witness the aftermath of something.

It is important for the story that this happens like that. And we're back to the story department. Either you'll like where this is going (more psychological) or you will repelled by it. The main actor has to pull quite some weight. And I think he does a good job doing so. Mia Kirshner: I almost didn't recognize her. But she does more than a decent job in this too. The ending will once again split the audience. Those that remained and watched it through that is. Not perfect, but more than a solid effort

The Barrens took a promising premise and did nothing remotely interesting with it. The film had some suspense, grisly but off screen deaths and a likable cast. The result though came up very generic, slow moving, underdeveloped and dull. There were absolutely no scares, terror or entertainment value to this picture, making it one of the weakest horror films of 2012.

The film stars Stephen Moyer from the True Blood series and Mia Kirshner from The Black Dahlia. They play Richard and Cynthia Vineyard who go on a camping trip with their kids, but soon their trip takes a sinister turn when mysterious vanishings and death follows them. Richard is convinced that it is The Jersey Devil that has been after him since he was a little boy and paranoia soon takes over when no one believes him. I thought the performances were lackluster and has a botch script that brought the flawed film down even further. The characters were underdeveloped and didn't make me give a damn about their story and what happens to them. It's a shame because they are likable actors in an unlikable film.

Director, Darren Lynn Bousman is becoming a hit and miss filmmaker, although it's not as bad as 11-11-11, The Barrens is by far his weakest effort. I did not like his filming style in this movie; it came off as uninspired and amateurish compared to his many superior efforts such as Mother's Day, Saw III, and Repo! The Genetic Opera. He is capable of so much more than this flat, made for SyFy channel movie. The writing and filming was just lazy to me. Hopefully it's a hit next time because he definitely has it in him.

Overall, the poster is more interesting to look at than watching the actual film. The premise and leads alone may keep you intrigued for the most part and has a twist or two towards the end, but The Barrens is as tedious as they come. Disappointing addition to the horror genre.

If you're looking for a standard lost in the woods, scary-gory urban legend horror film, this is a pretty decent one. If you're looking for anything beyond that, you will probably find THE BARRENS quite a waste of time.

Pros:

--Acting, script, and cinematography are better than many films in this genre;

--Makes good use of anti-climaxes and dream sequences as well as effective vagary regarding how human/inhuman the monster really is;

Cons:

--A lot of loose plot threads, as well as some irrelevant and derivative details, e.g., the quote I use as my title here;

--Although it could be gorier--and I realize that some people like gore for its own sake--all the entrails assault the senses, and while they're really grotty, both animal and human, they all look alike;

--It would be more frightening to just give quick, patchy glimpses of the monster (or not show it at all) than to give such clear shots of the crazy thing.