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| Off The Beaten Path The Plot A trio of thrillseekers led by Chuck Stevens, his girlfriend Dina Duncan and a videographer friend named Randy Bodine set out for a small Minnesota town called Gateway. Their intentions are to make a short film for the internet about an abandoned backwoods property with an unsettling past that a local woman from Gateway, named Brenda Jacobs has invited them to explore. Not heeding Brenda's warnings to head back after finding ritualistic items, the four of them manage to provoke a transcendental presence that should have been left forgotten. Before the night is through, who will live to tell this story... The Movie If you liked "The Blair Witch Project" then you should really like "Off The Beaten Path". If you're not into that whole documentary or mockumentary or whatever it is called, then you might not like this movie. As for me I really enjoyed "Off The Beaten Path". The majority of this movie is filmed through the use of a handheld camera, mainly operated by Randy (Tommy Thompson), but everybody else had a hand at the filming as well. That way of filmming gives it a unique style in my opinion. For me it helps me get more into the movie, I feel like I'm actually there holding the camera, videotaping Chuck (Todd Hanson) as he explores one of the three cabins on the property. I personally liked the story, although I know somebody out there probably won't. There were a couple of things that bothered me, like since Brenda (Jessie Welsch) is so concerned about getting back before it gets to dark, why didn't she have them meet her earlier in the day, like in the morning, instead of at 6 P.M.? Well I guess you wouldn't have much of a story then, if they didn't get stuck out there at night! haha The movie really picks up near the last 10-15 minutes or so. You'll be treated to some nifty shots and some spooky scares. Anyways, the acting was pretty decent on this flick. Everybody seemed pretty layed back and relaxed and that help give it that natural feel I thought. You know how some low-budgeted movies the acting seems a bit to much but not in this one. What little music is played on this movie is pretty good and fits in nicely with the whole mood and atmosphere. It helped to make some of the scenes more spooky. My hat goes off to Jason Stephenson as well. He wrote and directed "Off The Beaten Path". He also co-produced and was the Director of Photograpy. He wrote a nice story and really put together an overall pretty darn good film folks. I'll definitely be watching out for more of his stuff. "Off The Beaten Path" is one of the better low-budget, independent, movies I've seen this year. For a "mockumentary" type of movie it was well written, shot nicely, and put together nicely. So be sure and pick up your copy of this when it comes out. The DVD Bonus Feature wise, this disc is full of extras, over an hour's worth of extras. You have a couple of deleted scenes, including an alternate beginning to the film. Next, you have almost twenty minutes worth of Behind the Scenes footage. This is the best feature in my opinion. It gives you a little taste of what all went on while making this movie. You also have several minutes of Outtakes, Misc. Clips, and a Gag Reel, which are all basically just extensions of the behind the scenes footage. They also put on a Split Screen feature, which shows you a Real Time Point of View, compared to the Outside Point of View. Then you get a Photo Gallery, set to the music of the film along with a pretty informative Production Notes, the Official Trailer to "Off The Beaten Path" and all the Teaser trailers that they had on the website. All in all the features are pretty good. All the features combined almost run as long as the movie itself! This DVD is well worth the cash to buy it. I only wished that they had a Commentary Track to go along with the movie. I would have enjoyed listening to Jason and the crew talk about their experiences.
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