Darren Lynn Bousman quickly gained a following within the community in a way many filmmakers don’t. Bousman came out of the gates strong with his direction of Saw II, III, and IV. His Saw tenure was followed by his instant cult classic Repo! The Genetic Opera (not written by Bousman). The man could do no wrong! From there, he made waves with Mother’s Day (also not written by Bousman). And that’s when it started to go downhill. 11-11-11 was a mess that burned fans of Bousman. Alleluia! The Devil’s Carnival (not written by Bousman) failed to hit that same core audience that fawned over Repo!. And that’s when he made his Jersey Devil film, The Barrens.
The Barrens: A Family Camping Nightmare
Richard Vineyard (Stephen Moyer) takes his new wife, Cynthia (Mia Kirshner), and his children, Sadie (Allie MacDonald) and Danny (Peter DaCunha), on a weekend camping trip to the Pine Barrens. What’s supposed to be a lovely weekend away from life and work quickly turns into a battle of life and death. Richard seems off from the start and only gets more…quirky as it goes on. Does the Jersey Devil truly exist, or is the Jersey Devil nothing more than a conduit for the horrors committed by man?
The Barrens is written and directed by Darren Lynn Bousman, and it starts strong. Richard is desperately trying to keep his family together while suffering from an unknown condition. Cythnia is actively trying to have a relationship with her teenage stepdaughter without pushing too many boundaries. And poor Dylan just wants to be happy. Bousman’s story setup is excellent. The only big plot hole in the story is (as someone who spent a majority of their life growing up in Philadelphia) that people from Philly don’t typically go to the Pine Barrens to go camping. (That’s kind of a joke, kind of not.)
Why The Barrens Fails: Visual and Character Missteps
To accurately discuss why this film is awfully conceived, we need to get into some spoilers. Before we do that, we need to talk about how plain of a film this is. The Barrens takes no visual risks. You’d think the person who directed the visually stunning, wild transition-filled Saw II, III, and IV would be able to do something visually interesting with this woods-based horror film. You’d be wrong. Bousman’s direction fails in two specific ways. First, his visual direction is nothing more than point-and-shoot. Second, his character direction is, “make faces so the audience knows something is wrong.”
Stephen Moyer is an incredible actor (on True Blood). It seems that Moyer has taken the wrong lessons away from his tenure with the HBO property. While the constant brooding and sullen acting style works for Bill Compton, it does not for Richard Vineyard. Moyer’s performance is distractingly one-note. At least he gets to use his actual accent.
Jersey Devil Horror
The entirety of the film plays off the question of whether or not the Jersey Devil is real. Richard’s dwindling mental capacity is the focal point of the film’s horror. A neighboring camper goes missing the same night that Richard wakes up randomly in the woods. Richard’s realistically bizarre waking nightmare accompanies this. Bousman attempts to make the audience question whether or not Richard is committing these atrocities, if the Jersey Devil is committing them, or if Richard is committing them at the behest of the Jersey Devil.
SPOILER ALERT
I would have forgiven many of the film’s faults if they had taken the direction of Richard being nothing more than a sick individual with a weird fascination with the Jersey Devil. Rather than going with a more grounded approach, Bousman does one final “twist,” and we learn that not only is the Jersey Devil real, but it’s what caused all of these murders. Why was Richard acting so off, you may ask? He has rabies. RABIES. Are you kidding me?
Bousman slaps the audience in the face with this reveal. It’s beyond lazy and adds insult to injury to the audience who stuck with this awful film thus far.
Skip This Jersey Devil Flop
As much as I love cryptids, they’re our version of the Brothers Grimm. Creatures like the Jersey Devil, Mothman, Loch Ness, and the Squonk are nothing more than attempts to keep younger people out of the woods or inside by the time the streetlights come on. It’s a darker version of Santa Claus. The Barrens feels like Darren Lynn Bousman was too afraid to try and make a film with a deeper point; sometimes the monsters are the people we would least expect. Stay away from this film if you have any interest in Jersey Devil lore. You’ll be sorely disappointed.
