Devil's Pond (2003)

Director:

Joel Viertel

Writers:

Alek Friedman (writer)
Mora Stephens (writer)

Release Date:

2 March 2005 (United Arab Emirates)

Genre:

Drama | Thriller

Tagline:

Till death do us part.

Plot:

What starts out as a romantic honeymoon on a deserted island turns into a horrible nightmare as Julianne discovers that her new husband is psychotic...

Plot Keywords:

Island | Honeymoon | Insanity | Axe | Flashback

Cast

Kip Pardue	...	Mitch
Tara Reid	...	Julianne
Meredith Baxter	...	Kate
Dan Gunther	...	Priest (as Daniel Gunther)

Also Known As:

Heaven's Pond (Philippines: English title) (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated R for language and some violence.

Runtime:

USA:92 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

Brazil:18 | Iceland:16 | Netherlands:12 (TV rating) | Netherlands:16 | Germany:16 | Italy:T | Philippines:R-13 | Singapore:NC-16 | Spain:13 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Kalispell, Montana, USA

Company:

Davis Entertainment Filmworks

Trivia:

A special Commendation Plaque was presented to Shari Hamrick from the State Of Montana, for her fire fighting efforts on the set of Devil's Pond, when a freak forest fire broke out.

Soundtrack:

Wherever You Go

Simple Story, Done With Style.

"Devil's Pond" is a simple, straight-forward thriller movie that was a big surprise to me. The story itself is quite simple. Julianne (Tara Reid) is a young woman who marries a man named Mitch (Kip Pardue). The newlyweds take off into the Montana wilderness for a nature-filled honeymoon on a small, secluded island in the middle of a lake. After spending some time on the island, Julianne gets tired and wants to head home, away from the tiny cabin on the island. But Mitch begins to slowly go mad, showing his true colors. Of course, Julianne is terrified of the water and never learned to swim, so she's trapped. After failed attempts at escaping, Mitch's behavior becomes more and more violent, to the point where he has Julianne chained up by her foot. She realizes that she needs to get off the island before one of them loses their lives.

Reminiscent of Stephen King's "Misery", I found "Devil's Pond" to be a well-done thriller. The story was simplistic, but the stylish direction and isolated setting really benefited the film and made it interesting. The acting was decent, Pardue and Reid did a good job, although a few moments came off as a little corny, but it was nothing too major. They are (for the majority) the only characters in the film, and they pull it off pretty well. The audience has sympathy for Julianne, and you're rooting for her through most of the movie as Mitch gets more and more insane. There were some great action sequences, and I thought the final showdown between Mitch and Julianne was very well executed and pretty creatively done. The atmosphere was great, and the whole setting was beautiful. I'm quite familiar with Montana, where the movie was filmed, so I found the imagery and the setting to be rather interesting. I really don't know why everyone has so many problems with this movie, I thought it was an entertaining and all around good thriller.

Overall, "Devil's Pond" isn't as bad as a lot of people on here are saying that it is. The acting was good (for the most part), the story was well written and interesting, and my attention was held the whole way. If you liked "Misery", chances are you'll enjoy this too. This film goes to show you that you don't need a bundle of characters and a complicated story to make a good movie. 8/10.