YellowBrickRoad (2010)

Very pleasantly surprised. I fell very quickly for the characters, the cinematography was smooth, not overbearing and acceptable in its plausibility,.. I quite frankly fell into the story as well and was curious to see where it led. The use of Audio as the great antagonist was jaw dropping impressive. Mix that with the camera work to accompany the Audio and you can almost feel the event.

However, if semi-open endings trouble you then it may leave a sour taste but where it finally led was to a scene that is most memorable in psychological thriller endings.

Well done.

Fmovies: I watched this film when I was sick with bronchitis. I was glued to the couch, coughing and hacking, watching this movie and wondering if I was hallucinating, or if the movie was really this freaking weird. The answer is a resounding 'yes.' This movie really is extremely weird.

YellowBrickRoad is an assault on the senses, and I believe that was completely intentional. The visuals, the characters' reactions, the never-ending path, the hopelessness, the desperation, the cacophonous sounds-- all of these things created a unique and subtly terrifying environment. That said, I didn't necessarily find the movie scary, but I did find myself thinking about it for a few days after watching it.

But, I wanted to like the movie more. I wanted more substance. I love movies with an pseudo-historical backdrop, and I wanted to know more about the town's former inhabitants and the path. I guess I wanted a bit more investigation and a bit less acid trip. Yet, I was left with the impression that the semblance of an acid trip was the writers' and director's intention.

So, if you keep the film within its hallucinatory context of a deconstructed and wholly disturbing reality, you might glean some enjoyment out of it. Don't expect your typical horror fare, though, because this is a strangely unique plate that almost borders on experimental.

The movie begins with an interesting plot: in 1940 an entire village population left their houses to follow a trail for an unknown reason. Several were found dead, slaughtered, others were never seen again.

Years later, some researchers finally found the trail that was hidden from the public, for some reason.

Then, the movie collapses. The dialog is not interesting (mediocre at its best), the characters lack any background or are poorly interpreted and, due to amateurish writing, the premise is lost. There is no real horror or psychological terror, and in the end no explanation to why the people went there, why they disappeared or what is the yellow brick road.

Any attempt to find some meaning underline, is just wasting time because there is no subtext. They just destroyed what could have been a good movie.

Just want to say that the other guy who reviewed this movie, most belong to the staff of the movie, because giving this movie 1010 is just wrong. This script should have been worked by professional people, not amateurs. Oh well, anyway, good try, i hope they learned through this (huge) mistake.

2 out of 10.

YellowBrickRoad fmovies. OK, seriously, i just took the time to register JUST so i could post my review on this movie...from start until about 1 hour and 10 minutes into the movie it was great...really really great...these guys did an extremely good job staying on budget for this film...their mix of strange sound and cinematic views created a great suspenseful atmosphere...up until 1 hour 10 minutes the movie, in my humble opinion, is an 8...good movie...

HOWEVER...the ending is SO terrible that it actually brought my rating to a 3...i see other comments equating the Lynch-style ending to this movie but i have to disagree...

the ending is so muddied that the viewer feels robbed..the whole..."i just sat through this super-great movie to see it end like that???"...so cheap and open was the ending that it cant even be genre-ized...and i agree with other posters...it definitely stays with you...but not in a good way...in an annoying way...TOO many unanswered questions and plot holes...its not a tragedy...its not EXACTLY a horror...not TOO suspenseful..just.........weak..

bottom line..prepare for disappointment...

I love when people see a movie they don't get the first time, they become really defensive and think some artsy filmmaker out there's trying to make them feel stupid. Suddenly they're labeling it the worst movie ever, skipping straight to ridiculous statements like "worst movie I've ever seen". That's just crazy.

The horror genre's clogged with terrible meaningless crap about teenagers getting drunk and making stupid decisions, barely anyone ever tries anything new. In YELLOWBRICKROAD, we get characters who are actual people and professionals, dialogue that dares to have (gasp!) subtext, story turns no one would ever see coming (sounds like that's offensive to people, too), great ensemble acting, all of these things that it doesn't take an art-house fan to notice, it's just that people don't want to keep listening.

Here's the real deal: this is a psychological thriller and a patient character study that relies on atmosphere and creeping dread to get under people's skin rather than cheap pop-outs and stingers. It's not perfect, but for a tiny-budget indie it looks fantastic, it's well-performed, it's well-shot, and it features an incredible sound design that should be heard in 5.1 surround. The ending is polarizing, but it worked for me. Helps if you get all the references to films of the 1970s.

If you like lots of blood and guts, wet tee shirts on sluts, and brainless cookie-cutter plotting, go elsewhere. This movie never should have been marketed to you, anyway.

For the rest of you, if you don't mind a movie asking you to do a little work on your own, a little extra listening, you'll really like this one.

And no matter how many jackasses decide this movie sucks because it didn't lead them through every obvious plot point like every other piece of crap out there, more and more people who actually get it are going to discover it.

In 1940, the residents of a sleepy New England town walked along a trail called Yellowbrick Road, leaving behind their possessions. Some were found frozen, others mysteriously and horribly mutilated. There was one survivor. 70 Years later and the documents surrounding the case have been declassified. Armed with the case files, a crew of nine civilians resolve to set out along the trail, to find out what happened to the earlier inhabitants once and for all...

YellowBrickRoad has a GREAT concept and tries to put an innovative spin on the lost in the forest "subgenre". (if such a thing exists). Part mockumentary, part straight horror, it's certainly ambitious.

However, I gotta say... I just plain hated this film. I thought the execution sucked, and found it nonsensical, boring, unscary, frustrating and very very annoying. It has an "assault on the senses" segment, as noted by another reviewer on this page, that literally had me gritting my teeth, and I personally wondered if they put it in to prevent me falling asleep from boredom, as it's a very jarring sequence. It also has an unintentionally hilarious reaction from the performers, who act like the crew of the original Star Trek when hit by a Klingon torpedo or something. The conclusion is jaw droppingly ludicrous, weak and feels tacked on for the sake of it. It would be right at home on a Scary Door episode from Futurama, it's that ridiculous and silly.

So, yeah... I really disliked it and found it an incoherent mess and a very disappointing film.

BUT... I'm in the severe minority here, apparently. I caught this at Dead By Dawn 2011 and it went down quite well with the audience, with most seeming to love it, or at least like it, including the party I went with. (I was the one dissenter in our group) So, based on the audience reaction, I'm gonna say that this is very much a personal opinion here. It's basically kinda similar to Session 9, (in terms of atmosphere) only in a forest, and I'm one of the apparently few horror fans who was totally non-plussed by Session 9, while most like that one also, so anyone who likes Session 9, should like this.

3/10 from me. It just thoroughly annoyed and bored me from start to finish. That having said, based on audience reaction at Dead By Dawn, I'm actually gonna recommend fans to check it out, as it'll probably go down quite well with you. Just wasn't my cuppa tea at all though.