the barrens

No offense to anyone who enjoys the films, but I consider the Saw franchise one of the crowning achievements of crap cinema. So I was all the more surprised when the director of Saw 2 – 4, Darren Lynn Bousman, came up with the movie that actually impressed me: Mother’s Day, with Rebecca De Mornay. That was two years and three films ago (the guy is nothing if not productive). Now we have The Barrens, starring True Blood superstar Stephen Moyer as a dad trying to reconnect with his broken family during a camping excursion in the New Jersey wilderness.

Don’t worry, it’s not a drama. At least, I don’t think so. Trouble is The Barrens isn’t really sure what it’s about either. There’s a third act twist that explains Moyer’s dramatic mood swings and strange hallucinations of a Jersey Devil stalking his family. But there’s a second twist that after that that makes everything even more confused than before. And how to explain the strange 5-minute cameo from Shawn Ashmore (X-Men) that kicks off the film?

Truth is, The Barrens feels like a tossed off script that came together quickly and was shot at a network TV schedule. And no matter how hard Bousman tries to hide it, his take on the Jersey Devil is about as scary as a muppet with the felt ripped off. Extras include a commentary and single deleted scene.