Devour (2005 Video) User Reviews

The first half got me interested, the second half lost me.

[Crazyfarts · 5/10 · 3 June 2006]

The movie revolves around a character named Jake Gray and his friends that have been playing a deadly game called "The Pathway", which eventually spirals out of control and threatens a worldwide epidemic of violence.

After reading the plot outline and the cool cover art, I decided to give it a go. It starts off right away with the opening credits which plugs a fairly dire heavy rock / metal song in the background. It's the type of set-up that gets you thinking "Oh god, this is going to be lousy and look really cheap!" but alas the first half of the movie is the most entertaining.

The story behind this film is interesting yet executed in a fairly poor manner. Basically, the devil communicates to others via the internet through an online game called "The Pathway" in which you give the site your phone number and apparently it can bring up your whole life's history. You then get phone calls asking you to do certain things, similar to sacrificing animals to your god. The problem with this movie is that it decides to put such a huge twist (a twist that is too complex for its own good) into the mix that really leaves you confused at the end. Though, once you've sat through the first hour of the movie and it all starts to become un-interesting, you won't really care before you get to see the twist. I know what you're thinking... "The devil using the internet? What the hell?" Yeah, I know.

The devil / creature in the movie is similar to a cross between an alien (from the Alien movies) and Djinn (from the Wishmaster movies) but never talks and the screen is always shaken or blurred when you see the creature so you don't really get a good look. The best chance you'll have to get a decent view is near the end but like I said, you may be battling your eyes once you get there.

Devour could have been really good and pulls you in for the first 30 minutes or so, but due to poor character backgrounds, a confusing story and the constant switch between horror and drama, it really is hard to make it worth your 90 minutes of viewing time.

Ah, what the hell, go have a watch. It is a fairly well made movie for direct-to-video but that's no excuse to cut it some slack. The first half got me interested, the second half lost me. I'll be very surprised if your reaction is any different.

An interesting Lie

[BeautifulTragedy · 6/10 · 26 December 2005]

Yes, this film offers an odd perspective of the paranormal, from religion to speculation, there is a clear definition... Once the film starts, you realize there is a lot going on, and there are many twists and turns that lead you to the ultimate ending of faith, belief, power, imagination, and an important story. Of course there are things that make many believe that this type of storyline is absurd, but from the beginning till when it all starts to reveal itself is a great intrigue, if not an obvious plot to turn to. If nothing else, Devour will reveal itself as an interesting turn of events in a mediocre world. Considering that this is a movie that isn't as shocking nor revealing as Saw or Land of the Dead it's worth a viewing since it was never released in theaters. It may not be the next Hitchcock, but there's a vibe to it that may make the many fans of this genre enjoy the originality!!

Disappointing weak ending

[SnoopyStyle · 4/10 · 18 September 2013]

College student Jake Gray (Jensen Ackles) has disturbing visions. His friends Conrad Dean (Teach Grant) and Dakota (Dominique Swain) have some troubling secrets. Then they introduce him to a weird computer group called "The Pathway". It turns out that "The Pathway" is something more disturbing. When Jake's douche boss fires him, "The Pathway" helps him get revenge. As more deadly things happen, he is more concern that this is even more dangerous than a simple cult.

This movie had some good tension going. Jensen Ackles is good as the lead. The visions are a bit weak. Teach Grant is not up to the job his role needs. Dominique Swain is good as a damaged corrupted girl. Shannyn Sossamon is perfunctory as the sweet love interest. All of it was going well as an average horror movie. But the ending is really weak. It needed a lot more action to push the climax over the top.

A Spectacular Film... For Insomniacs...

[terrible2 · 4/10 · 8 December 2008]

Well acted and shot snore-fest by director David Winkler, tells the story of a computer program linked to Satan himself. Basically just another psychological thriller with out much substance, the story sputters along at the same speed as sheep jumping over a fence. It does have some decent gore scenes, but they are too few and way too far in between, and chances are you will miss them due to the fact that you are sleeping, which makes "Devour" almost impossible to pay attention to. The plot involves a collage student who's (Bobby Brady-looking) best friend introduces him to a internet program (as a gift)that turns his dismal life upside down. Certainly not the worst premise, but it's slow pace makes it so boring that I actually fell asleep four times trying to make it through this. Perfect evening's viewing for anyone suffering from insomnia, as I found it more effective then NyQuil... Yawn.

David Winkler bites off more than he can chew.

[BA_Harrison · 4/10 · 12 August 2009]

Devour feels like several movies have been thrown into a blender by writers Adam and Seth Gross, and then wolfed down by director David Winkler, only partially digested, and finally excreted onto the screen; some of the original ingredients are still identifiable, but on the whole, it's just one big stinky mess.

Part The Omen, part Brainscan, Part FeardotCom, and part Rosemary's Baby, the Gross's screenplay sees high school student Jake Gray (Jensen Ackles) experiencing hellish waking nightmares after his pals Conrad (Teach Grant) and Dakota (the perfectly toned Dominique Swain) sign him up for an online game called 'The Pathway'. To cut a long and very confusing story short, the game is controlled by the devil herself (yes, she's a woman, just as I suspected), who is searching the world for her missing son.

No prizes for guessing who turns out to be the spawn of Satan...

Decent acting from its young (but perhaps not young enough) cast, the odd gruesome moment, and a gratuitous sex scene between Ackles and a fully clothed Swain (what, no nudity?) cannot help Devour from being a disappointment; and with a final comment from Jake which suggests that the whole devil thing might have been a figment of his twisted imagination, it's hard to see this film garnering praise from anyone other than fans of its lead actor.

Promising Story Lost in a Terrible Screenplay

[claudio_carvalho · 4/10 · 23 May 2006]

In Cheever Lake, the twenty-one years old Jake Gray (Jensen Ackles) has bloody nightmares while awake. His friends Conrad Dean (Teach Grant) and Dakota (Dominique Swain) apply him in a weird game called "The Pathway". Jake begins to mix reality with daydreams, while his closest friends die. Jake blames the game, which might be connected to the devil, for the deaths of his friends and decides to investigate the mystery.

The beginning of "Devour" is a promising but miscast teen horror movie. Jensen Ackles and Teach Grant are too old for performing characters of twenty-one years old, as well as Shannyn Sossamon, who looks very old to be the girlfriend of a young guy. The rules and the reasons for the attraction of "The Pathway" are never explained, so it is not clear why the three friends decide to participate in this strange game. When Jake Gray discloses the mystery in the woods, the confused direction and the terrible screenplay are completely lost and the movie wasted. The dubious conclusion, with Jake questioning what has really happened and who he is, is excellent but does not save this forgettable flick from a complete failure. My vote is four.

Title (Brazil): "Adoradores do Diabo" ("Devil Worshipers")

This Pathway leads to a crappy film

[movieman_kev · 2/10 · 24 July 2009]

Jake Grey (Jensen Ackles of the hit TV show "Supernatural" and "My Bloody Valentine 3D") gets drawn into a seemingly demonic game called 'the Pathway' that his friends, whom are already addicted to the game, sign him up for it. Now he's stuck on a path that may have disastrous consequences.

While you'd be forgiven for thinking this movie would be akin to similarly-themed horror films such as "Brainscan" or "Arcade", the actual plot device of 'the Pathway' game falls into the background (whether this is due to numerous rewrites I don't know) as the film goes in a decidedly different path of demons/possession. This would be fine and all if it was even remotely well-done. It's not. Instead we're 'treated' to a mish-mash of half-baked ideas that are very silly and banally done. Of course screenwriters Adam and Seth Gross would epically fail again with their next film, the much-maligned adaptation of the DOA video game series, but somehow even that disaster was more watchable than this one.

Eye Candy: Noelle Reno gets topless and Jenn Griffin shows her ass

My Grade: D-

Where I saw it: Showtime Beyond

The Devil's in the Game

[punisherversion1 · 1/10 · 2 September 2018]

DeVour: Directed by David Winkler and written by Adam Gross and Seth Gross

Oh boy those pesky early 2000s teen horror movies. This one went straight to DVD and stars a bevy of talented actor such as pre Supernatural Jensen Ackles, Dominique Swain from the remake of Lolita, Face Off and the classic Sharkansas Women's Prison Massacre, a badly wasted William Sadler and some other folks. This movie is about a computer game possessed by demons who torment you and get you to do terrible things. I think they do because it doesn't ever show you anything. This is a rather tame horror movie. It came across like it might have intended for television before TV got gruesome itself.

This film popped up on my Amazon Prime feed and my fiancee who is a fan of Supernatural immediately said to stop flipping through the selections and pick this one. I can say with the utmost certainty that we made a mistake. It had no problem using the requisite adult language or showing people having sex but when to showing gore or even something scary, it chickened out. I was terribly confused by the reasoning for this. The other reason I thought this might have been intended for television is the rather flat, dull and lifeless appearance to the visuals. I know television nowadays is cinematic and beautiful and interesting in a lot of cases. In 2005 when this movie was made, that was a rare thing for tv to be.

Looking over David Winkler's filmography, the look of the movie makes perfect sense. Nothing but TV and straight to video. But enough about that, what about the performances huh? Huh? Dominique Swain is pretty good in this. You feel the pain that is hiding behind her. I feel like this is before Jensen Ackles really fell into his own. He is pretty dull. You have no real idea who he is or why he is doing what he is doing. Yeah he seems shaken up by what happens to his friends but nothing is behind the emotion there.

Now I'm not one to delve into spoilers of any kind. It's just not my style but there is a plot point in this movie that I just have to address. So here is the spoiler warning......

a group of devil worshippers perform a human sacrifice so that one of them can become one of the most sucessful video game developers around.

That's it. That's all there is to it. Of course in a major metropolitian city, everyone knows everyone and they're all connected in some way. It was entirely too many coincidences not to make your head hurt. Skip this one with all your might. It has little to nothing interesting. It won't hold your attention. It took me two nights to even finish the thing. I give this movie an F.

Interesting, and impressive for a low budget film. NO SPOILERS

[Fizzwizz · 7/10 · 17 February 2006]

I'm very surprised that the IMDb rating to date is less than 5 at the time of writing. I feel it's important to critique this film for what it is, ... a 'B' movie. In my opinion it did not present as such, it gave some lesser A movies a run for their money. The acting was convincing, the characters interesting and the cinematography was superb. The story line was perhaps the weakest part of the film, and for me the ending was predictable, however it kept me interested to the end which is not always easy with me.

I enjoyed the film, though it's a long way from my favorite in this genre. This being said, the production crew should be very proud of it considering it is a B movie. Give them a real budget and I'm sure they would come up with something remarkable.

In the whole scheme of things I rate this movie 7/10 ... but compared to other 'B' movies I would give this a 9.5/10

Bad plot but quite well acted

[Stevieboy666 · 4/10 · 15 November 2018]

Poor Jake is living a pretty screwed up life. He keeps having disturbing visions. His mother is a cripple, his dad a recovering alcoholic. He gets fired from his job. And he gets introduced to a dark computer game called The Pathway. Then everybody around him starts to die. But it's not all bad, Jake is a hit with the ladies! This starts off slowly but intriguingly. However once the plot begins to open up about The Pathway being a computer game used by the Devil, who here is a she(?), and a Satanic cult it descends into absurdity. I found myself laughing at how silly it was. Acting is decent, though the actors are obviously older than the parts that they are playing. Not as gory as the DVD cover suggested, however there is a graphic tongue cutting. I certainly won't be going for a repeat viewing. If you want to watch a good Satanic video game movie choose Evilspeak instead.

Really Good B Movie..I expected this to be awful, but was surprised when it wasn't...

[Brookic0 · 8/10 · 26 June 2006]

This movie is very similar to movies such as Cry Wolf, The Ring 1 and 2, and Stay Alive. In all these movies a character does something (like visit a website, watch a video, play a video game, or start a rumor) which starts into motion a chain of events (usually unleashing something evil) that result in a blood bath. While this is probably considered a B movie, I thought it was a fairly good B movie. It sure wasn't the best horror movie I've ever saw, but it did entertain me. I thought Jensen Ackles (Jake) and Dominique Swain (Dakota) did an excellent job portraying and acting their parts... Shannyn Sossamon (Marisol)was just mediocre in her acting skills. I found her acting kind of bland and boring.

The movie itself started off really well. It was set up well, but then the further along it got the worse it got. If a different person were playing Marisol, if they'd kept the beginning and the basis of things being connected to the website, but found a way to make various parts and the ending more realistic and added a bigger budget to pull all of that off, then this had the potential to of been a great movie. However, they did not and this is what we are stuck with. Which is, a really good, but not great B movie...

All and all this movie is not a complete waste of time. I think it was highly entertaining, but like someone else said it is no masterpiece. If you start the movie with unrealistic expectations you will be disappointed. It is best to have no expectations at all and decide for yourself. I would recommend this movie to anyone who likes horror movies or thrillers, but if you don't then it's not for you.

One of those new devil-uses-computers movies. Average.

[siderite · 6/10 · 3 September 2005]

Take a dot.com movie (good looking youngsters barely leaving the teen age using computers), add a bit of Devil for spice, shake it a bit (with shaky text like in se7en, but none of the subtlety) and drop a small bit of The Game and you get Devour.

I can't say than any of the actors played bad, but since all of the characters where cliché they didn't really need to make an effort. The script is average, with the usual inconsistencies we now expect from a teenage audience horror-like movie.

Horror-like because there is no horror in the entire film. Not if you count actors with a lot of red die on them showed for fractions of a second scary.

And in the end there is something interesting, we find who the bad guy is, he suddenly appears and starts explaining things to the main character. We now see that it is a rather known actor (even if he did play in bad series) and we start expecting at least a notch of a bit of a granule of quality inserted into the movie. No, he just dies.

Watch this only if you are really bored.

...what?

[fiya_j · 5/10 · 30 October 2021]

It started of really good!

I had low expectations, was prepared for something cringy and was honestly very happily suprised. Jensen Ackles is just great. But the last 20 minutes or so... I don't know what happened. What a mess. I think they just had too many ideas and couldn't decide.

It had real potential, but sadly by the end the story (and characters) felt rushed and unfinished. Would've gotten a better rating of not for the ending. Bummer. Still, not horrible.

Not worth it, even as a Jensen Ackles fan

[vpassenheim-425-965723 · 1/10 · 27 June 2022]

Those are 90 minutes I'll never get back. Honestly, there are about 10 million other MUCH more worthwhile things to do than watch this garbage. Avoid the torture I went through. Not even with "spoilers", because that would imply there was something to look forward to. If you think putrid diarrhea is worth looking forward to, then you'll watch this.

Devour

[ljcygan · 3/10 · 21 October 2005]

I have just watched this movie, and I am not quite sure what to say about it. It seemed interesting enough, although I did think it was about werewolves. It was not. It was about the devil. To be quite honest, I was confused throughout the entire movie...and I'm not easily confused. The people I watched it with did not even know what was going on, and we were not even drinking yet. To continue, the movie begins with a guy, Jake, I suppose, in the woods hunting. It continues on with Jake admitting that he has "daymares," or, scary dreams in the day time. After he admits that, no one is really sure if he is committing the crimes or if he is just insane. His friends, victims of the devil's possession, were scary before they were even touched by the devil. The whole point of this movie was to prove that the devil can get into the internet and spread his word. Quote from the movie, "Imagine if Hitler had the internet." Yeah, it's like that.

However, the scariest part of the movie is the oh-so-obvious Oepidus complex at the end of the movie. Jake finds out that his lover, Marisol, is really his mother. The movie ends with the police finding Jake surrounded by bodies and a mouth full of blood. The ending question that Jake's voice-over asks makes the audience even more confused. There is no real resolution as he is placed in the back of a police jeep.

This movie was not that good... unless you want to have a good laugh.

5 out of 10 because Jensen Ackles is in it

[pattarnowski · 5/10 · 2 July 2022]

First half wasn't bad but by the time it was an hour in I felt like the movie was too long. I think the biggest thing that needs to be addressed is about the plot twist at the end where his girlfriend is his mom and they just kind of glossed over it. Like that's gonna be a no from me dog. I mean we remember the cabin almost sex scene where she's getting all up in his grill and HE stops it because Jensen and the stuffed bobcat share a moment together and he looses his mojo. Bad mommy. No!

What?

[coreyjmesler · 4/10 · 2 October 2018]

First make sense. It's a good rule when writing a poem and it's really a good rule when making a horror movie. This felt like three different films, none of them fully resolved. The leads are attractive but weak actors, especially the lovely Swain. You may not care by the time you get to the 'twist' at the end.

"Wake me from this nightmare...please."

[Backlash007 · 18 December 2005]

~Spoiler~

That's what I kept repeating to myself during the course of this movie. Devour (which should have been titled The Pathway, or Brainscan 2: Electric Boogaloo) is another flick where the devil is reaching out to people through a computer. If you've seen Brainscan you can pretty much avoid this movie. It has about the same premise. A computer game called The Pathway is messing with people's minds and causing them to commit brutal slayings and then some self-mutilation. If this plot isn't radical enough, it turns out the game is merely a tool to search for a chosen child. I guess the devil watched The Last Starfighter. The only good things I have to say come from the acting. The film features quite a few up and comers for a straight to video flick. Jensen Ackles is in the lead, and Dominique Swain and Shannyn Sossamon are nice to look at. William Sadler is completely wasted, however. Devour also has one of the stupidest endings I've seen a while. Not every movie needs a "twist" ending.

Interesting

[nirvanareaper · 5/10 · 28 November 2007]

OK, here's what I think. I think it's a good storyline but it didn't transfer to screen very well. The only thing I really liked about this movie was Jensen Ackles. In my opinion he's too good of an actor to be in a movie like this. I mean not genre wise but it looks like it was made by an amateur. So, I did like the plot but I didn't like how it was played out. Also, it was cool to see Jensen act with his dad! Even Jensen pretty much said in an interview that it didn't come out like he was expecting it to. He said he kept thinking "What the hell is going on?" So, we're not alone. Raise your standards a bit Jen! They should have made it more like Supernatural haha

hmmm...I was expecting more, but it was okay

[rogue_85 · 6/10 · 1 August 2005]

Okay, so I first just wanna say, I'm not a hardcore horror fan but have definitely seen my share of horrors. I'd even go as far as to say that I actually like some of the horrors that have gotten bad reviews. So basically, when it comes to horror I even like the bad ones.

As for Devour? Well I gotta say it started of okay. I didn't like the music at the beginning titles but that can be overlooked. I liked the beginning of the movie, as it went further it started to fall apart bit by bit. The flashbacks of day nightmares or whatever you wanna call them, were a bit over the top and shown a bit to often. There were moments that were gross and gory, that even I had to look away for just a sec. (I've seen many horrors and I'm a nurse in training, so I've seen my share of blood and gore in real life)

I'm not the one that scares that easily, but there was one moment during this movie that got me. And that was the only moment in the entire movie. I don't know if you could define that as a good or bad point. It could be considered good cause it definitely got my jumping out of my seat, it could also be bad seeing as I wasn't really paying that much attention to the movie.

I'm not a sucker for happy endings or anything but the ending was somewhat disappointing. I expected more, the ending was just unsatisfying.

The acting was alright, all though I've seen the actors act better in TV series or movies.

I don't consider watching this movie a waste of my time, I've seen better horrors sure but like I said before, I kinda tend to pick the bad ones out. (maybe that's because I've seen the good ones :D) so I guess if you like horrors, you could give this movie a shot, just don't expect a masterpiece.

I'd give it a 6,5 out of 10

88 minutes of my life wasted.

[godspeedyoublackemporer · 1/10 · 27 July 2005]

I watched this movie, pay per view, with my wife. She fell asleep halfway through it. Later, after it was over, and she had woken up, she asked me what had happened during the last half of the movie. After some hemming and hawing, as I couldn't quite think yet how to summarize the way the story unfolded, I came up with an answer, the perfect answer. The most truthful and honest way to sum up what happened in this movie.

I said "It doesn't matter."

My wife didn't believe me. She pressed me for something more enlightening. Eventually I convinced her. The energy I would have spent remembering and summarizing just wasn't worth it. This movie might just as well have been 88 minutes of television static.

Not too bad compared to some I've seen

[ironicreality911 · 8/10 · 25 July 2005]

OK, so first, I will say that I think the whole thing about it being in an internet game is kind of lame to say the least. However, the actors did great given such a lame conflict to work with. I've seen horror movies a lot worse than this one, such as "American Nightmare", that I couldn't even bring myself to get through completely without laughing or sleep, but Devour kept my attention. However I don't know if that was the movie or just the fact that Jensen Ackles is kind of easy on the eyes. I rented this movie just because I thought he was cute (lame, I know), but then I ended up actually liking it, so I wouldn't say that I wasted my money.

Not that good, but not that bad

[hermitme · 7/10 · 28 November 2005]

As a fan of horror movies and bizarre movies, I've watched quite a few from the most horrid that makes me wonder why I waste my time on such trash, to the excellent that revives my faith in the movie world. This movie would fall about in between. Not very memorable, yet it did have that certain something that keeps you thinking about it after it is done. What I got from the story and the dialog, is that Jake never really knew if his day mares were real, or just his imagination. Were they visions or hallucinations? When the store was robbed and the owner swore it was Jake, having previewed the tape earlier, it was strange that the tape showed the owner himself stealing, so, we knew, or thought we knew that the game was controlling situations. For all the killings, they seemed murder/suicide, but Jake didn't seem to be involved, which didn't really mean he wasn't.

However, at the end, when Jake wakes up in the middle of with blood in his mouth, dead people around and he trying to figure out, did he do all the killings, and were the day mares just his way of escaping from the truth of what he was doing, or did it really happen and he's now paying the price of being the demon's son? Kind of funky. I gave it a 7 for original idea, but it could have been better told.

weak ending.

[dlmyst-29813 · 5/10 · 15 January 2022]

The movie itself was pretty good and you can easily follow it. The characters were loveable and you can stand behind them. Given some of their decisions wasn't the wisest but it still made the story move along. What I don't understand is the ending. You ended up with a big what the hell is going on face at the end.

Started out better than I expected but ended up worse than I could have imagined.

[ringwench · 4/10 · 17 October 2005]

I did not rent this movie expecting greatness.

I rented it for one reason and one reason alone: Jensen Ackles.

I've very recently become a fan of his because of his awesome performance on the new WB show "Supernatural" and I was eager to check out some of his other work.

But on to "Devour". I popped the DVD into the player expecting complete and utter schlock, made bearable only by the presence of Jensen. Surprisingly, it was better than that, at least at first.

The premise was interesting and original enough to pique my interest, and as the events began to unfold I began to almost enjoy watching it.

Then the strange and unnecessary plot twists started happening.

I swear, from about 1/3rd of the movie to right near the end, the ENTIRE movie consists of the guy's friends and family members dying one by one and him dealing with their deaths. It gets kinda ridiculous after awhile.

And the ending was just asinine. I won't go into it here because it just makes so little sense. Contrived plot twist after contrived plot twist. Then the whole thing ends with a completely ambiguous and unsatisfying fizzle.

So yeah, the Jensen Ackles eye candy is pretty good (and he does the best he can with the mediocre material), but don't watch it for the plot or you'll be disappointed by the end.