As soon as I seen the title YELLOWBRICKROAD, I was set to watch this movie. Wizard of Oz is my favorite movie and it being a "horror" movie that tried to tie in with it, yeah...I am going to watch it.
This goes along the lines of Blair Witch and Trollhunter
(which I could swear that I did Trollhunter as WTF but I must have been posting on FB about it before I started this blog). There is a group that is going to investigate and get down to the bottom of the scary conspiracy.
What is the conspiracy of YELLOWBRICKROAD you ask?
*****SPOILER ALERT*****SPOILER ALERT*****I WATCHED THIS SO YOU DON'T HAVE TO*****DETAILS AHEAD*****SPOILER ALERT*****SPOILER ALERT*****
Well, the story goes that one morning in the 1940 all residents of this small New England town left EVERYTHING and walked up this winding trail into the mountains.
Most of the townspeople were found frozen to death on the path, some were mutilated. There was a cover up and the town was repopulated. Just recently the records were declassified....queue in the curious research team that wants to get to the bottom of this conspiracy...well, get down to the bottom of it to write a book anyway...
The group is compiled and headed by Teddy
(the hopeful author), Melissa
(Teddy's wife), Walter
(scientist and best friends of Teddy and Melissa), Erin and Daryl
(brother and sister map team), Jill
(intern) and Cy
(I am not sure anymore what Cy does). They think the trail starts at the the movie theater in the small town. No one wants to help the group about this mystery..no one except the chick in the movie theater
(Liz). She tells a little story about how the Wizard of Oz movie
(tie in for the movie title) was left in the projector of the abandoned town...then she says she will help if she gets to go along. She knows were the marker is for this path which is marked "YELLOWBRICKROAD"...so it is on with the hike.
First thing they find is an old hat that seems to not have weathered in the past 70 years. Then Liz tells some story how the people that left the town were dressed in suits and hats. Daryl decides that the best way to keep the hat safe is to wear it.
While the hiking is going on there are two other things going on. One is the scientist of the group interviews everyone constantly and asks really random questions while recording them on video. I think this is to just make it weird. The other thing going on is the running joke with the intern. The GPS equipment is not working right so they constantly ask her where they were...Guam, Italy, Australia. This is to show that the equipment is batty. But still they trek on...
Wait, listen...is that weird creepy old music in the woods? They all hear it, and yet they trek on....the music gets louder and everyone seems to get a little wiggy. Is it lack of sleep because of the music? Is it the weirdness of it all?
Oh nos, the map team goes to survey but Erin has a fit and tries to make Daryl take off the hat. Daryl will not hear of it and goes wacky and kills her. Rips her leg off. I didn't see that one coming. Now the whole group feels stressed. They watched it happen and watched Daryl run off. Camp is set up and part of the group goes off to find murderer Daryl...all the while this music keeps playing in the woods.
They find and bring him back to camp, tie him up, and are all awoken to crazy loud noises and vibrations. What on earth is going on? I think it is marshmallows that they stick in their ears for the noise, but the vibrations still make them fall all over the place. They still trek on...until they see a pile of debris on the path....and what is this on the front of it? Another Wizard of Oz reference. The dead girl
(that they left in the field by the way) is now strapped on a pole like the scarecrow with arms crossed in front and pointing both directions.
While this is disturbing, still the leader of the group and his wife climb up the debris hill so they can see what is on the other side - he has a book to write after all. Because the noise and vibrations are still going on, everyone is falling everywhere. Daryl gets free from his ropes and takes their vehicle
(oh, I didn't mention that they have some sort of gator/4 wheeler type thing) with their supplies and leaves. The group splits up.
If you recall from all those years watching Scooby Doo, then you know that when the group splits up, that is when the weirder crap happens.
Teddy ends up leaving his group in the middle of the night
(his group is Melissa, Walter, and Jill) to go on his own. His group doesn't look for him, they push on to try to get home. The other group
(Liz and Cy) get high on nightshade.
on with the weird crap...
Cy goes bonkers and wants Liz to tie him up and kill him.
Jill eats all the candy
(her group found candy as part of their rations) so Walter and Melissa ditch her.
Teddy is wandering around.
Daryl is driving around aimlessly with the vehicle.
Liz snaps Cy's neck and eats more nightshade.
Walter commits suicide...
While Melissa is sitting there in front of a cave dealing with the fact that her husband ditched her and her friend Walter commited suicide, a voice comes from the cave. It is Daryl. He tells her he is going to kill her. He is wearing the hat. The hat is the devil I guess.
He kills Melissa.
Somehow in this Liz finds the vehicle with supplies and ends up hunting down and killing Daryl.
Who is even left? Teddy, Liz...where is Jill? Did she die? More music.
I am confused. Teddy somehow ends up at the movie theater and the guy yells at him to take his seat. The freaky film starts and it is the end of the movie. WTF? Where is Liz? Is Liz the evil monster? Did I blink and miss Jill's death? Do you think Teddy wrote the book after this?
Well, I am left with more questions. Not that they are going to eat away at me, but still. It felt incomplete.
If you do end up watching this, please tell me what I missed so that I have closure.
Below is the trailer. I did not watch this before the film. I am going to tell you that the trailer and the intro story makes it seem so much more interesting than it actually is...