Madness-inducing wilderness, WTF moments, disturbing visuals

What if there existed a virtually unknown wilderness trail that caused hikers to gradually become more and more insane as greater distances were traversed, and the madness wasn’t noticeable to those effected? What if weird music started coming from the trees, from the grass, the ground – or are those surreal melodies coming from the sky? What if hikers in your group started behaving more and more violently, the maps stopped making sense, and compasses, watches, phones, iPods, and other devices all ceased to function properly? What if ingesting strong hallucinogenic substances found growing in the woods along the way started to sound like a responsible move, a wise idea under the circumstances? That’s a taste of what a weekend of hiking and camping might be like along the YellowBrickRoad. Maybe the trailhead sign and visitor register were taken down for good reasons…

Horror themes: Evil wilderness, local legend, missing people, hallucination, hallucinogenic drugs, human scarecrow, murder, lost, remoteness, self-injury, madness, insanity…

Verdict: 52/100… From an overall quality perspective, YellowBrickRoad is about average; it gets 52 points on the Supernatural Horror index. Although I felt the overall quality was average, the events and plot of the film itself were anything but average; as others have mentioned, there is a strong WTF aspect to YellowBrickRoad.

Although the movie contained some decidedly disturbing visuals, I did not experience a genuine case of the creeps afterward (probably because there was no identifiable antagonist, apart from the wilderness itself), as has happened in the past with the horror movies that succeeded in scaring me the most. (I can still remember feeling uncomfortable and being jittery as I walked my dog late at night after seeing The Ring for the first time.) Unfortunately, the ending of YellowBrickRoad simply failed to deliver the goods – at least in the eyes of this nature-loving but jaded supernatural horror fan. It was a bit of a let-down.

On a more positive note, I would say that supernatural horror fans who are looking for something different, unique, and disturbing (in parts, anyway) should consider checking this movie out: It’s not bad for a low-budget indie horror flick. YellowBrickRoad scores points because of the way it lets its hair down, what with its atypical plot and some interesting horror themes I was not expecting. (Although I described it as low-budget, it did not have the feel of a B-movie or underfunded project; it seemed professionally done.)

Written and directed by: Jesse Holland, Andy Mitton

Plot summary of YellowBrickRoad

One morning in New England, 1940, the entire population of Friar, New Hampshire – 572 people – walked together up a winding mountain trail and into the wilderness. They left behind their clothes, their money, and everything else; even their dogs were tied to posts and left to starve. No one knows what caused the villagers to vacate. Much later, a search party dispatched by the U.S. Army finally discovered the remains of nearly 300 of Friar’s evacuees, many having frozen to death. Other townsfolk were cruelly and mysteriously slaughtered. The bodies of dozens and dozens or remaining citizens are still unaccounted for. Over the years, a quiet cover-up operation managed to weave the story of Friar into the stuff of legends and backwoods fairy tales. The town has slowly repopulated, but the vast wilderness remains largely unexplored; its northernmost stretches were declared off limits to hunters, loggers, and hikers. In 2008, the coordinates for the “YELLOWBRICKROAD” trailhead were declassified. The first official expedition into the very same mysterious wilderness will attempt to reach the end of the trail and solve the mystery of the lost citizens of Friar. The husband-wife pair of investigator/ researchers Teddy and Melissa Barnes (Michael Laurino and Anessa Ramsey) coordinates a team effort which includes Forestry Service representative Cy (Sam Elmore), intern Jill (Tara Giordano), behavioral psych professor Walter (Alex Draper) and brother-sister map/ topo experts Daryl (Clark Freeman) and Erin (Cassidy Freeman) to investigate the legendary Friar, New Hampshire occurrences.

Original trailer: YELLOWBRICKROAD 2010 supernatural horror movie (YouTube video)

YellowBrickRoad The Movie Promo (YouTube video)

Resources: YellowBrickRoad supernatural horror movie

• YellowBrickRoad (2010 horror) – IMDb (Rating: 44), Rotten Tomatoes (Tmeter 40, Aud 29)
• YellowBrickRoad on Amazon.com
• YellowBrickRoad reviews at Amazon
• Slamdance 2010: YellowBrickRoad Stills and One-Sheet – DreadCentral (Rating: 3.5)
• YellowBrickRoad (2010) – Original movie trailer (YouTube video)
• YellowBrickRoad – 365 Horror Movie
• Movie Review: YELLOWBRICKROAD – Geek Tyrant
• YellowBrickRoad is Indie Art House Horror That Doesn’t Take it Too Far – Best Horror Movies
• Follow The YellowBrickRoad! – Horror Society
• YellowBrickRoad – Bloody Disgusting User Reviews
• Bloody Disgusting movie review of YellowBrickRoad by Mr. Disgusting, Brad M. (Rating: 3.5/User-2.5)
• YellowBrickRoad (2010) Movie Review – Horrorphilia (Rating: 4/10)
• ‘YellowBrickRoad’ Movie Review: About.com, Horror and Suspense Movies (Rating: 2.5/5)
• YELLOWBRICKROAD Horror Movie review – Comic Book Movie (Rating: 5/5)
• YellowBrickRoad DVD Movie Review – Horror.com (Rating: Avg)
• YellowBrickRoad movie review: JoBlo Movie Network (Rating: 7/10)
• Film Review: YellowBrickRoad (2010) – Horror News (Positive overall)
• YellowBrickRoad horror movie review – Gone with the Twins (Rating: 7/10)
• Movie Review: Yellow Brick Road (R) – Popcorn Parent movie reviews, Chesapeake family (Rating: 0) – Not sure what the point is of having this kind of family-oriented review of such a graphic horror film…
• HORROR REVIEW: YELLOWBRICKROAD (2010) – Anything Horror (Rating: 2/5)
• YELLOWBRICKROAD movie review – Dead by Dawn 2011 (Rating: 8/10)
• Movie Review: Yellowbrickroad – Orlando Sentinel (Rating: 2.5/4)
• HorrorBid Reviews YELLOWBRICKROAD; Can You Survive The Trip? – Horror Bid (Very positive; must-watch)
• YellowBrickRoad (2010) Movie Review – Beyond Hollywood (Very negative review; ‘highly disappointing’)

Photo gallery: More images from YellowBrickRoad, 2010 horror movie

NOTE: As usual, these images are randomly pulled from themed image folders each time this web page is loaded. If you click your browser’s refresh button, you are likely to see different images from the movie than the movie stills currently shown below. Give it a try. (The image folders for this movie currently contain between two and twelve images each.)

Around the campfire, before things get too bad

Camping, hiking fun – before terrible things start to happen

Fantastic but mysterious wilderness

Cutting his hand for fun

Daryl

Erin

Wilderness, fields

Jill

Melissa

Wilderness

Horrific discovery: from hiker to scarecrow in minutes

Teddy, the group leader

Trees

The only vehicle available, but not for long

The nice views and beautiful scenery is largely unappreciated by this group, perhaps due to frequent, terrifying experiences

Walter

Towards the end of YellowBrickRoad movie

Removed or unfinished content
Yeah, sometimes I trail off, even when I’m writing.
YellowBrickRoad would have been rated higher if the film had not gotten off to such a slow start… not that every horror occurrence needs to be described – it’s often more appealing if no attempt is made to explain the event(s); however, this time I wanted more background information than viewers were given. I really enjoyed the natural scenery – the vistas, the skyward shots, the trees, and the fields in YellowBrickRoad. The hallucination segment was entertaining.

Horror movies tend to rank lower.
The IMDb rating of 44 is pretty average for a horror movie, as are the relatively low scores on Rotten Tomatoes. IMHO, a rating of 44 might indicate a sub-par or poor comedy or drama, but for a title in the horror genre, a 44 might indicate a movie quality closer to average.