The Dyatlov Pass Incident

"History always repeats itself."

2013 1h 40m EN

😐

6.0

MID

★6.0TMDB · 771

ThrillerMystery

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

In February of 1959, nine Russian hikers ventured into a remote area of the Ural Mountains. Two weeks later, all of them were found dead. What happened is a mystery that has baffled investigators and researchers for decades. It has become known as the Dyatlov Pass Incident. When five ambitious American college students are issued a grant to return to the site of the original events, they gear up with the belief that they can uncover and document the truth of what happened to the supposedly experienced hikers. But what they find is more shocking than anything they could have imagined. Retracing the steps of the Russians' ill-fated journey, the students are plagued by strange and increasingly terrifying phenomena that suggest that in spite of the desolate surroundings, they are not alone. The forces at work in the Dyatlov Pass Incident have been waiting for them.

“History always repeats itself.”

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Cast

Holly Goss
Holly King
Matt Stokoe
Jensen Day
Luke Albright
JP Hauser Jr.
Ryan Hawley
Andy Thatcher
Gemma Atkinson
Denise Evers
Nikolay Butenin
Sergey
Nelly Nielsen
Alya (73 Years)
Valeriya Fedorovich
Alya (20 years)

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Renny Harlin
Writers: Vikram Weet, Miklos Weigert
Languages: English
Countries: United Kingdom, United States of America, Russia

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released 13 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

International production across 3 countries: United Kingdom, United States of America, Russia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Renny Harlin, shot by Denis Alarkon-Ramires. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Yuri Poteyenko. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Steve Mirkovich shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Holly Goss and Matt Stokoe and Luke Albright carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "History always repeats itself.".

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt1905040 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Renny Harlin directs. Denis Alarkon-Ramires behind the camera. Yuri Poteyenko scores. Steve Mirkovich cuts. Produced in United Kingdom, United States of America, Russia. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Released 13 years ago.
2International production across 3 countries: United Kingdom, United States of America, Russia.
3Directed by Renny Harlin, shot by Denis Alarkon-Ramires. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
4Original score by Yuri Poteyenko. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
5Editor Steve Mirkovich shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
6Holly Goss and Matt Stokoe and Luke Albright carry the top of the cast.
7Marketing tagline: "History always repeats itself.".
8IMDB entry: tt1905040 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
9Classified under 10 themes, including "hiking", "conspiracy", "snow", "mountain climbing".

The technical file

Cinematography: Denis Alarkon-Ramires
Original score: Yuri Poteyenko
Editing: Steve Mirkovich
Production design: Fyodor Savelyev
Makeup / hair: Martin Astles
VFX supervisor: James McQuaide
Sound: J. Stanley Johnston
Stunt coordinator: Viktor Ivanov
Runtime: 100 min · 1h 40m
Status: Released
Box office: $5,217,347
Original language: EN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: The Dyatlov Pass Incident (2013)

Also by

Renny Harlin

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

Community reviews

What people are saying

Gimly2019-12-28
★ 5/10
I'm on record as not being a fan of Found Footage Horror. But I was ready to give The Dyatlov Pass Incident a passing grade, maybe even a positive one. Until the ending. The sudden emergence of PS2 graphics was bad enough (especially for something that is supposed to have been captured on a real-world camera) but something happens (no spoilers) in that same sequence which just doesn't make any sense, even completely contained within the movies own canon. These things took me out of it completely, and sullied what could have been a surprisingly good experience. Final rating:★★½ - Had a lot that appealed to me, didn’t quite work as a whole.
Wuchak2024-10-31
★ 7/10
Trying to discover the truth about the Dyatlov Pass Incident of 1959 Five students from the University of Oregon obtain a grant to conduct an expedition to the infamous pass in the northern Ural Mountains to try to figure out what happened to the nine Russian hikers who perished there 53 years earlier. While the excursion starts out promising, things go from bad to worse. “Devil’s Pass” (2013) is found footage adventure/horror/sci-fi that’s way better than I thought it’d be, speaking as someone who’s generally not big on found footage flicks, unless they’re done right. What’s great about this one is that the cast & crew literally went to the snowy mountains in Russia to shoot the film. Yet it wasn’t shot anywhere near the Dyatlov Pass, but rather in and around Kirovsk, which is in extreme northwest Russia not far south of eastern Sápmi, aka Lapland. This is roughly 3400 miles northwest of the infamous pass, by vehicle. They obviously shot here because it was more accessible and cheaper compared to filming near the remote pass, not to mention the Khibiny Mountains are generally more scenic in a rugged sense compared to the Urals. I like how various theories are thrown around in the story with commentary on The Philadelphia Experiment circa 1943. However, that alleged event had zero to do with teleportation, but rather attempted to make the USS Eldridge ‘invisible’ to radar detection by manipulating magnetic fields. As for what the students find at Kholat Syakhl, aka Dead Mountain, let’s just say that the scriptwriter Frankenstein-ed the concept of Nightcrawler of the X-Men. This movie is, of course, a fantastical account, but what really happened at Dyatlov Pass in 1959? The top theory is that 3 feet of shifting snow during the snowstorm suddenly fell on the tent at night, which panicked the nine inhabitants. Fearful of an actual avalanche, they cut themselves out of the tent and fled without proper attire. When they realized an avalanche wasn't going to happen, some tried to make it back to the tent but died of hypothermia in the -13 degrees Fahrenheit weather (it was no doubt difficult to find the camp in those conditions). What happened to the others is well explained in an 11-minute documentary called "Is Dyatlov Pass Mystery Finally Solved," available for free on Youtube (jump to 7:33 to skip the recap of the entire incident). It runs 1 hour, 40 minutes. Additional scenes were shot in Krasnaya Polyana in Sochi, Russia, by the Caucasus Mountains, just northwest of Georgia. GRADE: B