YellowBrickRoad (2010) Reviews

A handful of scientists trying to unravel a mystery discover a terror beyond their wildest nightmares in this thriller from directors Andy Mitton and Jesse Holland. Friar, NH, is a small town with a bizarre history; in 1940, the 572 people who lived there all left their homes and marched up a mountain trail never to return. When a search party led by the military was conducted months later, some of the missing townspeople were discovered brutally murdered while others froze to death, but the majority were never found. The search party's final report was classified, but a team of university historians and anthropologists has obtained a copy of their findings and travels to Friar in hopes of charting the mysterious lost trail. Most of the people of Friar treat the long-ago disappearance as some sort of urban legend and most flatly refuse to discuss it with the visitors, but one eccentric woman says she knows how to find the trail, and will show them where it is if she's allowed to tag along. The researchers agree, and they set out along the head of the trail, marked by a stone with the legend "YellowBrickRoad." As they climb farther up the mountain, they hear a faint music that grows louder with each step, and a collective madness begins to overtake them as they come closer to the place where the people of Friar met their fate. YellowBrickRoad was an official selection at the 2010 Slamdance Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi