Pathfinder

No matter how bad you think moviemaking can get, nothing will prepare you for the utterly disgusting atrocity that is Pathfinder. On paper, it’s understandable how a movie like this gets made. Native Americans raise a Viking boy after his family dies on a raiding voyage and he becomes the prophetic defender of his new people against the oncoming demonic onslaught of his heritage. A remake of an award winning Norwegian film based on an old native myth, the idea for Pathfinder has plenty of potential. Unfortunately, any reverence for historical context, or even respect for a slightly coherent narrative, is the furthest thing from the director’s mind. What the viewer is left with instead of an actual movie is essentially one man’s sick vision of sanctified gore porn. The loosely stitched together plot is just an excuse for hellish Vikings to gruesomely slaughter villages full of natives. No opportunity is wasted to crush more skulls, dismember more limbs, skewer more bodies and sadistically torture people Nispel claims respect for in his commentary track. One gets the impression that Nispel would be happier directing a documentary snuff film. At least if he treated the vengeance on the Vikings with similar brutality instead of just dropping most of them off a cliff it’d be easier to write off Nispel as a horror freak unable to shake his Texas Chainsaw Massacre remaking roots. As it is though, he’s not just an incompetent commercial and music video director hack wiping his childish bullshit all over his poorly edited frames, he’s a sadistic bigot with money and lives to play with. Part of what went so terribly wrong becomes apparent in the "making of” featurette after hearing director Marcus Nispel’s insane and inane vision of how awesome "Rambo: First Blood with Indians and Vikings” would be and how proud he is of how many cast and crew were injured during shooting. Deleted scenes, a promo trailer and more "making of” featurettes further demonstrate what kind of manic, egotistical adrenaline junky was responsible for this cesspool of a film.