Devil's Path
Taking place in 1992 during the era of grunge and outdoor gay cruising, we follow two strangers who meet while hiking a once-popular area for gay men known as Devil's Path. Two hikers have gone missing recently and with no leads or bodies and the area is now considered high risk and mostly closed off. The two strangers, Noah (Stephen Twardokus) and Patrick (JD Scalzo), are suddenly forced off the main trail after a confrontation with some suspicious hikers and soon find themselves running for their lives with nowhere to hide but in the trees.
Why it matters
A tense survival thriller that blends early ’90s queer subculture with wilderness terror, capturing a raw, overlooked slice of LGBTQ+ horror.
- Grounds its fear in real-world anxieties around gay cruising and isolation before the internet age—an underrepresented setting in genre horror.
- Uses the rugged, claustrophobic woods of Devil’s Path as a character itself, amplifying the dread with naturalistic sound design and practical tension.
- Stephen Twardokus and JD Scalzo bring earnest performances that root the escalating panic in authentic human connection.
- For fans of backwoods horror and social undercurrents à la *Backcountry* or *The Ritual*, but with a queer lens that adds fresh cultural context.
Director
Cast
Horror DNA
Gore
0
Slow Burn
50
Psychological
14
Supernatural
0
Creature
18
Disturbing
0
Fun Factor
17
Cerebral
14
Survival
50
