Film Review: WILLOW CREEK (2013)

Writer/director Bobcat Goldthwait has tried his hardest to bring fear back to the urban legend of Bigfoot with his latest film but I can’t help thinking that this film Willow Creek (2013) is nothing more than a carbon copy of The Blair Witch Project (1999) just a little too late. 

Jim (Bryce Johnson) is an avid fan of the Bigfoot legend ever since he was a kid when he first saw the Patterson-Gimlin film of ’67 which supposedly showed evidence of a real Bigfoot walking through the forest.  Now, he’s old enough to explore it on his own and he along with his girlfriend Kelly (Alexie Gilmore) have decided to venture to the original site of the Patterson-Gimlin film in order to see if the legend is real.  Goldthwait’s film follows the same distinct pattern of The Blair Witch Project as Jim and Kelly first interview some locals in order to give the film color and a look at the atmosphere of the film.  Then the two drive to as close as they can to the Patterson-Gimlin incident before heading out on foot.  They make camp and during the night the hear sounds and noises of things they can’t explain (and that the audience never sees).  The next day as they try to get back to their car (all the while bickering about why the whole trip was a bad idea and all his fault) they get lost and turned around and end up right where they started.  Forced to endure another night in the forest the noises and strange events going on into the night are too much for them and they panic and run.

Well, I’m sure you can guess the rest after that as it follows closely to Blair Witch and a plethora of other found footage films.  There are no surprises in this film.  As a found footage film it hits all the right marks, maybe too well, as there is nothing new for this film to say.  The only real saving grace for the film is that Goldthwait has crafted one of the best Bigfoot films out there.  He brings to light all the trappings linked to the legend and crafts a comprehensible and probable myth that doesn’t seem like a shitty Z-horror or Syfy Original monstrosity.

For fans of Bigfoot this is a film to look out for but for horror fans (like myself) who have seen too many found footage films this may seem like a total let down.  I will say that Goldthwait is a director who defies expectation and is someone to look out for in the future as he knows how to craft a horror film, he just needs to express it in a different way (or before a fad fades like the found footage film).

Film Review: ASSAULT OF THE SASQUATCH (2009)

I don’t like to bash any movie…at least not too much but Assault of the Sasquatch (2009) is one of the worst films I’ve ever seen.  Not only is the screenplay by John Doolan horrible, but the acting is beyond amateur and the directing is all over the place in this film that doesn’t know if it wants to be funny or be an action film but you can never take anything in the film seriously and the film has some of the worst monster make up effects that I’ve seen in some time as if the film was made by a first time film maker.  In fact, director Andrew Gernhard is a first timer and it shows in this film.

A poacher accidentally captures a Sasquatch and holds it captive in his trailer but not before it kills the rest of his team members.  The poacher is then captured by the police who impound the trailer and take him in.  Unsuspecting of what is in the trailer the police take it into the city where the Sasquatch escapes and wreaks havoc on the city streets.  The police become stranded in the police station as the Sasquatch picks them off one by one. 

What makes this one of the worst films out there is the fact that the Sasquatch abandons the police station for much of the first part of the film to explore the city before heading back to the police station for no reason to continue to hound the people left alive.  Supposedly the Sasquatch is also known to be overly intelligent which is how it has survived for so long and that it hides the body of the people it kills so that others are not aware of its existence.  While the Sasquatch is so smart (?) everyone else in the film is too dumb.  These must be the worst cops ever because as the streets are being terrorized by the Sasquatch they all hide away in the police station completely aware of the danger.  Also, the so-called Sasquatch experts, who are shooting a video of the Sasquatch siting, are so annoying that after the first time they are on screen I wanted them to become Sasquatch food yet they continue to annoy through most of the rest of the film.  Characters do dumb things because they have nothing else to do and the backstory to the tortured main cop is so unbelievable cliché rendering everything he does in the film as overly comical.

A lot of people do die and there is some gore in the film but there is no getting passed “amateur hour” with this film which no one will enjoy except the people in the film (and maybe not them either).