Released: June 6, 2014
Director: Bobcat Goldthwait
Screenplay: Bobcat Goldthwait
Tagline: "Existing Soon"
Cast:
Bryce Johnson as Jim
Alexie Gilmore as Kelly
First Time View?: Yessum
True Bigfoot believer Jim heads out to the Six Rivers National Forest with his longtime girlfriend Kelly in tow to shoot a documentary retracing the steps of the famous 1967 Patterson-Gimlin footage, which purportedly shows a Sasquatch tromping through the woods and looking back at the camera. Kelly, talented filmmaker and skeptic, agrees to humor Jim and considers the road trip his birthday present. Her real aspirations lie elsewhere in California, namely Hollywood.
They first sojourn in the town of Willow Creek, a small mountain village that has built an industry out of Bigfoot lore and merchandise--bookstores, museums, murals, statues, even restaurants serving Bigfoot burgers. Jim interviews a few locals who tell tales of their strange encounters with the great hairy beast, or who deny his existence altogether, and then they head off into the forest proper to find the forgotten Patterson-Gimlin campsite. Enter Harbinger of Doom character who chases them away. Follow-up with sequence of protagonists hiking into the forest through a secret backtrail, tenting it up for the night and then finding their evening disturbed by strange occurrences, odd sounds, and a threatening presence.
Guys, The Blair Witch Project this ain't. Which is such a shame because there is SO MUCH POTENTIAL for Bigfoot monster movies. Why is this not a larger subgenre of creature features?? I guess because, as this movie shows, it's easy to botch. Now in its defense, not every found footage movie has or should be BWP, but when you tread the same tropes as the ultimate FF king, the comparisons become obvious and inevitable. As such, there's nothing new here beyond typical found footage cliches and rote motions. It's all very horror-movie-paint-by-numbers. Which, I can ration off considering writer/director Bobcat Goldthwait has never really done straight-up horror before (maybe you could argue God Bless America?), so working inside a formula or a checklist could have been a comfort mechanism for him, but there's always room for at least a little bit of spice amidst these kinds of recyclings.
"Did you hear that?" "Yeah, I think it was the beginning of 'Formation' "
And I think that's the real crime of Willow Creek: it's boring. We spend so much time following this couple, watching them talk and talk and walk and talk and...sit quietly and listen I guess too? I mean it's a full hour before anything interesting even happens, and when your movie is only 80 minutes long, that's a problem. It makes the build-up seem extraneous, not tense.
Both actors do a fine job, at least. Kelly is written well and Gilmore plays her very realistically and sympathetically. She's our lens to this strange adventure and the quirky eccentricities of boyfriend Jim, whose obsession with finding the elusive creature in the woods turns him into the "Heather Donahue" character. The character could come off as self-involved and vain with ease, but Johnson redeems him during a midnight proposal scene in the couple's tent that is sweet, honest, and tender. Unfortunately what follows is an 18-minute long take of the couple just being like "I heard something. Did you hear something?" back and forth until the Second Coming.
The very, very, very final moments of the film show promise and an eye for tension and execution, but it's not enough to save the film proper. I'd be interested to see Goldthwait tackle horror proper. The found footage subgenre can be very tricky, and it's hard to pull off well. Even though Willow Creek tells a familiar story with new faces, the viewer still ends up feeling completely and utterly lost in the woods. And not in a fun way.
Willow Creek
5-Totally Terrifying
4-Crazy Creepy
3-Fairly Frightening
2-Slightly Scary
1-Hardly Horror
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