Found footage type films are really hit and miss. Some are brilliant, some are annoying, and some are downright painful.
This one falls into the first category. I am still shaky after finishing it. Bobcat Goldthwaite has done a remarkable job of
creating an incredibly tense but believable Bigfoot movie.
Kelly is an aspiring actress from LA, Jim is her wannabe fiancé and a Bigfoot fanatic. For years he has dreamed of shooting his own
Bigfoot documentary on the site of the famous Patterson/Gimlin 1967 filmed sighting of Bigfoot. The site is in a very remote area of
Willow Creek, famed as "Bigfoot Country." So off our two intrepid adventurers go; the girl a total skeptic and her lover a true believer.
They interview many locals who have seen the great beast or studied it; many of these are real people telling their actual stories.
Then there is the journey into the deep wilderness, ignoring the warning of an angry local who tries to deter them from entering the forest
at all. The dialogue between Kelly and Jim is absolutely believable; they have the chemistry of a real couple all the way through. Finally
they pitch their tent about a mile or two from the site, and after a swim in the local river, they bed down for the night. At first, the noises
turn out to be small, furry woodland creatures.
Then comes the shot that makes the movie. It consists of a 20 minute, uninterrupted shot of these two huddled together in a tent as the
noises outside get louder, stranger, and closer. You never SEE anything - but by the time this shot ended, the hair on the back of my neck
was standing up and when my cat ran through the room behind me, I actually jumped!
The ending, although still creepy, was not as brilliant as that long scene with man and woman in a tent together facing the fears of the
unknown in the dark woods at night.
The movie is slow paced at first, and I remember thinking, "Is anything ever going to HAPPEN in this film?"
But it did. And it was awesome. The slow burn WORKS for this movie!
I highly recommend this movie. Watch it late at night with the lights off, and I dare you NOT to get creeped out at least a little bit.
9/10