EXISTS (2014)

[indianasmith]

I enjoy found footage movies.  Some are good, some are bad, most are mediocre - but there is something about the genre I have always loved.  Their propensity for putting you INTO the story, experiencing it as the characters do - when done right, it can make for an exhilarating (or terrifying) cinematic experience.  When done wrong, it can make you wish you had an hour and a half of your life back.

This is the second found footage Bigfoot movie I have watched recently that I really enjoyed (the other was WILLOW CREEK). 
The thing about this movie is that it doesn't shy away from showing you the monster, and at the same time, it doesn't give you a cheap man in a suit version of bigfoot, or some terrible CGI version.  The creature in the movie is entirely believable, as is the story - and that's what makes it all the more terrifying.

Six friends are headed into the Big Thicket of East Texas (where my Dad grew up!) to spend the weekend at a hunting cabin, owned by the uncle of the two brothers in the group.  It's late, they're driving a bit fast, and everyone is preoccupied with pranking the guy asleep in  the front seat (and filming it).  No one saw what it was they hit - but when they stop the car, there is blood on the fender, the headlight is broken out, and the grill is busted.  Worse yet, there are unearthly howls of pain and rage coming from the woods.

Unnerved, they pile back in and head to the cabin - where they find the place dirty and unkempt.  Checking the camera they were filming with as they messed with their sleeping friend, they catch a glimpse of something big and furry lumbering down the side of the road just before they clipped it.  Late the next afternoon, it finds them at their cabin - and the trouble begins.

This is probably the best Bigfoot movie I have ever seen.  The found footage format works very well, and the characters are generally believable and somewhat likable.  Some of the chase scenes near the end are particularly compelling.  I can't recommend it enough!

5/5

[lester1/2jr]

directed by the guy who did Blair Witch Project

[indianasmith]

That was the first found footage movie I ever saw.  I liked it then, but haven't rewatched it in ages.

[messedup]

Saw the trailer and thought "damn that looks s**tty". Almost passed that one up.
Luckily I still saw it and was more than positively surprised. Most Bigfoot movies I saw in recent years didn't really show a full bigfoot...sometimes there would be a hairy foot standing beside a corpse and a broken camera etc, so it was pretty great to see a fullsize version running around. 

[lester1/2jr]

trailer looked interesting. one area I'm interested in is technology in movies. I'm not into technology at all in life but it's a way the world is changing and it's fascinating to see how screenwriters deal with it. For a while movies had a suspension of belief thing where we were supposed to imagine the person had never heard of the internet. They are still struggling with it