Willow Creek (2013)
Come on, a horror movie about BigFoot and directed by Bobcat Goldthwait?
You can find this indie film on Shudder.
I wish this was not a found footage film, and I LOVE found footage films, I just don’t see that it helps this story, other than it makes it easier to write the script.
This movie costs probably $300 to make; a tank of gas, craft services for the two actors and some memory on the camera. Generally I like micro-budget films, this is not a negative, but this one needs at least a little money to make it feel like a true film. While watching I’m just thinking about how cheap it is. Even Blair Witch feels more like a true movie.
It looks like it was filmed in Yosemite or Kings Canyon national parks, which I know decently well, and that it for me always fun to see. Years ago I wrote a small screenplay about a boy scout troop up in the woods and man I would still love to make that film, this reminds me why that location is so magical.
The beginning is a little slow, yeah, they are jerks, they mock BigFoot and the town and it’s denizens, shit will go down soon.
Little bit of Blair Witch in this too.
See, I have to be honest here. I love camping, but in the night, when it’s quiet I do sometimes get freaked out, and crap like this freaks me out.
The ending is what you would expect, but that last 30 minutes when it’s all just in the tent, I couldn’t get into it. There needs to be something more. I also felt the acting was at it’s weakest here. If I heard crazy-assed sounds coming outside my tent, I would at the bare minimum get my clothes and shoes on ready to make a run for it, or SOMETHING. Do something! I felt it wasn’t genuine, and that’s too bad because the premise had potential, a couple go into the woods to the original Bigfoot sighting… but here’s the thing, they didn’t add anything to the mythology. They could have added anything, created something new to it. I feel like Goldthwait wanted to stick to the accurate stories and accounts of Bigfoot, but hell, this is a work of fiction, so to me go all out. Create a civilization, or group of them, rules, structure, supernatural, history, something to make it interesting. It just wasn’t interesting.
I say pass on it, unless you are a die-heard found footage fan or Bigfoot fan.
Andres