Willow Creek (2014)

Bobcat Goldthwait is an audacious writer-director who has been consistently underestimated and no one could've concocted that he would upend the found-footage subgenre with 'Willow Creek', a flippant faux-documentary on the Bigfoot mythos. With a tinge of verisimilitude, novice filmmaker Jim (Bryce Johnson) actually checks and tests the audio levels on his equipment before he begins his series of ungainly interviews with Bluff Creek locals who range from blithe non-believers to devout Sasquatch enthusiasts. Murals of the fabled creature erecting a house are subject of very funny potshots from Jim and the film is not without a winking sense of humor (ex. They comment that no cell reception is the "beginning of every horror movie"). Although his approach is DIY and minimalist, Goldthwait is quite astute about the unrefined mockumentary format like the line reading flubs and uncooperative raconteurs ala the visiting-center woman who is awfully monosyllabic and vague. The coup de grace is an unvarnished 20-minute long take with Jim and Kelly (Alexie Gilmore) cowering in fear from the acoustics (wood-knocking, yelps and footsteps) in the surrounding campsite and the effect is eerie and heart-palpitating. For the most part, Jim and Kelly are extremely affable leads and this causes the audience to feel consternation when they are threatened to vacate the site of the 1967 Patterson-Gimlin reel. Normally horror fans are programmed to believe that daylight is sanctum from nocturnal terror, but Bobcat ramps up the trepidation with hair samples and snarling vocalizations near a ravine.

Found footage films are overdone, and it's been a fact for some time now. However, there are a select few films in the last few years that have stood out for me in this genre of horror. V/H/S was one of them, and I quite enjoyed a few others as well. But, in recent years, sequels to once fun, entertaining found footage horror films have dwindled in quality, and the genre has been overdone. Although nothing ground breaking in the genre, I somewhat enjoyed Willow Creek, and this is the type of film that you watch when you have nothing else to watch. This is a pleasant time waster during a rainy afternoon, but it does leave viewers disappointed, and I can see why the film has been met with a mixed response. This is your typical found footage picture and it is predictable in the way it builds up to its climax. The two cast members are good here, and they have good chemistry. What Willow Creek does is tread far too familiar ground to make a film. Willow Creek doesn't do anything refreshing like V/H/S did, but it's a fun little film if you're in the right state of mind. I have to admit a found footage film based on the Bigfoot lore is quite entertaining, and for the most part it is if you can forget the clichéd atmosphere of the film. I guess with Willow Creek, all concepts of the found footage genre has been explored, and I'm sure they'll make other films in this genre, and over blow it to new heights of overdoing it. This is still a good film even if it's not great, and I came into it with mixed emotions, but came out of it satisfied. Willow Creek isn't a bad found footage film, and it's far from the worst, and it's an entertaining little flick worth seeing if you're in the mood for mindless amusement.