Willow Creek

 **

I would honestly love to say that Willow Creek was the Bigfoot answer to the Blair Witch Project, but truthfully it just doesn’t quite fit the bill. I was just indifferent towards it. I can honestly see why those critical of this might say, “When is something going to happen in this movie?!?!” That’s an argument I can recognize, and truthfully I’m not exactly happy about it. I wanted this to be in the conversation of Blair Witch Project.

It doesn’t have two leads that are ciphers. They seem like okay people. They are those kinds of characters, though, that are “from the big city” who decide to travel to the backwoods, out of their element, and with warning signs forewarning them, Bryce Johnson and Alexie Gilmore drive into Willow Creek for documented sight of a Bigfoot similar to the 1967 Patterson-Gimlin footage that is so understood as the premiere piece of evidence of its existence. This goes in the “be careful what you wish for” category.

It has the two deeply in love couple (not married but certainly seemingly into each other) off to experience Willow Creek and all the Sasquatch iconography in the California environs near it. While quite amusing to see them yuck it up at the expense of the community who lovingly adorn their town with all things Bigfoot, like the college students in Blair Witch these two don’t take too seriously the dangers that might exist when going deep into the woods. 

Problem is that not much really happens for a large majority of this film. The fireworks between the students in Blair Witch starts to crackle not long after getting lost and realizing that they are not alone, it takes several minutes into an exhaustive “tent awakening” before things start to pick up. 

Good use of sound effects does help. Footsteps and branches breaking, the approach to the tent does start to make the movie and situation interesting. Alexie, who had been rather skeptical and cynical about the Bigfoot (equating the species to leprechauns), gets a good scare and never recovers. The growling and snarling you hear outside the tent after the humanistic howl and banging wood (this didn’t really feel Bigfoot authentic, but more like a couple of local yokels giving some outsiders a good fright) accentuates the approach you hear as the couple listens intently/attentively.

As you might expect, the camera starts to go crazy as a frenzied Bryce, as Alexie freaks out, tries to find a way out of the woods after the night of terror they experience due to the Bigfoot activity. Not finding a way out, going around in circles, the night comes again. This time, only the light of the camera is available. No tent to hang out in. I think the naked woman reveal is a bit what-the-fuck and didn’t really work for me, to be honest. As the sasquatch seems to accost Bryson and you can get an inclination that something bad will be happening to Alexie, the camera won’t tell you as the monster is left away from view (as Blair Witch did), and all we get is the man holding it being dragged much to his horror (it does sound like there is some tearing of clothes and possibly throat/torso) with all the action not available to us.

I honestly don’t think this will satiate many horror / found footage fans. It just doesn’t provide enough to satisfy. The tent “single take”, which goes on about 20 + minutes, will probably test the viewer’s patience instead of hold them in suspense and captivate them. It doesn’t really get good until ten minutes in. A for effort, but a C- in execution. Bobcat Goldthwait directed.