Quick Reviews: Willow Creek (2013)

After previous attempts to blend Drama and Comedy (World's Greatest Dad) & Action and Comedy (God Bless America), let's see what Mr. Goldthwait can do with Comedy and Horror...

A guy wants to make a Film about Bigfoot by going to a familiar sighting location and brings his girlfriend along to help him film it.

His goal is to reach the famous Patterson/Gimlin location where this famous (and probably fake) footage was shot.

You gotta love that pose BTW.  It's like 'Bigfoot' goes 'Hey Steve, we got it now?'

Since we need background and motivation for the Characters, we get odd bits where they turn the camera on for about two minutes to film themselves arguing.  Weird.

They visit the town by the Park area and see the sights.  Some folks seem to just be marketing the whole 'Bigfoot' phenomenon, while others take their joking very seriously.

Despite not being trained Hikers or Campers (it seems) and being outright *threatened* by a guy not to go out into the nearby area, they do anyways.

All of this builds up the Film's key moment: the Tent Scene.  It is long, tense and divisive- to say the least.

I won't SPOIL this one any more for you, so let's just stop suddenly like most of these Found Footage Films do.  The End.

****

This is certainly an interesting one to diagram and break down.  I'm obviously not a huge fan of Found Footage Films.  I've also stated that I try to judge any Film on its own merits as well, so I don't immediately hate them either.  I do love Trollhunter, after all.  As for Bobcat Goldthwait's Films, I've generally liked them.  There is always something a bit *off* about them, of course.  They usually work for me though, whether it is Robin Williams' faux sincerity or America's dark tone.  In this case, it seems like he was hampered a bit by the Found Footage conceits.  The Car Scenes, for example, don't seem to have a reason to be filmed.  Other bits- like them in a Restaurant- aren't bad, but I don't get why/how they were shot either.  This one also falls into the 'How are we seeing this?' trap that 9 out of 10 of these Films tend to.  Is that really a SPOILER?  No, not really.  The Film has key points where it is trying to be funny (and usually works), but lots of scenes of dread.  If the idea was to make a Horror-Comedy, it is an uneven result.  If the result was to make a light-hearted start that turns really dark, then it is much more successful in that regard.  As I said before, the key bit is the Tent Scene.  Right or wrong, it is probably going to define this Film more than anything else.  How you feel about it will certainly sway your overall opinions on this one.  On the plus side, Bobcat seemed to be having fun.

A simple premise. some interesting build-up, but...kind of an odd one.  I didn't hate it...but it's not great.