July 25th, 2015 - Bigfoot: The Lost Coast Tapes (2012)

For whatever reason, found footage bigfoot is a tough one to nail. I mean, I'm partial to bigfoot movies, but something about the big fella just hasn't really lended itself well to the found footage genre thus far. The ones I've liked are generally either more action-oriented (Exists) or maybe not even bigfoot movies at all (Willow Creek). I'm always hoping to get more of a creeping-terror type bigfoot found footager - while the "noises outside the cabin" are always a good way to build some tension, from there things usually just devolve into a blurry mess of first-person chase scenes. Unfortunately, Bigfoot: The Lost Coast Tapes doesn't really deliver anything new. It's not terrible, but it's not all that good either. If you are a fan of bigfoot and found footage (as I am), it's passable. But it's certainly not going to win over any haters of either genre.

April 7th, 2015 - The Snow Creature (1954)

The Snow Creature is a pretty typical bad mid-50's monster movie. Not a great story, bad looking monster, and boring scenes of people walking around to pad the film (here, you get treks through the Himalayan mountains as well as the sewer system of a big U.S. city). There's just enough laughable weirdness to not make it a total waste of time, but it's still a pretty rough one to sit through.

It's about an American scientist named Dr. Frank Parrish who is in the Himalayas to do research on some recently discovered plant life. He has brought a photographer named Peter Wells with him; these two, along with the Sherpa guide Subra, are the only English speaking characters in the first half of the film. Dr. Parrish has hired a team of sherpas (sensitively referred to a being "much like mules under the weight of our heavy supplies") to assist them in their trek up the mountain. But several days into it, word reaches the camp that a Yeti has kidnapped Subra's lady from the lowland village. Parrish and Wells don't care, and they threaten to shoot Subra if he takes the men to search for her (it's mutiny, they say). Real nice. But Subra steals their guns, and like it or not, they are tagging along in a quest to find the mythical beast. And (no surprise) they find him. And since you'll come across it in just about every synopsis you can find, they do the King Kong thing, capturing the Yeti and bringing him back to the U.S. for further study. Predictably, he gets out and runs amok.

April 4th, 2015 - Exists (2014)

It's kind of fitting that I watched Exists just a couple days after The St. Francisville Experiment. St. Francisville was a Blair Witch Project knock-off, and Exists finds one of the Blair Witch creators (Eduardo Sanchez) going back to the found footage well 15 years after he, uh, founded it. It seems like he's done some found footage shorts (VHS 2) and web series in the interim, but I think this is his first full-length found footage feature since 1999. And it's as good as you could reasonably expect for a FF Bigfoot movie. Nothing is really going to surprise you too much, but there's enough quality action that it's well worth a watch.

Exists just pretty much jumps right into it. There isn't as much of a setup as you usually get for these sort of things. Five youngsters (despite making me sound like an old man, I hesitate to say kids - they seem to be in their early 20s) are headed out to a cabin in the woods. You are never really given a reason to like or dislike them... presumably you don't want them to die because they are the leads. Or at least blank slates, for you to project onto. Regardless, they aren't well defined as characters, and are pretty much just treated as Bigfoot bait by the script. And that's okay - Exists is a thrill-ride type movie, and well-rounded, deep characters just aren't necessary for what the movie ultimately wants to do.

February 6th, 2015 - Bigfoot Wars (2014)

Nope!

This movie sucks. I know that will come as a shock to a lot of you who expected a movie called Bigfoot Wars to reinvigorate the horror genre, but nope! It's really, really bad, and not in an entertaining way either.

I watched this the night prior to a big vacation, so maybe my mind wasn't totally in it. And it was in less than ideal circumstances - I bought a little portable DVD player so I could watch movies on the trip, and the sound is just *terrible*.  Trying to write about it now (more than 2 weeks later - the vacation threw me for a loop), I can't remember too much of anything. So sorry for the brevity of this entry. But here's what I've got:

November 2nd, 2014 - Willow Creek (2013)

I'm a big fan of bigfoot movies.  I'm a big fan of found footage films.  I've always thought Bobcat Goldthwait is an interesting filmmaker.  So when I heard he was making Willow Creek - a found footage bigfoot horror movie! - I was really stoked.  I've always enjoyed when established filmmakers dip their toes in the found-footage horror world (i.e. the extremely overlooked The Bay from Barry Levinson), and I assumed Goldthwait had a good reason to get into the game.

And generally speaking, he did.  Willow Creek suffers from some of the typical issues with found footage films (namely treading water a bit in the first half of the film), but ultimately is successful as a horror film.  (As a bigfoot film?  hmmm... maybe not so much.)

October 12th, 2014 - Abominable (2006)

Earlier when I was writing about Husk, I was thinking about what sub-genre of horror movie has the lowest batting average in terms of quality.  I would guess "Scarecrow" would be up there, but I think "Bigfoot" may edge it out.  (Ultimately, by sheer number of entries, "zombie" may give them both a run for their money.)  I just figure genres featuring a monster with a relatively easy (i.e. low-budget) costume - an ape outfit from a costume shop, or a sack over your head - will most likely be leading the bad-movie pack.

Now, I love me some bigfoot movies, despite (or because of?) their bad reputation.  I expect to be watching many more in the near future.  But I'd heard Abominable being referred to as the best "serious" bigfoot horror flick (as many of them bleed over into horror comedy).  That bar is pretty low, but I guess I'd have to agree.  It's got a decent enough story (cribbing from Rear Window, of all things), decent performances, and enough gore to keep creature feature fans happy.