Jim (Bryce Johnson) is a Bigfoot enthusiast. He drags his
reluctant girlfriend, Kelly (Alexie Gilmore), along on a trip to Northern
California to see if he can capture foot footage of Bigfoot at the site where
the famous Patterson-Gimlin film was shot. They stop at the Bigfoot festival in
Willow Creek, where they mock the tacky Bigfoot decorations, songs, and
merchandise. As they finally head into the woods, they get harassed by some
locals. Jim persists, on getting to the spot. Things take on a more ominous
tone as the truth about the Bigfoot legend are far more horrific they can conceive.
Up until now, Bobcat Goldthwait’s films have been
pitch-black comedies with a real core of emotion. I was curious if Willow Creek would be a feint of some
kind, set-up as a found footage horror film but really become something else. There
are moments of black comedy, and Jim and Kelly’s relationship does form the
backbone of the movie, but Willow Creek
is about as straight forward a horror film as you’re ever going to see. After
watching how Bigfoot movies of the 70s presented themselves as pseudo-documentaries,
the verisimilitude of the found footage movie seems a logical evolution. Willow Creek is excellently crafted but
it does very little to break the formula created by The Blair Witch Project (1999). That fact dulls a little of the
horror, since there is very little surprise. Thankfully, the movie delivers an
extended third act that shows off some excellent acting and a brutal finale.
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