Let’s go looking for Bigfoot.
Let’s follow a group of students who go looking for Bigfoot as part of their graduate program. Where the hell was this class when I got my masters?
Bigfoot is one of those folktales that has lasted longer than I understand. It seems like every year there’s a smattering of films involving the creature. This isn’t the worst Bigfoot film I have seen. Granted, long time readers will know that is a low bar.
I’m feeling generous today, so let’s talk about what works. Our characters aren’t terrible. They aren’t great, but the people in the film seem to get along. We do have needless tensions and oddities, but the writing doesn’t seem to go out of its way to make us hate the characters based on their personalities.
The problem is that none of the characters seem particularly prepared for off trail hiking. Where are their packs? Why are they dressed nicely? As a general rule, graduate students who do field research are overly prepared. It hurts the film in that it seems like they just wondered into the woods.
People being stupid is a trope of horror that will never die. It is truly the Michael Myers of the genre. However, films with such limited budget could do more to counteract this problem. Simply showing the people as prepared would help. It would also give credence to the rustic feel the film is going for.
The moment-to-moment character interactions mostly work, but they don’t propel the story forward enough. We get some strange tonal shifts throughout as well that disrupt the flow.
Perhaps the weirdest part is that it becomes more of a cabin in the woods film than a bigfoot one, which doesn’t make a lot of sense. We spend an awfully long time setting up something else for it to become something different. Did we need the hillbilly side story? Did we?
In some ways, this is like a slightly better Until Dawn film version. Slightly worse, too.
This is a rare film that isn’t great, but you can tell everyone was actually trying. Not all of the twists and turns land, but they are trying something here. Maybe in time the team behind this will knock one out of the park. I’m just pleased to see that there is still passion behind these low budget films. This isn’t a garbage cash grab, and we shouldn’t label it as such.
It still has numerous issues that keep it from being a good film though. Odd pacing and writing issues aside, we also have technical issues. The film is too dark to see what is going on. Suspenseful moments are muted by not being able to see what is happening.
The film is cliched but not soulless. I can’t recommend it, but I don’t think it deserves the hate it gets, either. The effects are pretty good and despite limitations the film does its best.
Rent it if you want to support an indie crew that seems to actually care about the genre.
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