Willow Creek

Willow Creek

Starring Alexie Gilmore, Bryce Johnson, Laura Montagna, Bucky Sinister

Directed by Bobcat Goldthwait

The Story:
Young couple Kelly (Alexie Gilmore) and Jim (Bryce Johnson) travel to Willow Creek, California, where the famed Patterson-Gimlin filming of Bigfoot took place.  Jim is an avid believer who wishes to capture Bigfoot on camera, while Kelly is highly skeptical.  After spending the day in the town and interviewing the locals, they set out to the forest where the film was taken in hopes of finding the elusive beast.  What they find is much more than they could possibly imagine.

The Synopsis:
Ever since "The Blair Witch Project" came out, filmmakers made it their priority to make the next big found footage film, to varying success.  While most end up complete disasters, some tend to somewhat re-create the magic, but none can even compare.  "Willow Creek," directed by comedian Bobcat Goldthwait, nearly achieves that same level of success due to its similar nature and use of the unknown to create fear, and turns out to be a surprisingly decent found footage film.

Jim and Kelly are a young couple who go to Willow Creek to find the elusive Bigfoot, as the town boasts to be the home of the famed Patterson-Gimlin event where two men successfully filmed Bigfoot in 1967.  Jim is an avid believer while Kelly is a hardened skeptic, and it's these two whose shoulders the film falls heaviest on.  As I said with my earlier review for "Uninhabited," if you're doing an entire film based solely on two people, they better be amazing actors.  Alexie Gilmore and Bryce Johnson succeed in being truly likeable, and give performances that seem genuine and natural.  They don't look like they're acting the part, but like they're really on an adventure to find Bigfoot.  The banter between the two seems legitimate and there's even some tender and tense moments between the two that doesn't involve the mysterious biped.  You can join on-board Jim's enthusiasm, and understand Kelly's apprehension, like you're the third member of their party.

The town of Willow Creek serves as the backdrop for the film, and it's a truly fascinating place.  Beautiful forests abound, and the town itself seems like the perfect slice of Americana - no Wal-Mart, no McDonald's, and only one Subway.  There's the small budget hotel, a family-style diner that sells Bigfoot burgers and ammo, and several statues and paintings honoring their most famous attraction.  The interviews are humorous and heartfelt, from the skeptics to those with the most obscure sightings you can imagine, and you can tell Jim's excitement growing as Kelly's dubiousness rising.

Then they enter the woods, and that's where the terror begins.  You'd never expect a comedian from the eighties to be able to direct such visceral fear, but that's what Bobcat Goldthwait does.  He doesn't go for the cheap shots by including jump scares and lumbering creatures everywhere, but allow the events to flow naturally through Kelly and Jim.  Their tent gets destroyed, but it doesn't deter them from staying the night, and that's when the supposed Bigfoot strikes.

There's a great scene between the two in the tent as the camera stays fixed on them for a solid twenty minutes, where you feel like you're in the tent with them as they hear the claps, bangs, footsteps, and growls happening outside.  It's obvious at this point that they never thought their plan through, as you even wonder why they didn't even bring a gun to protect themselves.  The Bigfoot - or whatever it is outside - taunts the two by throwing rocks at the tent and pushing on the corners, instilling fear in them as well as us in such a beautifully simplistic way - by not showing us the actual creature.  The fear of the unknown is as often scarier than seeing it in person, and this is where the film shines.

The final moments of the film, however, is where the film falters slightly.  By this point, you know the outcome of the hapless couple, and it occurs so quickly it almost seems as an afterthought.  For a film that spent so much time on them, it just seemed to end too abruptly.  Yet it still serves as a great found footage film, and pays homage to the creature they're searching for.

The Summary:
Using the unseen to serve as the most terrifying thing imaginable, "Willow Creek" is a near-perfect found footage film with two likeable leads who carry the film to its unfortunate conclusion, directed by an aging eighties comedian who proves that you can't stay typecast as one particular thing.

The Score: B-