The Descent (2005)(Spoiler Review)

This review contains spoilers.

The Story- After a whitewater rafting trip, the relationship between five friends takes an unexpected turn, when Sarah (Shauna Macdonald) loses her husband, Paul (Oliver Milburn) and her young daughter, Jessica (Molly Kayll) in a gruesome car accident. Unbeknownst to Sarah, Juno (Natalie Mendoza), one of her close friends in the group, was having an affair with Paul.
One year later, Sarah is struggling to cope with Paul and Jessica's deaths, relying on medication for help, but Juno suggests an expedition to a cave system to reinvigorate Sarah. Together, Juno, Sarah, Beth (Alex Reid ), Sam (MyAnna Buring), and, Rebecca (Saskia Mulder) reunite for spelunking, with some help from Juno's new friend/protege, Holly (Nora Jane Noone).

Inside the cave system, a passage collapses behind Sarah, blocking the only known exit. But the group runs into a bigger problem, when flesh-eating creatures (or crawlers) emerge. The blind creatures use sound to hunt, and Holly's broken leg complicates the life-or-death dilemma.

Review- Patience. You'll need a lot of it for The Descent, because the movie kicks into high gear at the fifty-six minute mark, and the total runtime clocks in at 1hr. and 39 min. On paper, I know that sounds like a lengthy and tedious "twiddling your thumbs" wait, but the slow burn build is worth it, because The Descent delivers one hell of a payoff.

Director/writer Neil Marshall slowly builds the tension one step at a time. The exit collapsing behind Sarah, the confusion and anger, when Juno tells the truth about the expedition (more on that later), Sarah being the only one, who notices the crawlers tracking the group (Sarah's sightings are dismissed as hallucinations at first), Holly breaking her leg, and brief shots of the crawlers quietly waiting in the background.

It's only a matter of time before the crawlers attack. The constant teasing from Marshall really works, because you know the main characters are walking into massacre. It's one setback after another, as the story unfolds, and you can feel the impending sense of doom before the crawlers launch the first attack.

It's one close call nail-biter after another during the fight against the crawlers, and here's one of my favorite scenes:

                               

Friendship, betrayal, loyalty, and revenge. Four very important themes in The Descent, and each theme is intensified during the ups and downs in Sarah and Juno’s relationship.

Throughout the movie, Sarah suspected something between Juno and Paul, but she wasn't 100% sure. And to add an eerie touch to the situation, you get the feeling Paul was on the verge of a confession (Paul's uncomfortable body language in the car, and the look of guilt on his face are two dead giveaways) before the fatal car crash.

Natalie Mendoza delivers a solid and believable performance, and Marshall deserves some bonus points for the way he chooses to portray Juno. Juno stays in a grey area, because you want to believe she feels remorse for the affair, but at the same time, Juno never openly apologizes to Sarah for the affair, and she never offers an explanation. Instead, Juno believes the spelunking trip will cheer Sarah up, and she plans to name the undiscovered cave system after Sarah.

But here's the big problem with Juno's goodwill mission; for starters, Juno deliberately lied about the cave system. Originally, the group agreed on a spelunking trip to a known cave system (or a "tourist trap"), but Juno decided (without asking or consulting the group) to lead the group to the unknown cave system for a real adventure. There's a scene, where Sarah and the others gang up on Juno to call her out on all the BS behind her motivations, and in certain scenes, you get the feeling Juno is a pretentious phony with a big ego.

To end the movie, Sarah and Juno are the remaining survivors, and Sarah reaches a breaking point with Juno. When the crawlers launched their first attack, Juno accidentally wounded Beth with a pickaxe to the throat (she mistook Beth for a crawler), but Juno never told the truth about the accident. After Beth's death, Sarah finally learns the truth about the affair, when a dying Beth gave Juno's "love each day" pendant (Beth ripped off the pendant, as she fell to her knees) to Sarah, and she maims Juno with a pickaxe to the leg. Sarah escapes, and a wounded Juno is left alone to fight a pack of crawlers. Long story short, “love each day” was one of Paul’s sayings, so it wasn’t hard to put two and two together, when Beth gave Sarah the pendant.

Throughout the movie, you can feel the awkward tension between Sarah and Juno, and things go south, when Juno tells the truth about the cave system. You get the feeling Sarah wanted to forgive Juno, but she completely snapped after Beth’s death. If we’re throwing  more gasoline on the fire, Sarah finally accepted the truth about the affair after Beth gave her the pendant. Also, if you pay close attention, you’ll notice timid survivor Sarah disappears in the blink of an eye after Sarah puts Beth out of her misery with a mercy killing, and a more aggressive and violent version of Sarah emerges.

Think about what Sarah did for a second. She could've easily killed Juno with no real problems, but she made the choice to cripple Juno, because she wanted her to suffer a slow and agonizing death at the hands of vicious flesh-eating creatures. That's revenge, and you can say Sarah had genuine feelings of hatred for Juno. The irony for Sarah crippling Juno? Throughout the movie, Juno flat out REFUSED to leave the cave (motivated by guilt and a second chance) without Sarah, when the remaining survivors were more than willing to escape, leaving Sarah alone in the cave with an "every man (or in the case, woman) for himself" mindset.

You can feel a grand sense of triumph and relief, when Sarah finally escapes the cave......but she didn't escape. Sarah pulls over on the side of the road to vomit, and she sees a pale Juno (covered in blood) sitting next to her. Here, it's revealed Sarah never escaped the cave. The escape was one big dream, and Sarah is still trapped in the cave. She hallucinates a celebration for her daughter's birthday (a reoccurring hallucination throughout the movie), but in reality, Sarah is kneeling on the ground, and she's staring at a torch.

To add an extra tidbit for the ending, for the US theatrical release, the movie ends with Sarah sitting next to a pale and bloodied Juno in the car, and the part with Sarah hallucinating and staring at the torch in the cave is cut out of the film. Of course, the ending is shown in its entirety on the unrated DVD/Blu-Ray releases. I’m not trying to nitpick, but I believe the movie ending with Sarah and Juno sitting in the car is the better option. It works as a mysterious cliffhanger, because you’re not 100% sure what happened. Is Sarah still alive? Did she survive? Is she inside a hospital again?

The Descent is a chaotic, tense, and claustrophobic horror film, featuring a solid cast, and believable performances. The Descent is loaded with graphic violence, blood, and gore, and Marshall creates a series of striking visuals behind the camera. The crawler's lair (or "The Killing Floor") is one that sticks out. It's a horrifying and gloomy setting, with the bones of animals and humans scattered across the ground, and you'll see one of the more memorable gross-out moments in the movie, with Sarah slowly rising to the top in a pit of blood. Also, I can’t forget about the eerie scene during the early stages of the movie, with a frightened Sarah running through a series of dark hallways at the hospital, and Sarah, screaming, covered in blood, and holding a torch, while standing inside the cave system. And the genuinely shocking swerve at the end really works, because Sarah as the sole survivor was supposed to be the big feel good moment in the movie, but they pull the rug out from underneath at the last second.

Characters and a story with real depth separates The Descent from other gory bloodbath horror films. It's a story about friendship, deception, betrayal, revenge, survival, and how far people are willing to go, when they're pushed beyond their limits.

Rating: 10/10

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Welcome To Horror Month 2015!

Yeah, I know I'm late on this, but it's time for horror month! We still have a few weeks left in October, and it's 100% horror on my blog with blood, flesh-eating fiends, gore, ghosts, demons, ghouls, werewolves, vampires, malicious supernatural creatures, and monsters.

You'll see a few new movie reviews, some redos, and all new Character Spotlight posts, so strap yourselves in for some horror fun on Mitch MacReady's Movies & TV World!

MMR

In The Blood (2014)(Minor Spoilers Review)

**This review contains MINOR spoilers. No major character deaths or reveals**

In 2002, a teenage Ava lives with her father, Casey (Stephen Lang) in a shabby Bridgeport, Conneticut home. As a hardened outlaw, Casey trains his daughter to be a lethal fighting machine with rigorous survival exercises and intense sparring sessions.

One night, a group of thugs invade Casey and Ava’s home. The intruders murder Casey, but Ava turns the tables with a shotgun. Ava murders the remaining thugs to survive the attack, but a callous Ava refuses to shed one tear for her father’s death.

Twelve years later, a reformed Ava (Gina Carano) prepares for her wedding ceremony in Arlington, Virgina. Derek Grant (Cam Gigandet) met Ava at a narcotics  anonymous meeting, and he’s ready to trust and spend the rest of his life with her, but Derek’s wealthy father, Robert (Treat Williams) doesn’t trust Ava and her motvations for marrying Derek. Ava’s troubled past raises a red flag for Robert, and the thought of Ava devising a scheme to marry Derek for a piece of the family fortune is too much to handle, so Mr. Grant pushes Derek to sign a prenuptial agreement. To prove his loyalty to Ava, Derek refuses his father’s request, and he tears the prenup in half to erase any doubts.

After the wedding,  Derek and Ava take a trip to a Caribbean island for their honeymoon, and Derek uses his grandfather’s old house as a vacation home. On the island, Derek and Ava meet a friendly local named Manny (Ismael Cruz Cordova). Manny convinces Derek and Ava to join him for a wild night at a local nightclub. Here, Ava and Derek cross paths with Big Biz (Danny Trejo), a powerful and respected gangster on the island. Big Biz tries to seduce Ava, but Derek intervenes. Ava fights off an assault to protect Derek, and Manny helps the couple escape in a taxi. After the brawl, Big Biz’s rival, Silvio Lugo (Amaury Nolasco) issues a stern warning about disrupting the peaceful and festive environment at the club. 

In the morning, Derek and Ava take a chance on ziplining after a persuasive pitch from Manny. The ziplining instructor JoJo (Oscar H. Guerrero) reassures a nervous Ava, but Derek suffers a nasty leg injury after a potentially fatal fall from faulty equipment on the zipline.

JoJo calls for an ambulance, but Manny disappears. Ava tries to fight her way into the ambulance with Derek, but the paramedics deny Ava’s attempts for insurance concerns. Ava follows the ambulance to the hospital. She loses Derek and the ambulance after a fall, but a friendly local helps Ava with a ride to the hospital.  

At the hospital, Ava runs into an unpleasant surprise, when Leta (Yvette Yates), a receptionist,  can’t find any records of Derek’s name in the system. Ava forces her way through the doors, but after a quick search, it’s clear Derek is not in the hospital.

Ava  turns to the local police for help after an unsuccessful search in every clinic and hospital on the island. Police Chief Ramon Garza (Luis Guzman) is reluctant to help Ava, and after a visit from Derek’s family, Ava takes matters into her own hands to find and rescue Derek. 

Ava suspects a cover up after JoJo completely denies knowing, seeing, and assisting Derek, Ava, and Manny on the zipline. A determined Ava embarks on a bloody and deadly mission to find Manny and the paramedics for more answers, and rescue Derek before it‘s too late. But during the fight to uncover the truth behind the conspiracy, Ava unintentionally brings the bitter feud between Big Biz and Silvio to a dangerous boiling point.

Gina Carano has the tools to carve out a sustainable career for herself, as a recognizable face and name in the action genre. When it comes to sex appeal, she has the perfect balance. You notice Carano’s beauty, but her looks are never the main focus for her character, because she has what it takes to be a physical force. That, or Carano’s character(s) can use her good looks to deceive any adversaries (the bathroom scene on the boat is a good example for In The Blood.), and Carano’s MMA background is no secret, so she can rely on a touch of legitimacy for her film roles.

Carano’s Ava is a no-nonsense fighting machine, and Carano delivers another entertaining performance in her comfort zone here. Carano delivers on the physical side of things, and it’s not limited to the fight scenes. Carano carries herself well with convincing body language and an unflinching demeanor, and she’s decent enough in a few emotional scenes.

Although, I will say this, In The Blood constantly tip-toes on a suspension of disbelief line with Ava throughout the movie. Flashbacks show Ava’s tough training sessions with her strict father, and yes, in real life Carano has the MMA credentials, but it’s hard to ignore In The Blood constantly going way over the top to showcase Ava’s deadly combat skills. One scene that sticks out as an example, is Ava trying to fight her way out of the police station, and it takes an entire group of cops to restrain her, and force her to the ground.

As far as the rest of the cast goes, I can’t say too much. Danny Trejo fans shouldn’t get their hopes up too high, because Trejo’s screen time is limited here, and you can say the same thing about Cam Gigandet. If we’re talking about personalities, Trejo plays the powerful hot head, while Gigandet is the loyal husband, and that’s about it. Nolasco’s Silvio is your typical cocky and greedy bad guy, he’s a bully, and that’s about it.

There’s some potential for a feud between Treat Williams’ Robert and Carano’s Ava. To give an example, there’s a scene, where Robert accuses Ava of planning Derek’s disappearance to collect some of the family fortune, and Ava responds to the accusations with a defiant “f*** you.” Robert resented Ava, because he believes she’s nothing more than a junkie and a crazy fraud, who’s trying to take advantage of his son, but Ava is willing to fight and die for Derek, because he saved her from a miserable life. The bitter distrust on Robert’s side, and Ava’s loyalty is believable, but the big problem is the feud never has a chance to develop, because Williams’ screen time is limited, and his character disappears after the visit to the island.

Overall, director John Stockwell’s work behind the camera is hit-and-miss. The editing for Ava and Derek’s honeymoon highlight reel and Ava’s risky bike ride through the city looks and feels clunky and choppy. The hiccups are not enough to drag In The Blood down into the gutter quality wise, but they’re noticeable.

If you’re looking for an artsy and stylish action/crime thriller, In The Blood is not for you. But if you’re looking for some mindless fun action, and hard hitting fight scenes, In The Blood is a satisfying film. Yes, the torture, interrogate, fight, kick ass, and repeat formula during Ava’s “WHERE’S MY HUSBAND?!?!” mission feels repetitive and tedious at times, but Carano consistently delivers a good show throughout In The Blood on the physical side of the film. Again, In The Blood is not a masterpiece, the dialogue sounds rigid and contrived most of the time, and the characters are one-dimensional, but if you’re looking for an entertaining guilty pleasure, it’s worth a try. And the big twist at the at the end is a little far-fetched, but it's a genuine and refreshing surprise. 

As I said before, Gina Carano has a future in the action world. For now, I won’t go as far as using the superstar tag, but she has what it takes to make a real name for herself. Haywire is still Carano’s best starring action role to date, and nothing comes close. It’s true Carano was surrounded by a talented cast in Haywire, and you can say the likes of Fassbender and McGregor helped hide her flaws, but Carano doesn’t need to deliver an Oscar worthy performance. The potential is there, and she can build her career around the persona of a lethal action heroine, but she needs more time and more films to build a more solid résumé.

Rating: 6/10

In The Blood (2014)(Spoiler Review)

**This review contains spoilers**

In 2002, a teenage Ava lives with her father, Casey (Stephen Lang) in a shabby Bridgeport, Conneticut home. As a hardened outlaw, Casey trains his daughter to be a lethal fighting machine with rigorous survival exercises and intense sparring sessions.

One night, a group of thugs invade Casey and Ava’s home. The intruders murder Casey, but Ava turns the tables with a shotgun. Ava murders the remaining thugs to survive the attack, but a callous Ava refuses to shed one tear for her father’s death.

Twelve years later, a reformed Ava (Gina Carano) prepares for her wedding ceremony in Arlington, Virgina. Derek Grant (Cam Gigandet) met Ava at a narcotics  anonymous meeting, and he’s ready to trust and spend the rest of his life with her, but Derek’s wealthy father, Robert (Treat Williams) doesn’t trust Ava and her motvations for marrying Derek. Ava’s troubled past raises a red flag for Robert, and the thought of Ava devising a scheme to marry Derek for a piece of the family fortune is too much to handle, so Mr. Grant pushes Derek to sign a prenuptial agreement. To prove his loyalty to Ava, Derek refuses his father’s request, and he tears the prenup in half to erase any doubts.

After the wedding,  Derek and Ava take a trip to a Caribbean island for their honeymoon, and Derek uses his grandfather’s old house as a vacation home. On the island, Derek and Ava meet a friendly local named Manny (Ismael Cruz Cordova). Manny convinces Derek and Ava to join him for a wild night at a local nightclub. Here, Ava and Derek cross paths with Big Biz (Danny Trejo), a powerful and respected gangster on the island. Big Biz tries to seduce Ava, but Derek intervenes. Ava fights off an assault to protect Derek, and Manny helps the couple escape in a taxi. After the brawl, Big Biz’s rival, Silvio Lugo (Amaury Nolasco) issues a stern warning about disrupting the peaceful and festive environment at the club. 

In the morning, Derek and Ava take a chance on ziplining after a persuasive pitch from Manny. The ziplining instructor JoJo (Oscar H. Guerrero) reassures a nervous Ava, but Derek suffers a nasty leg injury after a potentially fatal fall from faulty equipment on the zipline.

JoJo calls for an ambulance, but Manny disappears. Ava tries to fight her way into the ambulance with Derek, but the paramedics deny Ava’s attempts for insurance concerns. Ava follows the ambulance to the hospital. She loses Derek and the ambulance after a fall, but a friendly local helps Ava with a ride to the hospital.  

At the hospital, Ava runs into an unpleasant surprise, when Leta (Yvette Yates), a receptionist,  can’t find any records of Derek’s name in the system. Ava forces her way through the doors, but after a quick search, it’s clear Derek is not in the hospital.

Ava  turns to the local police for help after an unsuccessful search in every clinic and hospital on the island. Police Chief Ramon Garza (Luis Guzman) is reluctant to help Ava, and after a visit from Derek’s family, Ava takes matters into her own hands to find and rescue Derek. 

Ava suspects a cover up after JoJo completely denies knowing, seeing, and assisting Derek, Ava, and Manny on the zipline. A determined Ava embarks on a bloody and deadly mission to find Manny and the paramedics for more answers, and rescue Derek before it‘s too late. But during the fight to uncover the truth behind the conspiracy, Ava unintentionally brings the bitter feud between Big Biz and Silvio to a dangerous boiling point.

Gina Carano has the tools to carve out a sustainable career for herself, as a recognizable face and name in the action genre. When it comes to sex appeal, she has the perfect balance. You notice Carano’s beauty, but her looks are never the main focus for her character, because she has what it takes to be a physical force. That, or Carano’s character(s) can use her good looks to deceive any adversaries (the bathroom scene on the boat is a good example for In The Blood.), and Carano’s MMA background is no secret, so she can rely on a touch of legitimacy for her film roles.

Carano’s Ava is a no-nonsense fighting machine, and Carano delivers another entertaining performance in her comfort zone here. Carano delivers on the physical side of things, and it’s not limited to the fight scenes. Carano carries herself well with convincing body language and an unflinching demeanor, and she’s decent enough in a few emotional scenes.

Although, I will say this, In The Blood constantly tip-toes on a suspension of disbelief line with Ava throughout the movie. Flashbacks show Ava’s tough training sessions with her strict father, and yes, in real life Carano has the MMA credentials, but it’s hard to ignore In The Blood constantly going way over the top to showcase Ava’s deadly combat skills. One scene that sticks out as an example, is Ava trying to fight her way out of the police station, and it takes an entire group of cops to restrain her, and force her to the ground.

As far as the rest of the cast goes, I can’t say too much. Danny Trejo fans shouldn’t get their hopes up too high, because Trejo’s screen time is limited here, and you can say the same thing about Cam Gigandet. If we’re talking about personalities, Trejo plays the powerful hot head, while Gigandet is the loyal husband, and that’s about it. Nolasco’s Silvio is your typical cocky and greedy bad guy, he’s a bully, and that’s about it.

There’s some potential for a feud between Treat Williams’ Robert and Carano’s Ava. To give an example, there’s a scene, where Robert accuses Ava of planning Derek’s disappearance to collect some of the family fortune, and Ava responds to the accusations with a defiant “f*** you.” Robert resented Ava, because he believes she’s nothing more than a junkie and a crazy fraud, who’s trying to take advantage of his son, but Ava is willing to fight and die for Derek, because he saved her from a miserable life. The bitter distrust on Robert’s side, and Ava’s loyalty is believable, but the big problem is the feud never has a chance to develop, because Williams’ screen time is limited, and his character disappears after the visit to the island.

So what happened to Derek? Was it a kidnapping? Are the kidnappers asking for a ransom? Is he dead? Well, after torturing him in the night club at a bathroom, Ava forces a reluctant Manny to help her find Derek and his kidnappers. To add to that, the two paramedics played a part in Derek’s disappearance.

Eventually, Ava escapes police custody twice, she foils a last second execution attempt, and after a chat with Chief Garza, Ava learns the truth about Derek’s disappearance: Derek died on the operating table during a botched surgery, and Chief Garza played a part in covering up the death as a favor to the doctor. An enraged Ava gives Chief Garza a choice for his death. Ava gives Garza the choice of a box cutter or a gun, and Garza chooses the cutter, because he doesn’t want to startle  his sleeping daughter.

But wait a minute! It’s not over yet. Ava wants to “finish” her mission, so she infiltrates the hospital. Ava kills the receptionist (Leta), who lied to her earlier in the film, and she tortures the doctor, who performed the surgery on Derek  for more answers….and Ava witnesses a shocking revelation, when she spots a wheelchair-bound  Derek entering the hospital with Silvio and his men.

Silvio suffers from a rare type of cancer, and he needs stem cell transfusions for bone marrow. Derek is a perfect match, and Silvio constantly uses Derek as a reliable source to prolong his life.

Using a doctor’s outfit as a disguise, Ava rescues Derek from the hospital, but a wounded and drugged Silvio (Ava sabotaged Silvio’s IV at the hospital) chases Ava and Derek through the island with help from his crew and a few locals. Manny helps Derek and Ava hide, but Silvio and his gang trap Ava and Derek in Manny’s neighborhood. Derek and Ava systemically eliminate Silvio’s gang, and Ava faces Silvio in a one on one fight.

During the fight, Ava turns the tables on Silvio, and she holds a knife to his throat. The neighborhood cheers for Silvio’s death, but Big Biz interrupts the fight. Ava reluctantly gives the knife to Big Biz, and Biz uses the knife to murder Silvio. Why did Biz murder Silvio? Silvio was bad for business. The deaths of two Americans would hurt the island from a financial standpoint, and Biz wasn’t happy about the idea of Silvio risking his way of life (i.e. money from American men paying for his prostitutes, gambling, etc.). Biz reclaims his spot as the dominant force on the island, and he allows Derek and Ava to leave. To end the movie, Derek and Ava say their good-byes to Manny, and they leave the island together for the long trip home.

No real complaints about the big showdown between Silvio and Ava, and a few extra bonus points for the “Derek is still alive” twist. It’s a genuine surprise, because after Graza’s confession, you had to believe Derek was gone for good. Also, I’m glad they avoided a clichéd “islanders kidnap wealthy Americans for profit in an underground operation” twist. Silvio’s cancer revelation and Silvio using Derek to stay alive is a little far-fetched, but it’s nice to see an action/crime thriller take a chance on something different.

Overall, director John Stockwell’s work behind the camera is hit-and-miss. The editing for Ava and Derek’s honeymoon highlight reel and Ava’s risky bike ride through the city looks and feels clunky and choppy. The hiccups are not enough to drag In The Blood down into the gutter quality wise, but they’re noticeable.

If you’re looking for an artsy and stylish action/crime thriller, In The Blood is not for you. But if you’re looking for some mindless fun action, and hard hitting fight scenes, In The Blood is a satisfying film. Yes, the torture, interrogate, fight, kick ass, and repeat formula during Ava’s “WHERE’S MY HUSBAND?!?!” mission feels repetitive and tedious at times, but Carano consistently delivers a good show throughout In The Blood on the physical side of the film. Again, In The Blood is not a masterpiece, the dialogue sounds rigid and contrived most of the time, and the characters are one-dimensional, but if you’re looking for an entertaining guilty pleasure, it’s worth a try.

As I said before, Gina Carano has a future in the action world. For now, I won’t go as far as using the superstar tag, but she has what it takes to make a real name for herself. Haywire is still Carano’s best starring action role to date, and nothing comes close. It’s true Carano was surrounded by a talented cast in Haywire, and you can say the likes of Fassbender and McGregor helped hide her flaws, but Carano doesn’t need to deliver an Oscar worthy performance. The potential is there, and she can build her career around the persona of a lethal action heroine, but she needs more time and more films to build a more solid résumé.

Rating: 6/10

50,000!

Sorry I'm late on this, because I'm sure I passed the 50,000 pageviews mark on Friday. As always, the continued support is appreciated.

Movie reviews should pick up again this week, and I know it's early, but I'm still planning for Horror Month in October, when everything on my blog is 100% horror during the month of October. Hopefully, I won't run into any setbacks and major changes in real life, because Horror Month was a big success last year. Again, thanks for taking the time to read my reviews and other posts on here, and I hope you enjoy my work.

MMR

Willow Creek (2014)(Minor Spoilers Review)

**This review contains MINOR spoilers. No major character deaths or reveals**

It’s Jim’s (Bryce Johnson) birthday, and as a devout Bigfoot (or Sasquatch) follower and believer, Jim takes a trip to Willow Creek with his reluctant girlfriend, Kelly (Alexie Gilmore). In Willow Creek, Jim has plans to film his own footage of Bigfoot to follow in the footsteps of the famous Patterson-Gimlin film. In 1967, Roger Patterson and Robert “Bob” Gimlin captured footage of Bigfoot in Willow Creek, and Jim is determined to capture the creature on film to justify the risky expedition.

During the trip to Willow Creek, Kelly mocks Jim’s beliefs in Bigfoot, and together, the couple receives a stern warning from an angry local about the dangers of searching for Bigfoot.

Eventually, Jim and Kelly revisit the site of the Patterson-Gimlin film. One night, a series of strange noises and the footsteps of an unknown stalker disturb a peaceful slumber in Jim and Kelly’s tent. Are Jim and Kelly the victims of a cruel prank from a group of disgruntled locals? Or, are Jim and Kelly running out of time and options before the real Bigfoot attacks?

You’ll need a lot of patience for Willow Creek. The terrifying and spooky stuff doesn’t kick until the forty-seven minute mark, when Jim and Kelly are all alone in the tent at night. Before the nighttime tent scene, Willow Creek is loaded with Jim’s one on one interviews and sightseeing trips with Jim and Kelly, as they explore and visit different Bigfoot attractions (paintings, eating Bigfoot burgers, the Bigfoot Motel, etc.).

Do you believe in Jim’s mission to capture footage of the real Bigfoot? Well, if you don’t there’s a good chance you’ll have a hard time sitting through Willow Creek. And that’s my big problem with found-footage films most of the time: you’ll run into a conundrum with your suspension of disbelief mindset. On one hand, you know you’re watching a movie, and it’s not “real.” But on the flip side of that, you have to sit back and convince yourself you’re watching a REAL home movie, documentary, or lost tape, where the primary protagonists experience a series of bizarre, supernatural, or unexplainable occurrences.

With Willow Creek, you have to believe in Jim’s journey to find the real Bigfoot, his motivations, and his unwavering determination to uncover the truth. The problem is, the documentary portion of Willow Creek drags on and on, and nothing happens until the tent scene at night. Well, there’s the one scene of tension, where Jim and Kelly run into the angry local, who warns them about following Patterson and Gimlin’s film, but that’s about it. After a while, the rinse and repeat formula for interviewing locals and sightseeing feels boring and tedious. Willow Creek clocks in at one hour and twenty minutes for an overall runtime, and the scary stuff kicks in at the forty-seven minute mark. Think about that for a second.

Director/writer Bobact Goldthwait takes his frist shot at a horror film with Willow Creek, and I appreciate the restrained less is more approach to blood and gore here. In fact, if you take out the one scene, where Jim finds a strand of Bigfoot’s hair with a bloody piece of flesh attached to it, you won’t see any blood and gore in Willow Creek. Goldthwait gives you a chance to think and use your imagination, because you’re thinking about what could’ve happened during the close calls with Bigfoot. Or you’re thinking about the gruesome aftermath, because the attacks are pretty bad, if Goldthwait refuses to show them on camera, right?

As far as Bigfoot goes, you will not see the creature (well, the answer is a reluctant yes, if you count the paintings and the statue) in this film. Not once. You’ll see footprints, you’ll hear the roars, and you’ll see a shot of bushes moving with a hidden Bigfoot, but that’s it. Again, I don’t have a problem with Goldthwait’s less is more approach for Bigfoot, because he did a good job maintaining Bigfoot’s mystique. When you actually see Bigfoot, that’s it. You immediately kill your chances for genuine scares and surprises, because there’s no going back, when you finally pull the curtain open.

Willow Creek is not a groundbreaking film for the found-footage genre, and you need a lot of patience to sit through this one. Also, the problems in Jim and Kelly’s relationship are overshadowed by Bigfoot, but Goldthwait delivers the goods with a tense finale and an eerie cliffhanger, and the tent scene towards the end is genuinely spooky. Although, I’ll warn you now, you’ll have to sit through a lot of “let’s talk about Bigfoot” interviews, but the finale delivers a good amount of edge of your seat thrills, if you have what it takes to endure the documentary side of Willow Creek.

Rating: 6/10

Willow Creek (2014)(Spoiler Review)

**This review contains spoilers**

It’s Jim’s (Bryce Johnson) birthday, and as a devout Bigfoot (or Sasquatch) follower and believer, Jim takes a trip to Willow Creek with his reluctant girlfriend, Kelly (Alexie Gilmore). In Willow Creek, Jim has plans to film his own footage of Bigfoot to follow in the footsteps of the famous Patterson-Gimlin film. In 1967, Roger Patterson and Robert “Bob” Gimlin captured footage of Bigfoot in Willow Creek, and Jim is determined to capture the creature on film to justify the risky expedition.

During the trip to Willow Creek, Kelly mocks Jim’s beliefs in Bigfoot, and together, the couple receives a stern warning from an angry local about the dangers of searching for Bigfoot.

Eventually, Jim and Kelly revisit the site of the Patterson-Gimlin film. One night, a series of strange noises and the footsteps of an unknown stalker disturb a peaceful slumber in Jim and Kelly’s tent. Are Jim and Kelly the victims of a cruel prank from a group of disgruntled locals? Or, are Jim and Kelly running out of time and options before the real Bigfoot attacks?

You’ll need a lot of patience for Willow Creek. The terrifying and spooky stuff doesn’t kick until the forty-seven minute mark, when Jim and Kelly are all alone in the tent at night. Before the nighttime tent scene, Willow Creek is loaded with Jim’s one on one interviews and sightseeing trips with Jim and Kelly, as they explore and visit different Bigfoot attractions (paintings, eating Bigfoot burgers, the Bigfoot Motel, etc.).

Do you believe in Jim’s mission to capture footage of the real Bigfoot? Well, if you don’t there’s a good chance you’ll have a hard time sitting through Willow Creek. And that’s my big problem with found-footage films most of the time: you’ll run into a conundrum with your suspension of disbelief mindset. On one hand, you know you’re watching a movie, and it’s not “real.” But on the flip side of that, you have to sit back and convince yourself you’re watching a REAL home movie, documentary, or lost tape, where the primary protagonists experience a series of bizarre, supernatural, or unexplainable occurrences.

With Willow Creek, you have to believe in Jim’s journey to find the real Bigfoot, his motivations, and his unwavering determination to uncover the truth. The problem is, the documentary portion of Willow Creek drags on and on, and nothing happens until the tent scene at night. Well, there’s the one scene of tension, where Jim and Kelly run into the angry local, who warns them about following Patterson and Gimlin’s film, but that’s about it. After a while, the rinse and repeat formula for interviewing locals and sightseeing feels boring and tedious. Willow Creek clocks in at one hour and twenty minutes for an overall runtime, and the scary stuff kicks in at the forty-seven minute mark. Think about that for a second.

I emphasized patience earlier, and you’ll need a lot of patience for the nighttime tent scene towards the end. At night, a series of strange noises and footsteps disturb Jim and Kelly. Jim believes it’s Bigfoot, but Kelly thinks a group of locals are playing a prank on the dumb tourists. But Kelly changes her mind after a loud and abnormal moaning sound. The intruder presses one of their limbs against the tent, but the unknown figure runs away again after Kelly’s screams.  Jim and Kelly survive the night, and in the morning, Jim and Kelly agree to finally leave Willow Creek after all the close calls.

What happens after the tent scene? In the morning, Jim and Kelly realize they’re lost after three hours of wandering around, and passing a familiar tree. Jim picks up a scraggly strand of Bigfoot’s hair with a piece of flesh attached to it, and Jim records Bigfoot’s footprints. But he doesn’t have time to bask in the glory for discovering Bigfoot evidence, because Bigfoot’s roar surprises Kelly, but the couple runs away before Bigfoot has a chance to attack.

At night, a frightened Jim and Kelly are trying to hide from Bigfoot, when they spot a local missing woman (you’ll see a picture of her on a flyer at the restaurant in the early stages of the movie). She’s standing alone half naked, she’s in a petrified daze, and she starts moaning out of nowhere.

Jim and Kelly are stuck in a state of shock, and Bigfoot attacks before Jim and Kelly have a chance to react. Bigfoot mangles Jim, and the camera falls to the ground (you can hear Kelly’s screams in the background). From the camera’s POV, Bigfoot drags the camera, or the camera and Jim together (it’s hard to tell) on the ground, and Kelly continues to scream off-camera. To end the movie, Kelly’s screams are presumably silenced by Bigfoot, and you’ll hear a chorus of moans before the credits start rolling.

The tent scene? It’s a mixed bag for a number of reasons. I’ll tell you this right now, if you’re expecting a shocking  payoff, as the tent scene unfolds, you’ll be disappointed. You will NOT see Bigfoot (more on that later). Instead, you’ll just hear the moans, a kooky “whoop!” sound, and the sounds of knocking wood.

With that said, the tent scene hooked me in from start to finish. Is the real Bigfoot moments away from an attack? Or is Kelly right about a bunch of locals playing a prank? Yeah, you can say the tent scene drags after the first five minutes, and I imagine some will be disappointed by the lack of a close up view for Bigfoot, but overall the tent scene works, because the nail-biting teasing keeps you guessing until the next scene, and I had to know what would happen next every step of the way.

If we're talking about the finale, the audience doesn’t know if Jim is dead or not. You can clearly hear the sounds of Bigfoot attacking Jim, but you never see a shot of his corpse. And we’re unsure of Kelly’s fate. Again, you can hear the sounds of Kelly’s agony in the background, but you won’t see Kelly’s attack/struggle happening on-screen. And the chorus of moans in the dark to the end movie? Creepy stuff.

Director/writer Bobact Goldthwait takes his frist shot at a horror film with Willow Creek, and I appreciate the restrained less is more approach to blood and gore here. In fact, if you take out the one scene, where Jim finds a strand of Bigfoot’s hair with a bloody piece of flesh attached to it, you won’t see any blood and gore in Willow Creek. Goldthwait gives you a chance to think and use your imagination, because you’re thinking about what could’ve happened during the close calls with Bigfoot. Or you’re thinking about the gruesome aftermath, because the attacks are pretty bad, if Goldthwait refuses to show them on camera, right?

As far as Bigfoot goes, you will not see the creature (well, the answer is a reluctant yes, if you count the paintings and the statue) in this film. Not once. You’ll see footprints, you’ll hear the roars, and you’ll see a shot of bushes moving with a hidden Bigfoot, but that’s it. Again, I don’t have a problem with Goldthwait’s less is more approach for Bigfoot, because he did a good job maintaining Bigfoot’s mystique. When you actually see Bigfoot, that’s it. You immediately kill your chances for genuine scares and surprises, because there’s no going back, when you finally pull the curtain open.

Willow Creek is not a groundbreaking film for the found-footage genre, and you need a lot of patience to sit through this one. Also, the problems in Jim and Kelly’s relationship (long story short, Jim proposes to Kelly. She rejects him, but they agree to move in together) are overshadowed by Bigfoot, but Goldthwait delivers the goods with a tense finale and an eerie cliffhanger, and the tent scene towards the end is genuinely spooky. Although, I’ll warn you now, you’ll have to sit through a lot of “let’s talk about Bigfoot” interviews, but the finale delivers a good amount of edge of your seat thrills, if you have what it takes to endure the documentary side of Willow Creek.

Rating: 6/10