Hoax (2019) by Matt Allen

Director: Matt Allen
Year: 2019
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Bigfoot/Sasquatch

Plot:
Following the disappearance of several hikers, an executive looking into the group's whereabouts hires a primate specialist to join his team to trek into the wilderness believing that Bigfoot has taken them, only to discover that the legendary creature is now hunting them one-by-one.

Review:

Overall, this one was quite an enjoyable Bigfoot film. One of the strongest features here is the expected ferocity that arises during the film's encounters with the creature. These are generally quite fun and chilling with the initial attack on the hikers that sets everything in motion serving as a fine series of ambushes on everyone, resulting in everything from off-screen disappearances to bloodied body parts being flung at them having blood-splatter on the tent during the sequence. Out in the woods with the rest of the crew, the ramping up of the brutality towards the group which makes this one incredibly enjoyable with the first ambush on the lone girl that draws everyone's attention while everyone else is scattered throughout the campsite and sets up the fine series of encounters that are featured throughout the finale where the creature is shown chasing them through the woods creating some tense encounters here. Given that these are still accomplished with practical effects while keeping the creature off-screen for large portions of time, there's a lot to like with this aspect of the film.

As well, there's also an enjoyable setup that arises throughout the first half as this starting point serves a lot to like. With the whole plot being based on the search for the missing hikers and the team coming together to find them, there are some rather enjoyable aspects to be had with the crew setting up their respective skills and preparing for their mission. Dedicated to not only bring them back alive but capturing an image of the creature as well, there's some fun to be had with the film following professionals doing their job in this situation. Building off of that in a fine matter is the later scenes where they're becoming aware that something's out in the woods with them as the evidence from their mine expedition or the series of encounters in the woods with the heat-registering camera, the slowly-dawning realization of something in the woods with them is a highly enjoyable effort. Together with the practical effects used for the Bigfoot creature, these here are what hold the film up over it's few minor flaws.

Among the film's few problematic areas is a rather disappointing middle section that spends far too much time in useless subplots to detail much in the way of Bigfoot encounters. Rather than bring in more attacks by the creature on the group who are now fully aware of its existence, the fact that this is mostly dropped for the backstory on most of the characters that should've happened earlier in the running time as this ends up taking time away from the Bigfoot encounters. Likewise, there's very little need for the final twist here that turns what could've been a fun genre effort into something else entirely through a cliched revelation that undoes everything the film had built up before for no reason other than to have a change that was unexpected from the start of the film considering just how out of nowhere the entire sequence appears to be. While it does go back to the expected realm at the end of the film, this detour is enough to knock it down just a touch. Otherwise, there isn't much to dislike here.

Overview: ***.5/5
While it manages a few missteps in the final half that it really didn't need to follow through on, the fun attacks and setup for most of the film are more than enough to make this a solid and highly enjoyable addition to the genre. Give this a go if you're a fan of these modern Bigfoot genre efforts or looking for some new creature feature as a whole, while those put off by the film's flaws should heed caution.