Director: Bruce Wemple
Year: 2020
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Bigfoot/Sasquatch
Plot:
Following a series of disappearances, a woman and a stranger who’s traveling to the same area of the woods which causes the two women to bond quite easily, yet when a personal tragedy is uncovered during the trip she realizes that the stories of Bigfoot living in the area are the least of her troubles and tries to get away alive.
Review:
This was a pretty solid and enjoyable Bigfoot effort. Among the better elements here is the fact that this one manages to develop a series of engrossing and enjoyable storylines throughout here that keep this one quite intriguing. Offering up enough of a backstory with the town in regards to its history of sightings and encounters through the opening wrapup that signals everything that’s gone down in the town in recent history, this offers up a plausible outline for the encounters to come with it taking place in an area such as this. Much in the same way, the different explanations for the trip to get going on the right foot following the series of misunderstandings create a solid main coupling to follow along as the setup to get them out into the woods is quite well-handled here.
As well, when the film decides to play off that build-up it turns into a decent monster movie. The opening attack is a fine stand-out, using the off-screen noises and silhouette of the creature to the fine effort here as this gets going on a fine note. Later attacks, from the ambush on the hiker in the wilderness or the aborted encounter at the cabin all serve to set up the big finale where it comes out of hiding and begins preying on the forces within the cabin as the viciousness and intensity featured here are quite fun. Loaded with chilling stalking scenes, some fun action and great make-up work as the kills get brutal and bloody while the use of a practical suit for the creature is to be commended, this part has plenty to like and helps this out tremendously.
There are a few flaws to be had with this one. Its biggest issue is the fact that the beginning, for all the good it does in setting the stage for the events to come, does so at the expense of its more expressive horror trappings. By spending near the majority of the time here on seeing who’s playing mind-games with who, telling stories about their past or the girls engaging in sapphic couplings on their road-trip, this egregiously forgets about the main creature for extended periods of the film. The languid tempo doesn’t help this one much, keeping things from building up energy or momentum for what’s to come as the focus on other areas keeps this one from letting go like it really could’ve.
The other flaw present with this one is the entire need for a subplot involving a serial killer in their midst. This serves no purpose other than to be a red herring about the creature being the culprit of the attacks and disappearances when all this revelation sequences could've been taken out and applied to more creature fun anyway. Besides, the need to establish setting up a base of operations for the crimes in the vicinity of such a creature and hoping to get away with everything is incredibly short-sighted and makes even less sense with all the protection methods that are forced to be employed simply to keep it at arms’ length. All around this storyline makes no sense and tends to be its main drawback.
Overview: ***/5
Despite some minor drawbacks and a couple troubling efforts throughout here, the good points here are just enough to lift this one up into being a wholly watchable if unessential genre effort. Give this one a look if you’re genuinely intrigued by killer Bigfoot movies or find this kind of film enjoyable, while those who are burned out by the genre or turned off by the flaws here should heed caution.
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