Director: Matt Jaissle
Year: 2023
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Bigfoot/Sasquatch
Plot:
Heading off into the woods, a group of hunters arrives at a remote family-owned cabin in the wilderness to go deer hunting, but the longer they stay there come to believe that a deadly, legendary creature is prowling the woods with them and forces a determined sheriff to stop it.
Review:
Overall, this was a decent enough killer creature effort. Among the more likable factors of this one is the wholly intriguing and somewhat unconventional approach to the genre, which places it slightly outside genre conventions. This is mostly accomplished through the storyline involving the sheriff looking around, trying to figure out what’s happening, as what initially seem like random attacks and encounters prove to be a more structured sequence that demonstrates the creatures’ intelligence and cunning when everything forms a distinctive pattern. The idea of the confrontations being the same pattern as a series of strange sightings years earlier that confirms his suspicions and beliefs about the creature, setting up a solid bout of characterization on his part as the mental toil of trying to keep the community safe from the relentless strikes, the turmoil of having to come to terms with the creatures’ influence over his family history, and the relationship he has with those around him, leading to a solid storyline about his determination and perseverance not being healthy in the slightest.
That highlights the one main issue here, where, despite the frequency of the attacks and how much cheesy fun they are seeing the creature wandering around the woods stalking the hapless hunters in the woods, they’re pretty lame and lackluster. There’s some genuinely chilling stalking here involving the creature appearing at the cabin to take the group out when they first arrive, but the other scenes here are immensely underwhelming, where it looks like a furry, indeterminate blob prowling through the woods, which is pretty hard to get invested in. That’s also due to the cheesy and ridiculous-looking costume for the creature when it’s finally shown, since it never comes close to being that imposing or threatening, and it tends to retroactively affect the rest of the scenes to be quite underwhelming and silly as the indiscernible haze of motion. Combined with the cheesy low-budget approach throughout here, these all come together to bring this down.
Overview: **.5/5
A serviceable if somewhat flawed indie genre effort, there are some enjoyable factors to be had with this one that manage to keep it up just enough despite the detrimental flaws here that keep this down. Those who appreciate the style or approach taken here or who are fans of the creative crew will want to give this a shot, while most others out there should heed caution.
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