{"id":30635,"date":"2014-05-09T21:17:02","date_gmt":"2014-05-10T01:17:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=30635"},"modified":"2019-03-01T21:22:21","modified_gmt":"2019-03-02T02:22:21","slug":"willow-creek-2013-dvd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2014\/05\/09\/willow-creek-2013-dvd\/","title":{"rendered":"Willow Creek (2013) (DVD)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>What director Bobcat Goldthwait sets out to do with \u201cWillow Creek\u201d is deliver a found footage movie that gives the viewers every answer nagging at them. Except, he provides the answers through foreshadowing, subtlety, and a lot of ambiguity paired with clarification in the final moments of his film. Truthfully, \u201cWillow Creek\u201d is the anti-\u201cBlair Witch,\u201d in that it leaves so much to the imagination, but garners a very slick tongue in cheek toward its subject matter. There\u2019s no prologue about sheriff\u2019s finding this footage, there\u2019s no epilogue about what happened when the camera shut off. Goldthwait doesn\u2019t want us to believe that this might have happened. It merely begins on a mysterious shot, and Goldthwait takes us on his own version of a found footage horror film.<\/p>\n

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The whole point of the film is that ignorance is bliss. Who knows if there\u2019s an actual sasquatch, but sometimes it\u2019s best not to go poking your nose where it doesn\u2019t belong, and that\u2019s what \u201cWillow Creek\u201d aims to convey. Bryce Johnson and Alexie Gilmore play young couple Jim and Kelly. Jim is a big foot enthusiast and aspiring filmmaker who travel to Trinity County, California along with Kelly to visit the iconic filming sight where the Patterson-Gimlin footage from 1967 was shot. That\u2019s the silent footage of the female big foot stomping through the woods in the middle of the day that cryptozoologists still debate about. When they enter in to what is a veritable Bigfoot Mecca filled with souvenir shops, cafes, and a giant bigfoot statue, they begin interviewing the locals about big foot sightings.<\/p>\n

What they find is a mixed variety of denizens that believe the myth is laughable, while occasional passersby interrupt filming to warn them that bigfoot is nothing to laugh at. On the way to the film sight, Jim and Kelly are confronted by an aggressive local who threatens them and warns them to turn around and go back home. Despite his inherent threats and physical insistence, Jim and Kelly find a new path in to the forest, where they\u2019re hike out to find famous Patterson-Gimlin sight. As they tread on, not only do they begin experiencing weird occurrences, but they\u2019re subjected to horrors they\u2019re unprepared for. What I love most about \u201cWillow Creek\u201d is that Bobcat Goldthwait makes a film about a classic legend, and only expands on it. What we do find lurking in the forest isn\u2019t just what we might expect, but Goldthwait delights in also offering us a twist that we not only never expected, but is incredibly disturbing when you ponder the weight behind it.<\/p>\n

Goldthwait is perfectly capable of deriving tension and horror from the limited scenery, often using the wooded area as a very menacing stomping ground from what\u2019s lurking beyond our sight. He also implements the use of the unknown to provide much of the terror, depending on sound and suggestion to scare us in to submission. He even includes a scene very similar to \u201cThe Haunting\u201d where we\u2019re certain what\u2019s outside is big and powerful based on a simple action. \u201cWillow Creek\u201d is a wonderful turn of the found footage sub-genre that watches like a part found footage movie, and part documentary shoot that took a turn in to hell. Director Goldthwait runs the risk of turning his movie in to another run of the mill found footage endurance test, but with slick writing and strong performances, he manages to keep us invested until the very end.<\/p>\n

Featured on the DVD and Blu-Ray, there\u2019s a commentary with Writer\/Director Bobcat Goldthwait and Stars Alexie Gilmore and Bryce Johnson<\/strong>, all of whom record in Goldthwait\u2019s living room, discussing at great length the physical demands of filming at Willow Creek, and the actual wilderness, and how Goldthwait struggled to keep from turning his film in to another stock found footage title. There\u2019s a deleted scene<\/strong> featuring Cliff Barackman a big foot expert, as well as the eleven minute Bryce Johnson’s “The Making of Willow Creek.\u201d<\/strong> Finally, there\u2019s the \u201cWillow Creek\u201d trailer,<\/strong> and other trailers<\/strong> for MPI productions.<\/p>\n