Willow Creek

Goldthwait has made what is possibly the most realistic found footage movie ever. Poorly shot, poorly acted, and completely devoid of any direction, build up, or payoff. This is what I would envision a true piece of found footage to look like. Now, does this make it revolutionary? For the all-too-fake found footage genre, I would say sure. Does this make it good? Well, let's just say that when 10 minutes of your 70-minute film are panting sounds in a pitch black tent you ain't gonna get tier 9.

Criticisms like 'nothing happens in it!' are very valid, but please, enough about my life. We're here for Willow Creek. And sure, there's a lot of buildup and gorehounds can safely ignore this, but for me this really felt like found footage. No crisp quality images, no nicely edited out flubs, and takes that go on too long. The added realism did the trick for me, so I was tensed up as hell during the final 20 minutes.

Found Bigfootage

Most of Willow Creek's shortfalls come from the format; a believable found-footage SHOULD spend much of its time treading water waiting for a predictable ending. That said, there's a lot of details here I really like - both character work and the little hints at the larger story of expansion and de-wilding that leads to the Bigfoot scare in the first place. And that one scene really is pretty tense.

I eagerly await the brutal behind-the-scenes doc directed by Werner Herzog.

The Blair Bigfoot Project

I really liked this. It treads firmly within the larger footprints of "Blair Witch Project" and perhaps "Troll Hunter", and is very likely to disappoint fans of graphic, splatter horror. However, it's wholesomely measured and tasteful, feels logical and doesn't shoot too high. The characters are nicely drawn, the sexual innuendo lingers after the viewing, and most of all, I appreciate good use of sound and good timing/pace-based suspense.

Seen: 2. There is some intrigue at first amongst the slow build up. But the build up just keeps coming. The eventual payoff has tension, but doesn't do nearly enough.

Very similar to Blair Witch, but effective. Heart-poundingly frightening.

Didn't quite get there for me, felt like the buildup was way too long and the payoff disappointing. Bigfoot as a monster isn't my first choice either so that didn't help.

Man, was really pulling for this one cause I loved the concept. Genuinely creepy ending though.

An extremely 'light' version of Blair Witch Project. Not sure what it tries to be, a comedy, horror or something else. Structure wise it's a near carbon copy of BWP, just a lot worse. There is no build up to a climax, let alone the suspense that is virtually non existent. Goldthwait fails hard this time, as this is a blatant rip off of the king of all found footage flicks: Blair Witch Project.

It seems authentic, that's for sure--authentically ponderous and banal, with long stretches of nothing happening but, unlike with THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT (its clear role model), no sense of impending dread, sharp characterization, or subtle Man vs. Nature commentary around to compensate. And the two leads suck ass--overwhelmingly smug and self-aware. Their crappy acting kills any tension that Bobcat is able to generate with his long takes and odd offscreen noises. A disappointment.

Flies very high right up to the genuinely unsettling centrepiece “tent scene”, showcasing low-key, believable performances from Johnson and Gilmore which bring a real authenticity to the now overly-familiar found footage conceit; baffling that the final 10 minutes drops the ball so completely, giving us a condensed retelling of the BLAIR WITCH plot that strains credibility to busting point merely in service as set-up to a painfully derivative finale. Oh Bobcat, so near and yet so far…

You can have a good and quite scary film without showing much (or anything in this case lmao) and without a big budget

underwhelming finish

Willow Creek starts off okay as we follow the two unlikable leads as they search for a bigfoot. The problem here is that the whole thing feels underwhelming. None of the actors aside from the old woman can act worth a shit, at no point does anything unnerving ever happen, you get some lame-ass moaning sounds and a bear attack, The End.

Only 1 hour and 19 minutes and it still seemed to last forever.

So boring. Literally nothing happens. You keep watching and waiting for something to happen and nothing happens. The last 10 minutes or so are creepy, but still nothing really happens and it doesn't make up for sitting thru the rest of the movie waiting for something to happen. Whatever might be out there in the woods with the two main characters - doesn't matter because you won't get to see it. Could be Bigfoot, crazy rednecks, bears - who knows because you'll never find out.

Totally interesting concept that was so, so close to being interesting but is utterly brought down by ist lenient editing. Nearly every scene goes on at least twice as long as it should, which paradoxically only really works for the most egregiously long scene. The ending is pretty dope, though.

68.500

So two dipshits who can't operate a camera properly go looking for bigfoot and I get bored. Quite possibly the worst of the found footage style films I have seen, and that is fucking saying something.

Blair Witch style film, let down by its crappy ending.

Willow Creek is bland for long stretches of time and nothing happens in it. Now, neither of these things matter in a good movie, but this one sucked. Acting was bad, dialogue was terrible. Very little happened and when it did it wasn't very interesting.

A surprisingly great effort from Bobcat, and surprisingly disturbing. While not breaking any molds, sticking to the strengths of the genre. The disturbing reveal at the end really brings the whole plot elements together, the dirty jokes, the relationship issues.. and with the brisk runtime Willow Creek deserves a watch.

I waited and waited to see this after having it recommended sometime last year and I finally saw it and I wish I hadn't bothered. It's not the worst film I've seen by a long shot and I did stick it to the end but I was expecting something much better and something in some way subversive coming from Bobcat Goldthwait. What happened Bob? I was expecting better than this