Willow Creek (2014)

willow-creekDo you believe if you look hard enough for something, you’ll find it? In May 2014, Jim went searching for something that many people before him had, problem is, he may have found it.

Directing this 77 minute adventure/horror/mystery/thriller is Bobcat Goldthwait.

Filming this search is: Bryce Johnson as Jim and Alexie Gilmore as Kelly.

Jim is making a documentary on… Bigfoot. Together, Jim and his girlfriend Kelly hit the road so Jim can visit a few famous sites and maybe find proof of the elusive Bigfoot. After setting up camp at a well known reported location, everything was going good, then the night came… and things changed.

So comedian/actor Bobcat Goldthwait is doing the writing/directing thing nowadays and has been for a few. Apparently, he has 9 writing and 19 directing credits to his name, which you may have seen. Two titles that were familiar to me was World’s Greatest Dad (2009) and God Bless America (2011), which he wrote and directed. Well, now he’s come up with a flick for the horror genre.

Goldthwait decided to go with the found footage style for this one as we follow the couple on their hunt for Bigfoot. The script is pretty boring most of the time, and is filled with empty every day banter between the couple. No thought provoking conversations, witty banter or humor of any kind. Just every day conversations… for 60 some odd minutes. Leaving the last bit of script time for “Oh god…, Run!, Where are we?” and general screams of fear sprinkled here and there.

The playthrough was so boring I had to fight to finish it. I just kept hoping something would happen to pick it up. Yet, nothing ever does, and by the time the end comes I found out it wasn’t worth waiting for. Even though the film tries to make the build up to the end frightful with “scary sounds” and shaky camera work, it failed. The only mystery I found in it was how much longer would I have to sit through this. Now I was thrilled, when the credits began to roll, but that was about the only time.

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The visual effects that were there didn’t really help the film at all. Now, Evan Phelan’s work on cinematography did make it look and feel like the filming was done by the couple with a camcorder. So Phelean was able to add some realism there to it. Problem was, the whole thing had too much realism to it. Instead of feeling like I was watching or was on an adventure with the couple, it was more like I was watching someone’s boring home movies.

 

Summary : It just isn't worth the time to watch this one. Sadly, to look at this one you might think Goldthwait doesn't have much talent in the writing/directing field. This however, isn't true! Some of his stories are a bit odd, but still very well written. Unfortunately, this just wasn't one I could say that about.

It's rated UR (unrated) but has language.


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