Searching for Bigfoot with Willow Creek

I am going to be honest, I have mixed feelings on this movie and its hard to really decide what I want to say about it. A brief overview, Willow Creek is a 2013 found footage horror movie directed by Bobcat Goldthwait. It follows a couple, Jim and Kelly, as they are shooting footage for Jim’s Bigfoot documentary in California. Jim is a true believer and honestly thinks they might discover new information, or even Bigfoot itself, while on this journey. Kelly is an aspiring actress trying to balance supporting her boyfriend while not wanting to be involved at all.

The couple arrives in a small town where they take in things like “the Bigfoot burger” and attempt to interview people about the elusive and famous cryptid. A few of the people they interview give them some interesting information, but for the most part people are incredibly cagey to outright hostile. In fact the two of them are violently confronted when they try to enter the woods to search for Bigfoot.

Jim finds a back way to where they are going and all seems somewhat okay… until it doesn’t.

It’s hard for me to actually think of what to say about this movie, I mean the movie itself is short with only an 80 minute runtime. Although I think that works in the film’s favor for the most part. It gives us enough time with Jim and Kelly doing the standard “found footage” bits we get in these types of movies. Having to “reshoot scenes” and all those moments that are often used in found footage movies to make them feel more real. Because of the shorter runtime it doesn’t feel like we get too much of this. I often find found footage movies can be a bit of a slog because they can drag these things out too much.

I am also impressed by how the earlier part of the movie plays out. Bobcat Goldthwait has described it as a “guerrilla style” of filming and the production was tiny. Like a handful of people making up the entire production tiny. This includes some Bigfoot experts that Bobcat hired to help them. He also put a lot of faith in Alexie Gilmore and Bryce Johnson (Kelly and Jim) allowing them freedom in what they did, including but not limited to interviewing people who did not always know it was for a fictional movie.

It lends a lot of realness to the overall vibe which is something you want in a found footage movie. Although the ethics of filming people and only telling them after the fact why is debatable. It also again works that the movie has such a short runtime. With that limited of a budget and crew less is more and helps to focus the impact of where it is.

The issues arise in the fact that it’s… okay, maybe good, but just that. The movie relies almost entirely on a brilliantly done long take that lasts for roughly 20 minutes while the couple is camping. Jim and Kelly wake up in their tent due to noises outside. They at first brush it off, they are camping after all, but slowly they start to realize it’s something to be concerned about. It is a long take of dramatic and often scary sounds, with the tent occasionally being rustled and pushed on. I am not describing it very well because the movie is worth the 80 minute commitment for this and you want to experience most of it.

It is suffice to say well done. Jim is at first trying to describe how these sounds correlate to Sasquatches but as whatever is outside their tent gets more aggressive the couple becomes just paralyzed by fear and confusion, and we are stuck with it. Even more upsetting is the clear sounds of a human woman crying while we are can fairly confident the couple in the tent is being hunted.

And once again good on Bobcat Goldthwait for having so much faith in his actors and tiny crew. I don’t know how many times it took them to nail this but they did. It’s dark, intense, and scary. And it is made all the more intense due to the lack of cuts, trapping us with them in the moment.

– Although your mileage will vary, my husband agrees it was a well done take but was less impressed by it. I also scream in haunted houses while he’s like “oh that’s good” so you know… –

The ending is also pretty good. We get the “one last moment” so common in found footage movies and it’s pretty effective. Though I will say the time between the tent and that moment is a bit rushed, probably the only time I feel the runtime worked against the movie.

I just don’t know that it all adds up to a great movie. It’s not bad and the tent scene really does what it set out to do, but otherwise it’s pretty underwhelming, However, once again the runtime means that it can be worth it. You may not have loved the experience, but you won’t feel like you wasted that time.

HOWEVER, and this however comes with pretty spoilers and a content warning for SA, proceed with caution-

The movie makes a lot of casual sexual jokes and is filled in innuendo and for the most part I just kind of rolled my eyes at it until we got to the ending. The ending heavily implies that the Sasquatches are killing human men and stealing human women to assault them. The jokes leave a pretty awful taste in your mouth once you have that knowledge. It feels disrespectful of a subject that should be addressed more seriously or left alone.