Like Kevin Smith’s recent foray into an entirely new genre, 2011’s razor sharp “Red State” (which made my top 10 list from that year), I was really enthusiastic to see what writer/director Bobcat Goldthwait could do outside of comedy. Particularly with something that I had heard while it was in development that was going to fall into the horror vein. If Smith was the reigning comedic director of the 1990’s, Goldthwait has more less taken on that role, at least for me, throughout the aughts. Citing both 2009’s “World’s Greatest Dad” and 2011’s “God Bless America” as two of my favorite comedies from those respective years, I’ve grown a deep affinity for Goldthwait because as is like with some other directors who I admire, I feel like he gets me. There’s something about his comedic sensibilities that I connect with. In fact, in regards to “God Bless America”, so much so to the point that every word that’s uttered from that script I felt like was an exact representation of how I either felt or viewed the world (an optimist I know). 2006’s “Sleeping Dogs Lie” was also unique and funny enough, but I can’t say it’s one of my favorites of Goldthwait’s. Nor is 1991’s “Shakes The Clown”. But even still, within those films I saw a comedic director with something to say. Even if sometimes, as is with “World’s Greatest Dad” or “God Bless America”, he goes a bit overboard in trying to get his point across.
I was both happy and pleasantly surprised at the very first scene to find that Alexie Gilmore (Robin Williams’ flame from “World’s Greatest Dad”) and Bryce Johnson (Joel Murray’s co-worker from “God Bless America” and the fiance from “Sleeping Dogs Lie”) were the leads. Those are actors that really stuck out from those films so I was glad to see that two Goldthwait regulars were cast as the central characters. We first find them driving down “the Bigfoot byway” on their way to Willow Creek, a town where supposedly a Bigfoot was spotted and wrecked havoc on a family decades earlier. In true “Blair Witch Project” style, the two of them are entertained by interviewing all of the many colorful and eccentric characters that inhabit this backwoods town. Soon enough though, they start to encounter some locals who aren’t as welcoming, who insist they go back from wherever it was they came from. But in typical horror fashion they proceed on. Eventually they do make it out to the exact same trail and site where the Bigfoot was spotted some years back. And that’s about as much as I can tell you without giving any other crucial details away.
At first, I thought it was going to be some clever spin on the “Blair Witch Project”. As there were some geniunely funny moments involving the two central leads and the townspeople. The two seeming to make a big joke out of the whole affair and peoples’ seriousness about the Bigfoot legend. In typical Goldthwait fashion, he also uses various opportunties to throw in things he personally hates about popular culture into the script. The couple’s riffs on things like living in Los Angeles and Starbucks come straight from the Goldthwaith cannon. Have I sold you on it yet? I haven’t? Good because that’s about the only good things I can say about this wasted effort. Goldthwait tries so hard to put his own stamp on a genre, the POV or found footage one, that he winds up shooting himself in the foot and makes just another tireless and forgettable retread in the ever exapanding number of films within it. He goes from a full out comedic approach at the beginning to an all of a sudden serious one in its last act. To say this shift in approach didn’t work for me would be the understatement of the year. He employs cheap scares and techniques once the couple do get to the campsite that I found myself rolling my eyes at and trying hard not to laugh, because I knew deep down that there was nothing he was doing that was trying to be funny. Unless maybe he had purposefully set out to make a bad movie. Then maybe this wasted effort would stand for something. For those of you that aren’t going to see this film I will let you in on a little secret – ready, wait for it…shuhhhhh…there is nothing scary or even remotely original about this film. He does set the two leads up nicely (a device that’s mildly effective) in an extended medium/profile shot for the entire climax and lets the camera roll. Maybe one of the only semi-smart choices from a film making stand point. But then he subjects the audience to dumb horror tropes with things like the couple hearing weird howling, rocks being thrown at their tent, slabs of wood being knocked together, etc. Again I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to laugh or be afraid. Then finally, when the climax comes to its final build, it falls into copycat territory of an ending I’ve seen one too many times over. A major disappointment and one that I don’t think I can recommend to anyone. Even the most hardcore of genre fans. Bobcat stick with what you know best and go back to dark comedy, because you just made one hell of a boring horror movie.
Grade: D+/C-
gobydirector 
Alexie Gilmore makes the climax scene pretty frightening & good campy fun. She’s pretty foxy in this. Like in similarly shot movies, I guess I’d probably say the ending was a little unsatisfying or the movie in general was a little unsatisfying, but I thought the couple’s relationship was pretty believable.
& the climax, where the boyfriend&girlfriend are in the tent, reacting to the ‘sasquatch’ circling them late @ night in the middle of the deep woods, I thought {for a few minutes there} was right up there in tenseness as the scene in Open Water where the couple first sees the sharks swishing water around them.
Overall, WillowCreek.. was an ok, somewhat entertaining movie to rent for free from the library on a Sun. after a late Sat. night. 77 / C+
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Yeah I would have to disagree with you here. There was nothing even remotely frightening about the end. Sure, Alexie Gilmore is a total fox. But I don’t think that played into whether I liked the film any better or worse than i did. The couple’s relationship “was” believable but I think that had do do with the fact that they were two Goldthwaith regulars. But again, not necessarily something I thought that added or detracted from the film.
And I’m astounded you would compare the third act and climax to the level of dread and overall uneasiness that you felt during “Open Water”. That scene where they’re in the water and the camera pans up and down to see that there are sharks swarming around them, or in the case of your example “shark”, is etched in my memory forever. Like something out of “Jaws” where now every time I go swimming in the ocean I think of it. Nothing, and I repeat nothing, about the ending stuck or resonated with me 1/10th to the degree that “Open Water” did. In fact, now every time I go camping, I’ll probably laugh at the mere thought of Bigfoot because of this movie. Again, was it supposed to be a horror or a comedy?
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Wasn’t comparing the ‘entire 3rd act’ of this to OpenWater; only compared probably a 7 min. scene of fun tenseness to merely just that 1st swish of water from a shark in OpenWater (but yes, the believability & suckiness of the sitch of being surrounded by sharks in the middle of the ocean was 10x more terrifying & prob a lil’ bit of stretch comparison)
re: horror or comedy.. I don’t think WillowCreek is meant to be taken too seriously. It’s supposed to be kind of hokey, & I thought it was successful in it’s attempt to feel hokey. Kind of like what I think the topic of Big Foot is like in general, So in that regard, I thought the tone of the entire movie was ok.
Again 77, so I’m only giving it what.. 4 pts higher than you?
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