Bigfoot: The Lost Coast Tapes (2012)
Directed by Cory Grant
Well, I can honestly say prior to this I had never seen a scary Bigfoot movie.
Also the last Bigfoot movie I'd seen was that one on Sci Fi with Alice Cooper. Awful only begins to describe that movie.
This one, however, was awesome. The acting was pretty good, minus some moments with the comedic relief Napoleon Dynamite/Michael Cera kind of character that the sound guy was. The pacing was GREAT! This movie had a handful of golden pause moments. It was not afraid to hold on a shot for longer than usual movies, and really built up the tension amazingly.
One thing I learned in video editing and film studies is that not showing the 'monster' makes it all the more scary. If there's going to be a 'big reveal', hold out for it as long as you can. This movie totally did that. Do you remember seeing Alien for the first time and being so scared for 90% of the movie of a creature that they hadn't really shown yet? Yeah, same effect.
So this is a sort of found footage kind of film, though luckily it's a film about a TV crew so the camera is a lot more steady, and you don't have those weird bad compression moments and stuff from a lot of found footage stuff.
Sound guy, Kevin, covered in his blood. Image from http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/xlrator-media-screamfest-macabre-horror-labels-380927
Tiny TV crew is making a show about busting hoaxes, and they've heard some forest man has the body of a dead Bigfoot. The group (talent, camera man, sound guy, and producer) set out to meet with the woodsman to reveal a hoax. They meet up with him in the woods and he has them blindfolded before continuing the rest of the way in his vehicle. They drive out to who knows where and lodge at the old woodsman's place for the night.
The residence is surrounded by an electric fence meant to keep away Bigfoots. The crew of course think this is ridiculous.
Something however beats on the house's door, scratches up the outside and marks it territory. Stupid host Sean just thinks it's elaborate pranking for the show.
Their host runs out to hand things and last the group sees of him for a while is his car driving off in the middle of the night.
In the day the group explores the forest area around them and finds footprints and a nest of some sort that has the same stank as where the 'Bigfoot' was around the house. Sound guy Kevin takes this seriously and decides he wants out. Sean tells him he can leave to try to find his way back to their car if he comes back to pick up the rest of the group and wear a camera. Kevin accepts and is off.
Eventually Mr. Drybeck returns in the night in his vehicle claiming all roads out are blocked by giant trees. Sadly producer Robyn has just been attacked by something in the darkness and her side is bruised bad. Sean blames Drybeck, and the cameraman, Darryl (strangly affectionate towards Robyn) just wants to get the producer to a hospital.
Drybeck says because of the trees there's no way out. He himself was trying to get to a hospital all day after a fellow woodsman was injured badly by Bigfoot.
Drybeck offers to take the skeptics out to see the body, minus Robyn because of her injuries, and they take him up on it. Robyn stays behind after a crash course on how to use the cameraman's gun and promising not to leave the house. The three men set off hurriedly to make it to a cave that they can only get to at low tide, the place where the body is stored. Once there they get to the back of the cave where a large chest is, but just as the box is about to be opened Drybeck notes that something else has entered the cave...
Somehow they get out of the cave after getting spooked and decide they need to get back to Robyn ASAP.
Meanwhile at the house Robyn speaks to the other wounded woodsman who's in bed. He says there's a camera in the car, the passes out. Robyn retrieves the camera and watched the tape. It's Kevin. He's walking along the trail a vehicle had left when he's roadblocked by a giant tree. In the midst of his complaining he's confronted by a Bigfoot (unseen because of the camera's POV) and killed.
Robyn, rattled, seeks out the cameraman's gun from their guest lodge, but when she gets back into the house something grabs the wounded woodman through the window. Even more freaked out now, Robyn decides she needs to get to the car. As she runs to the vehicle she sees the creature as well and is dragged off screen. Her limp body is thrown back in frame, and a large creature walks past the toppled camera dragging one of her limbs.
When Sean and Darryl make it back they can't find Robyn but note the gun lying curiously near the vehicle. Sean is breaking down, but Darryl grabs a gun and runs out into the night shooting madly. He returns quickly saying nothing but shooting himself in the head. What sight would make a man do that?
Sean continues shooting feeling it's all that's left and people must know. Eventually he too is overcome by the Bigfoot who steal him away the walk past another toppled camera.
Darryl is my favorite character. I really really like how relatable and conversational his dialogue is. At one point he's yelling something over and over and over and over and over at Sean to get him to snap out of his breakdown in the woods, and calls him dawg! I thought that was a fun touch to talk about their relationship and maturity.
There's a few really trite moments in the writing, but same with Avatar and that did phenomenally. So after watching this I wondered 'Is Bigfoot aliens? Bigfoot is an alien?!'
It's a weird question that forms from all the strange circumstances around the attacks, like mysterious lights that the group sees. Or maybe there are Bigfoot in the forests and aliens? Or maybe it goes the more spiritual route (mentioned in the film briefly) and Bigfoot straddles this world and a spirit world and the lights are a side effect of that.
Unlike any other Bigfoot movie I've ever seen.
Directed by Cory Grant
Well, I can honestly say prior to this I had never seen a scary Bigfoot movie.
Also the last Bigfoot movie I'd seen was that one on Sci Fi with Alice Cooper. Awful only begins to describe that movie.
This one, however, was awesome. The acting was pretty good, minus some moments with the comedic relief Napoleon Dynamite/Michael Cera kind of character that the sound guy was. The pacing was GREAT! This movie had a handful of golden pause moments. It was not afraid to hold on a shot for longer than usual movies, and really built up the tension amazingly.
One thing I learned in video editing and film studies is that not showing the 'monster' makes it all the more scary. If there's going to be a 'big reveal', hold out for it as long as you can. This movie totally did that. Do you remember seeing Alien for the first time and being so scared for 90% of the movie of a creature that they hadn't really shown yet? Yeah, same effect.
So this is a sort of found footage kind of film, though luckily it's a film about a TV crew so the camera is a lot more steady, and you don't have those weird bad compression moments and stuff from a lot of found footage stuff.
Tiny TV crew is making a show about busting hoaxes, and they've heard some forest man has the body of a dead Bigfoot. The group (talent, camera man, sound guy, and producer) set out to meet with the woodsman to reveal a hoax. They meet up with him in the woods and he has them blindfolded before continuing the rest of the way in his vehicle. They drive out to who knows where and lodge at the old woodsman's place for the night.
The residence is surrounded by an electric fence meant to keep away Bigfoots. The crew of course think this is ridiculous.
Something however beats on the house's door, scratches up the outside and marks it territory. Stupid host Sean just thinks it's elaborate pranking for the show.
Their host runs out to hand things and last the group sees of him for a while is his car driving off in the middle of the night.
In the day the group explores the forest area around them and finds footprints and a nest of some sort that has the same stank as where the 'Bigfoot' was around the house. Sound guy Kevin takes this seriously and decides he wants out. Sean tells him he can leave to try to find his way back to their car if he comes back to pick up the rest of the group and wear a camera. Kevin accepts and is off.
Eventually Mr. Drybeck returns in the night in his vehicle claiming all roads out are blocked by giant trees. Sadly producer Robyn has just been attacked by something in the darkness and her side is bruised bad. Sean blames Drybeck, and the cameraman, Darryl (strangly affectionate towards Robyn) just wants to get the producer to a hospital.
Drybeck says because of the trees there's no way out. He himself was trying to get to a hospital all day after a fellow woodsman was injured badly by Bigfoot.
Drybeck offers to take the skeptics out to see the body, minus Robyn because of her injuries, and they take him up on it. Robyn stays behind after a crash course on how to use the cameraman's gun and promising not to leave the house. The three men set off hurriedly to make it to a cave that they can only get to at low tide, the place where the body is stored. Once there they get to the back of the cave where a large chest is, but just as the box is about to be opened Drybeck notes that something else has entered the cave...
Somehow they get out of the cave after getting spooked and decide they need to get back to Robyn ASAP.
Meanwhile at the house Robyn speaks to the other wounded woodsman who's in bed. He says there's a camera in the car, the passes out. Robyn retrieves the camera and watched the tape. It's Kevin. He's walking along the trail a vehicle had left when he's roadblocked by a giant tree. In the midst of his complaining he's confronted by a Bigfoot (unseen because of the camera's POV) and killed.
Robyn, rattled, seeks out the cameraman's gun from their guest lodge, but when she gets back into the house something grabs the wounded woodman through the window. Even more freaked out now, Robyn decides she needs to get to the car. As she runs to the vehicle she sees the creature as well and is dragged off screen. Her limp body is thrown back in frame, and a large creature walks past the toppled camera dragging one of her limbs.
When Sean and Darryl make it back they can't find Robyn but note the gun lying curiously near the vehicle. Sean is breaking down, but Darryl grabs a gun and runs out into the night shooting madly. He returns quickly saying nothing but shooting himself in the head. What sight would make a man do that?
Sean continues shooting feeling it's all that's left and people must know. Eventually he too is overcome by the Bigfoot who steal him away the walk past another toppled camera.
Darryl is my favorite character. I really really like how relatable and conversational his dialogue is. At one point he's yelling something over and over and over and over and over at Sean to get him to snap out of his breakdown in the woods, and calls him dawg! I thought that was a fun touch to talk about their relationship and maturity.
There's a few really trite moments in the writing, but same with Avatar and that did phenomenally. So after watching this I wondered 'Is Bigfoot aliens? Bigfoot is an alien?!'
It's a weird question that forms from all the strange circumstances around the attacks, like mysterious lights that the group sees. Or maybe there are Bigfoot in the forests and aliens? Or maybe it goes the more spiritual route (mentioned in the film briefly) and Bigfoot straddles this world and a spirit world and the lights are a side effect of that.
Unlike any other Bigfoot movie I've ever seen.
No comments:
Post a Comment