15 Worthwhile Found Footage Thrillers You've Never Seen
10. Willow Creek (2013)
--> It may still be making its way around the festival circuit, but Bobcat Goldthwaits own foray into found footage is one worth keeping your eye on as it ambles onto theater screens and eventual VOD. Goldthwait, whose previous films focused on outcasts and the dark side of our media-hungry, celebrity obsessed culture, turns his lens towards a most abused socially fringe subset, Bigfoot fanatics, and the object of their obsession, arguably the most elusive of all eccentric pop culture personalities; the mighty Sasquatch.
Instead of mocking the Bigfoot faithful or doing another terse, ominous intro of characters glowering in their search for the mysterious creature, Bobcat breaks the movie into two sections, the first being a witty and affectionate nod towards the Bigfoot folk that includes our two protagonists Jim and Kelly staking out the site of the Patterson/Gimlin footage and interviewing real members of this dogged community. In that jovial and sometimes hilarious first half, Bobcat avoids outright mocking the true believers and finds a certain mutual yearning in their unrestrained optimism.
The second half, with Jim and Kelly camping down next to the ravine is a scary and intense jaunt through territory that The Blair Witch Project similarly mined, complete with an engrossing and hair-raising 19 minute shot from within the couples tent and a subtly perverse twist that comes right before the conclusion . Theres nothing here to really change the landscape of found footage or Bigfoot movies, but its clear that Bobcat is a fan of those old 70s drive-in Squatch flicks like Legend of Boggy Creek. In that spirit, Willow Creek is a fresh-faced, energetic nod in their direction.