Plot: What’s it about?
Willow Creek features a young couple going on a camping trip in search of Big Foot. For those unfamiliar, that’s the big hairy creature that some folks insist on believing as real. I have a friend who used to joke about going on a search for Big Foot, but for one reason or another, nothing ever came from it. Maybe he convinced himself what a big waste of time it would’ve been? Although I suppose it is rather fun to think such a creature exists, but I am a skeptic before anything else. The couple Kelly and Jim are played by Alexie Gilmore and Bryce Johnson, respectively. There are a lot of amusing early moments in the film where the couple explores the local town that has Big Foot memorabilia and other paintings and such plastered all over town. One funny moment is when they keep seeing several paintings of Big Foot around town that show him doing hard labor. They joke that that’s the reason Big Foot is hiding in the woods, because he just doesn’t want to work. Those moments work well. The rest of the film, however? Not so much.
There will no doubt be inevitable comparisons made to The Blair Witch Project, and for good reason. The film really does follow that film pretty closely. It even uses the same “Found Footage” style format. I will say that I knew much more about Big Foot (or the legends that is) going into this film than I did with Blair Witch. As the film started, I was fairly invested, but it quickly lost me as it went on. It just becomes less interesting, and downright boring after a while. There is a long stretch where the couple simply sits in a tent wondering what’s the noise they just heard. Whatever tension the filmmakers were going for is quickly diminished because the scene just goes on and on. It’s more of a frustrating experience more than anything else. Some folks might be expecting to see much of the fury creature, but will likely walk away disappointed. I found some aspects of the film interesting, but overall, it left me unchanged. I remember seeing a segment about Big Foot on Unsolved Mysteries many years ago. That short segment intrigued me much more than this entire film.
Video: How’s it look?
Despite the shaky cam style of the film, it still looks quite nice. There’s a lot of background forests footage with strong, bold colors and the print shows no signs of flaws or other such things. Flesh tones appeared nice and accurate as well. Some moments don’t look quite as well as others, but this is largely due to the format itself and how the film was shot. Still, this transfer satisfies overall. The image is AVC encoded with a 1.78:1 ratio.
Audio: How’s it sound?
The DTS HD track is passable, but there’s really nothing here that will put your system to the test, so to speak. There’s nothing particularly wrong with it, but it won’t change your world either. Vocals were well rendered, but there’s just not a lot of background usage here. There are a few moments with background noises in the woods, but mostly this is a front-loaded track. It serves the film as it should, but don’t expect much more than that.
Supplements: What are the extras?
- Audio Commentary – The director Bobcat Goldthwait and the stars sit down for a running commentary track. I sampled this track and a lot of time is discussed on the shoot as well as other technical details.
- Deleted Scene – A 4 minute scene with some really bad audio. It’s clear that the film had additional ADR done while this scene didn’t. It’s nothing too interesting.
- The making of Willow Creek – This is simply footage showing the actors on set. It does for about 11 minutes and really isn’t all that interesting.
- Trailer
- Previews
- DVD Copy
