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Willow Creek (film)
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Wikipedia article
'Willow Creek' is a 2013 independent found footage horror film written and directed by Bobcat Goldthwait. It stars Alexie Gilmore and Bryce Johnson as a couple who go into the woods of Willow Creek, California looking for material for their documentary on Bigfoot lore.
Plot
Set in Humboldt County, California, Jim (Bryce Johnson), a stout believer in Bigfoot, and his girlfriend Kelly (Alexie Gilmore), who is not sure if Bigfoot really exists at all, are traveling to Six Rivers National Forest in Northern California, where Jim plans to shoot his own Bigfoot footage at the site of the PattersonGimlin film.
The two stop off first in Willow Creek, the Bigfoot capital of the world, where Jim interviews various locals about Bigfoot. At a restaurant, they notice a missing woman on a poster on the wall. While heading into the forest in search of the PattersonGimlin filming location, they encounter an aggressive man who angrily tells them to leave, but Jim and Kelly ignore him. They set a camp in the middle of the woods, but after return to it from a swim, they find it trashed and some of their personal belongings hanging up extremely high in a tree.
That evening, Jim proposes to Kelly, but feeling that it is too soon, decides they should move in together instead and they go to sleep.
That night, they are awakened by mysterious sounds echoing through the woods, and whooping vocalizations. At first, they are unsure if it's people messing around or the aggressive man from earlier. They then hear knocking sounds and Kelly surmised bears are doing it as Jim laughs. The sounds get louder and more non-human sounding and they both begin to come very scared when they can hear heavy footsteps crunching on the leaves around the tent. Cowering inside their tent, they can hear large creatures moving about outside, pushing into and investigating the tent; and the distant sound of a woman crying. Kelly suggests helping her but Jim scoffs in fear that he cannot go out there.The noises grow closer and something hits their tent. Scared, the couple decides to leave at dawn. In the morning, Jim discovers a clump gray fur attached to a log and some branches. He then takes some into a sandwich bag, with Kelly amazed that he isn't running off quickly to get out of the woods. They wander in circles through the thick woods, lost and confused and unable to locate their car and the path they came. They stop as they start hearing the same noises they had heard the night before. Kelly stops by the side of a stream and refuses to move. Then, they are filmed ducking under a tree and squatting using a branch to protect themselves and using the light of the camera to see where the creatures are. During the night, Jim and Kelly encounter a naked and over weight woman who was on the missing person poster from Willow Creek. She stands crying in just her underpants. She's gone insane and was taken as a "Forest Bride", and is imitating the noises of the beings in the forest. An unseen creature attacks them, killing Jim and moving on to Kelly whose cries for help are heard in the distance as she is taken to be another Forest Bride. The movie ends with three whooping vocalizations also heard in the distance.
Cast
* Alexie Gilmore as Kelly
* Bryce Johnson as Jim
* Peter Jason as an ex-Forest Ranger (credited as Ranger Troy Andrews)
* Laura Montagna as Missing Woman
* Bucky Sinister as Angry Man at Road
* Timmy Red as Ukulele Singer
* Steven Streufert as Himself
* Shaun L. White Guy Sr. as Herself
* Nita Rowley as Herself
* Tom Yamarone as Himself
Release and reception
The film was premiered at the 2013 Independent Film Festival of Boston, and subsequently screened within such festivals as Maryland Film Festival.
'Willow Creek' has received generally positive reviews from critics. Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 86% (based on 51 reviews). The website's consensus states: "Writer-director Bobcat Goldthwait's first foray into horror doesn't break any new ground, but it does wring fresh terror from a well-worn genre formulaand offers a few nasty laughs in the bargain."
References
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