Eduardo Sánchez returns to found footage, a genre that made a name for himself (and also done him serious harm it seems), also tackling the Bigfoot subgenre as well. A group of friends decide to trip to a cabin (two brothers of the group have an uncle who owns it and has warned them *not* to come to this territory), hitting something while on the way. Come to find out, it was a sasquatch. Well, perhaps that sasquatch (or another?) is not very happy being hit by a vehicle in his neck of the woods and retaliates much to their puzzlement (they didn't realize they had done harm with said vehicle to the extent that would enrage the 'squatch so), leaving behind a body count as a result. Will any of the five survive? The group consists of Matt and brother Brian, their pal and his girlfriend, and Matt's girlfriend. After this excursion into the woods of Texas, their lives will never be the same.
What makes this stand out is that the harm the humans cause is not known by them. They didn't intentionally provoke the sasquatch or wish to earn its wrath. It comes down to territory, invading it with your vehicle, and through the accident causing irreparable harm no one will come out of fully unscathed. Brian (the one without the girl; there's always a guy who represents the kind of "loser" of the bunch without a pretty girl by his side) is the character who can somehow communicate with it in a way that doesn't totally spurn the creature to destroy him. There's an exact purpose behind why the sasquatch is out to obliterate this group. They find a shot gun in the basement of the cabin, which comes in handy to wound the creature, but it more or less just makes the thing even madder than before.
The recording camera is used extremely well in instances where the sasquatch can be seen in brief glimpses, charging towards characters, reaching at characters, tipping over an RV with characters hidden inside as it tumbled over a cliff, a character lifted off his feet and tossed right into a turned-over tree, a slight capture of one character with her hair pulled as she's lifted off her feet and suffering a neck snap in the process, and acknowledging the presence of the creature in how it sounds in its breathing, anger, movement, and rampage. The destruction of the cabin (what is heard and the aftermath) is epic. The use of the camera in this day and age can provide a number of inventive angles and visual tricks even civilians who aren't in the filmmaking business can pull off. Like the helmet cam, as an example.
I think it is time to realize that our scrutiny on "found footage authenticity" is like beating fists at the air. We might as well put away questions like "why would he continue shooting after his brother goes missing, the cabin is destroyed, and his friends start to die?" Or "would any of us be free to see all of the events play out like this in their entirety?" Sometimes we just have to let go and allow the show to do what it intends to do: entertain or thrill. I think so often, the found footage is rightfully criticized if it is just an excuse for people trying to break into film using a cheap format at their start without delivering anything fulfilling for horror fans. Willow Creek is an example of a Bigfoot movie similar to Exists that doesn't quite give its audience much to really offer praise to. On the side of Exists, though, you get plenty of the 'squatch. It certainly is visible and ultimately isn't rendered just a bloodthirsty monster killing people for kicks and giggles. There's a reasoning any of us could understand once Brian is forced by the sasquatch to recognize what the flies buzzing about are attracted to. Thankfully, too, there's no tiresome CGI, and the suit isn't laughable. Great lengths were expended to see that this provides a creature and doesn't abhor it. The characters that endure horror when it goes off aren't total cretins, but fun-loving buddies just in the woods at the uncle's cabin to have a good time. So there's a dramatic angle that works because of the tragedy of it all: an accident leads to everyone being damaged...some worse than others.
What makes this stand out is that the harm the humans cause is not known by them. They didn't intentionally provoke the sasquatch or wish to earn its wrath. It comes down to territory, invading it with your vehicle, and through the accident causing irreparable harm no one will come out of fully unscathed. Brian (the one without the girl; there's always a guy who represents the kind of "loser" of the bunch without a pretty girl by his side) is the character who can somehow communicate with it in a way that doesn't totally spurn the creature to destroy him. There's an exact purpose behind why the sasquatch is out to obliterate this group. They find a shot gun in the basement of the cabin, which comes in handy to wound the creature, but it more or less just makes the thing even madder than before.
The recording camera is used extremely well in instances where the sasquatch can be seen in brief glimpses, charging towards characters, reaching at characters, tipping over an RV with characters hidden inside as it tumbled over a cliff, a character lifted off his feet and tossed right into a turned-over tree, a slight capture of one character with her hair pulled as she's lifted off her feet and suffering a neck snap in the process, and acknowledging the presence of the creature in how it sounds in its breathing, anger, movement, and rampage. The destruction of the cabin (what is heard and the aftermath) is epic. The use of the camera in this day and age can provide a number of inventive angles and visual tricks even civilians who aren't in the filmmaking business can pull off. Like the helmet cam, as an example.
I think it is time to realize that our scrutiny on "found footage authenticity" is like beating fists at the air. We might as well put away questions like "why would he continue shooting after his brother goes missing, the cabin is destroyed, and his friends start to die?" Or "would any of us be free to see all of the events play out like this in their entirety?" Sometimes we just have to let go and allow the show to do what it intends to do: entertain or thrill. I think so often, the found footage is rightfully criticized if it is just an excuse for people trying to break into film using a cheap format at their start without delivering anything fulfilling for horror fans. Willow Creek is an example of a Bigfoot movie similar to Exists that doesn't quite give its audience much to really offer praise to. On the side of Exists, though, you get plenty of the 'squatch. It certainly is visible and ultimately isn't rendered just a bloodthirsty monster killing people for kicks and giggles. There's a reasoning any of us could understand once Brian is forced by the sasquatch to recognize what the flies buzzing about are attracted to. Thankfully, too, there's no tiresome CGI, and the suit isn't laughable. Great lengths were expended to see that this provides a creature and doesn't abhor it. The characters that endure horror when it goes off aren't total cretins, but fun-loving buddies just in the woods at the uncle's cabin to have a good time. So there's a dramatic angle that works because of the tragedy of it all: an accident leads to everyone being damaged...some worse than others.