Bigfoot: The Lost Coast Tapes

This is another one of those cheap 'found footage' films that would have been pretty new and different about fifteen years ago. Since the film has nothing but that gimmick to offer your enjoyment of it will depend almost entirely on whether you want to watch some buffoons running around in the dark with some guy who is channeling Elmer Fudd.

Mr Dryrot or whatever he is called lives in the middle of nowhere. He still gets on youtube though uploading videos of his dead bigfoot. Strangely no newspapers, TV shows, debunkers, academics or TV networks have bothered to follow up on these videos which are apparently "epic". We don't get to see those by the way. I was so bored by the movie I started imagining old Mr Drywall out there in the forest prettying up his youtube page and perhaps watching the odd episode of bigfoot hunters to chill out.

There's no real plot here but the little that you do get is ridiculous and gets worse as the film plods on. There's no tension at any point, no scares or anything. I've probably spent more time reviewing it than they spent writing it so I'll just say don't waste your time, it's awful.

Not the best Bigfoot movie and certainly not the worst. I generally liked the characters. So many of these FF movies have people who are flat-out annoying and I can't wait for them to die. The twist in this movie is truly a twist that I didn't see coming.

I came across Willow Creek the other day and was pleasantly surprised. Deciding to see what other bigfoot horror is out there, I came across this. I've watched more bigfoot films in the last few days than I can count and this one surprised me. I'm lukewarm on found footage films, and this one is a slow burn, but it does a great job of building tension and the characters aren't as awfully cliched as most are in these sorts of films. They definitely could have done more with a bigger budget, but they did well with what they had. They made the smart choice to go with "less is more" when it comes to effects. We dont get many shots of monsters, but there are some impressive death scenes. If you're looking for a monster heavy found footage gore fest, you may be disappointed, but since so many similiar films dont pull off their creatures well anyway, they made the smart choice to focus on suspense and universe building. It looks like there's another project listed. I'm interested to see it!

Like found footage movies, love Bigfoot. In The Lost Coast Tapes a TV journalist decides to give a man $75,000 to see a Bigfoot corpse and prove it's a fake. Quite why he thinks making yet another show proving Bigfoot is a fake is worth his life savings is anyone's guess. They get out to the woods and of course start to hear noises and see trees rustling. It plays its found footage premise pretty well. There are no real contradictions in sound or shots, however the cast try far too hard to be quick and witty. The dialogue is also constantly riddled with references to the show they are making. The obsession of Sean, the lead. Is enough to convince us that they would continue to keep the cameras rolling, as he is in fear of being made to look the fool at the hands of someone's prank. Unfortunately, towards the end, the film adds a very interesting spin to the Bigfoot myth, but fails to elaborate on it. This wouldn't be so bad, bu it brings it in in the last few minutes and seems to use it at an excuse to not show anything. I'm all for leaving some things to the imagination, but sometimes a film's ideas do warrant further exploration. Up until the end you can kind of guess everything that happens, and apart from the actual violence all of these things can be seen in a show like Finding Bigfoot, which is a lot more fun because it tries so hard to convince you of what's real. Not the worst found footage film or Sasquatch film, but that isn't saying much.

The Found Footage sub-genre, yea I think it's time it got it's own genre. Just when I was thinking that it (F.F.) was only a fad & on it's way out, film makers are refining how to make this type of film rise in interest & the subtle ways to creep you out. When I read the word "Bigfoot" my mind went to that place of stupidity & a whole bunch of very bad attempts that the SyFy Channel has churned out over the years. Then I made sure this was not a TV movie which it was not and I actually became interested. Anyone that happened to catch TrollHunter(2010)and really liked it will undoubtedly like this as well. I don't know the inspirations of the film or any details behind the making of or script writing but I continuously got that great Trollhunter vibe and it was fantastic. It was like an American re-make to a foreign film but with switched up local legends. The acting of Drybeck(FrankAshmore) was perfection & paralleled the man in T.H. in the subtle ways he makes the scene frantic by saying less & always seeming to be preoccupied with something dangerous. Some of the other film crew actors got annoying at times with their over the top panic & fear but it wasn't bad enough to hurt the film any. It's not perfect by any means but I absolutely admit to having fun watching it and if it's offered on PPV or digital rental I do recommend it as long as you know what you're in store for. This studio managed to take a ridiculed subject like "Bigfoot" and freak the viewer out with it. So I think it deserves a solid 7/10 for the fun & creepy sides it displayed to a theme that hasn't had a respectable take done on it in what seems like forever.