Tahoe Joe

One thing that the horror genre lacks in, is the inclusion of cryptozoology. But not to worry, Tahoe Joe fills that need to a T! Best of all, this is a horror film that even a younger audience can watch, but not to young! This clever mockumentary is a wild ride and full of twists that will have you on the edge of your seat and pointing at the tv screen. The real life chemistry and friendship between the film's creator, Dillon Brown and actor, Michael Rock really shows and helps build a foundation of the fictional versions of themselves that they play. But it is the legendary Sasquatch known as Tahoe Joe that steals the spotlight in this one. The creature is displayed beautifully terrifying and has a unique look made up of unspeakable monster and natural animal. As an avid horror fan and a believer, I definitely recommend checking this one out.

Movie Review : Tahoe Joe

Now here's an interesting little number.

Made on a literal shoestring budget of $800.00, Tahoe Joe is an entry in the mockumentary/bigfoot horror genre that may not be the best killer Sasquatch flick out there but is probably the best written.

The film stars director Dillon Brown and actor Michael Rock (both worked together on Brown's previous independent film The Flock) as themselves.

Rock - a former Green Beret - is contacted by a teenager whose father served alongside him and tells him his father went missing in Nevada while searching for Bigfoot (Tahoe Joe of the title). The kid includes terrifying footage of what appears to be an unknown beast attacking his father. Rock informs Brown and, as it happens, Brown himself has footage of Tahoe Joe to share with Rock. After comparing notes, the duo decide to take the teenager and head to the area where his dad vanished and, with the help of a local guide, try to find the missing man, all the while filming the expedition as a documentary. Both men are initially skeptical about the thing captured on the tape being an actual Bigfoot, but they do feel committed to helping the boy get closure regarding his father.

When they arrive in the area, the teenager finds himself too traumatized to proceed as originally planned, so the filmmakers and their guide Shane - a local they know little to nothing about - head out anyway to try and uncover the mystery of the disappearance...and, perhaps, capture evidence of the existence of Bigfoot.

What I found most fascinating about Tahoe Joe is how expertly the film captures the feel of a legitimate documentary. It really boils down to both the performances and the writing. Whether it's random talking head interviews of people who claimed to have seen the creature or the scene where Brown explains some of the footage they saw of the boy's father has him increasingly skeptical because it seems potentially staged, everything these characters say or do has a ring of accuracy. I found myself thinking repeatedly throughout the movie both that certain character types were immediately recognizable ( I defy viewers to watch Shane the guide and think to themselves at some point "Oh, yeah, I've dealt with guys like this a**hole before") and what people were saying or doing is likely how someone would actually respond in a given situation.

This is the result of a screenplay that has a sharp ear for the rhythm of actual conversations, combined with a cast who all seem perfectly natural in front of the camera. No one here surrenders to needless melodrama or overacting. It always feels as if we're watching actual people and not characters in a movie. That adds a level of plausibility underscoring the proceedings as the film incrementally adopts an increasingly darker tone.

The pacing is solid and if the movie is a bit talky in the early passages, it's more than balanced by the escalating sense of something being very wrong that becomes ever more prevalent as the film unfolds. One really interesting direction the film adopts is to cultivate an unsettled atmosphere by having the two men quickly realize there's something off with their guide. This movie begins building tension long before they reach the site where Tahoe Joe purportedly has been most active.

As to Tahoe Joe himself, the creature effects are handled well enough. For the budget, the costume works fine. It helps that we never get a particularly clear look at the creature, but what we do glimpse is enough to suggest a being it would be absolutely terrifying to encounter in the deep forest. There's a sense of primal other about this particular Sasquatch. Never is he presented as something any person would (or should) deliberately attempt to approach up close. Moreover, the final half hour or so of the film is essentially one long, sustained sequence set at night that startled me with how effectively suspenseful it was. There are some genuinely creepy moments in this film.

The film looks amazing as well. It boats the veneer of something made for substantially more than $800 bucks, which is a credit to the skill of the filmmakers.

Every so often an independent movie pops up unexpectedly on my radar proving to be a hidden treasure, something that does what it sets out to do in a way and on a level that's better than I have any right to expect. Movies like that are testament to the vision and hard work of independent filmmakers who prove heart, intelligence and talent can take even the most limited resources and turn them into something wonderful.

Tahoe Joe is one such film. Dillon Brown and Michael Rock are on my radar, and I'll be looking to see what they do next with great interest.

**** out of ***** times I was really hoping a belligerent drunk would get his ass kicked by a Green Beret. Highly recommended.

We really enjoyed everything about this film. The story is captivating and it keeps you engaged wondering what is going to happen. The Sierra Nevada Mountains setting is absolutely stunning and the woods scenes are creepy as hell. It totally had a Blair Witch Project feel to it as they were walking through the woods. The acting was really good in this and totally believable! Dillon & Mike really hit it out of the ballpark on this one! We HIGHLY recommend this film. We would love to say more but it would contain spoilers. You'll just have to watch for yourself! TRUST US......you will enjoy the amazing ride!!!

TAHOE JOE's title refers to a large humanoid creature which supposedly roams in the Sierra Nevada Mountains and dispatches people who have the misfortune of crossing its path. The film tells the story of two filmmakers who try to find it because the friend of one of them who was looking for Joe disappeared there, and they wish to ascertain what happened.

Despite the fact that this is a bargain basement budget production of a found footage concept that has been done many times, it still manages to squeeze some fun into it. It also breaks a few genre conventions, especially at the end, but what struck me the most was the meta-modernistic approach it took to its subject.

Meta-modernism is a relatively recently identified trend in the arts and in philosophy which can be viewed as the successor to post-modernism and modernism. Its main feature is that it combines elements from these two, sometimes by jumping from one approach to the other in short succession.

The main characters use their real names and elements of their real lives in this film. This has been done in found footage horror before (for example, DASHCAM (2021), SHADOW OF THE MISSING (2018), BE MY CAT (2015), DIGGING UP THE MARROW (2014) ) in order to make the fiction seem more real, and enhance the impact of the horror when it eventually happens. Nevertheless, annihilating the boundary between fiction and reality can also be regarded as a post-modernist technique.

Another such technique pertains to the in-movie found footage of the missing friend, which the director character describes as "exactly how he would set up a horror movie". Since we are actually watching a horror movie, this can be regarded not just as the movie poking fun at itself but also as a deconstruction of a horror trope.

On the other hand, much of the film and especially the chase scenes are played straight, and there is a definite story arc which is more in line with a modernist narrative.

I don't believe that the film-makers set out to make a movie with such theoretical ideas in mind; rather these ideas are meant to summarize certain aspects of cultural trends in the past and the present which inevitably imprint themselves in the output of the times. In short, the movie has these features because the Zeitgeist of a movie like TAHOE JOE reflects the last decade or so, as of this writing.

The movie is entertaining and does the most with its budget. It is not the best example of this particular found-footage sub-genre (that honor goes, in my opinion to EMBEDDED (2012)) but it is decent enough for fans of Sasquatch, found footage or even horror movies in general.

The Blair Witch Project with Bigfoot was done well for what was put into it. The acting was mostly good and the way it was set up was believable. My favorite parts were the early Bigfoot sightings caught on tape. They did an excellent job making it appear as if there was a creature lurking in the area.

What I didn't love about the movie was, as always with independent films, the length. It's really hard to hold my attention beyond 75 minutes, especially when it's a mockumentary style with almost only handheld footage. I think this film would've been better around 60 minutes just to keep it at typical documentary length.

The actor who played the missing dad wasn't that great, in part because his stuff went on for too long, and the situation of him vlogging and being alone wasn't really great storytelling. Towards the end, when things get chaotic, the acting suffers a little because the characters are not being tense as they probably should be in the situation. I also think they showed too much creature, specifically the teeth. There's a cool homage still frame to Jaws & Texas Chainsaw in the credits that totally worked for me, and would've been enough on its own. Less is more. But overall, a great job. Well done.