Tahoe Joe

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.

After hearing strange animal reports, a documentary filmmaker and his partner head to the area where the sightings have come from in a remote section of the woods near Lake Tahoe hoping to spot an elusive creature, but they soon discover the tales might be true and try to leave the woods alive.

This was a generally fun genre effort. One of the better features here is the enjoyable setup that features quite a lot to like as it moves through several fine storylines. Starting with the backstage footage of their collaborations together leads to the decision to start the project on a fine note as the scenes looking at the series of video footage they see to change focus on the spate of recent sightings. This all creates a strong starting point as it spells out the various stages necessary here with the starting point of the filmmakers' relationship with each other and the general introduction of the search for the creature that is the overall point here. The other big positive to this one is the final half where the group, out alone in the woods filming, is finally given the space they need for a great time. The simple-minded scenes out wandering around looking for a campsite or dealing with personal issues is a fine way to start this and the escalating issues get brought out even further with the big confrontation in the woods as the switch from the noises in the background to plenty of evidence that the creature is out there featuring the discovery of the dead body, the series of night-vision encounters that are quite chilling as the creature effects are kept brief but effective. These make the film quite enjoyable overall while there are some flaws to be had with this one. The biggest factor here is the general lack of action in the second half which it focuses on a lot of investigating at the expense of creature action. The group going through the community talking with eyewitnesses and survivors or looking into the wilderness expert they eventually bring along slows the pace of this one considerably taking these elements into the forefront rather than getting more confrontations with the creature. The other slight issue here is the general lack of traditional creature action which leaves this one without much in the way of expected gore or attacks which is enough to hold this down.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Language and Mild Violence.

I generally do not write movie reviews. In fact, this is the first review I've posted on IMDB. The obviously biased 10/10s prompted me to leave a real review.

I love found footage movies and was pretty excited to see that Tahoe Joe had good ratings so I decided to give it a shot.

The acting is not great. Most of the actors are obviously acting with poorly executed emotions. The first footage of bigfoot looks like footage of a man wearing a ghillie suit. Not animal like at all. The footage that prompts the filmmakers to go looking for Bigfoot is laughable.

I wish I was watching this with friends so we could riff on it. I recommend that's how you experience this one.

I liked the makers' attempt at keeping almost everything meta, but this found-footage film takes a tad too long in its setup, whereas the payoff is pretty minimal. The acting by the kid was pretty terrible, and they didn't do much with the third character Shane. He is presented as a storehouse of information, but the protagonists never question his sources or intentions. Why would he decisively get drunk when he knows the area is dangerous? It's obvious that all the FF horror movies on Tubi only feature scares (if any) in the final 10-15 minutes, and that's the case here too. The creature effects are not bad, but the stakes felt low. Make a part 2 maybe, with these guys (+ additional crew) returning to the forest to prove a point to the world that they weren't staging it. This felt kind of incomplete.

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.