Willow Creek Review
The best moment in “Willow Creek” comes right near
the end of the film. We see Jim (Bryce Johnson) and Kelly (Alexie Gilmore)
sitting in a tent, hearing strange sounds coming from the woods around them. It
is a scene that lasts close to twenty minutes and its completely hypnotic the
way director Bobcat Goldthwait captures silence is near-perfect. It has been
awhile since the use of silence was pivotal for lots of older movies and I was
truly giddy that Goldthwait used the technique for his film. I think it is an
underrated technique and the way Goldthwait used it in “Willow Creek” could be
a new standard for the genre.
The thing is, as good as that long stretch of scene
is, it doesn’t payoff in a way that forced me to leave the theater is shock. “Willow
Creek” is too slow, too talky and just plain unexciting. Sure, there is a great
twenty minute scene followed by a bizarre finish, but I am not convinced that
the journey was worth the trip. We just spend too much time following Jim and
Kelly around, goofing around, interviewing locals, stepping on people’s feet
figuratively and the whole thing finishes before anything really happens. “Willow
Creek” suffers from the fact that I needed more and I wanted more. I didn’t
want more because I was enthralled by what I was seeing, I wanted more because
there wasn’t enough here to begin with. It seems Goldthwait wanted to make a “The
Haunting” 2.0, but he ends up fumbling in the process.
Oh…and have I mentioned that I am getting sick of
the found footage device. At first, I loved the prospect of it, and I love the
possibilities it produced. I think there have been several wonderful examples
of the device out already, and I am sure there will be more, but 2014 is
literally killing the device for me. I had a good time with “Paranormal
Activity: The Marked Ones” and “Afflicted” earlier this year, those are movies
I am glad I saw. Despite “The Sacrament” keeping me up all night last month, I
feel the film would have benefited more from not being tied to the found
footage device. There was a lot I would have liked to have seen in that film
that you can’t really show with found footage and that bothered me a bit. With “Willow
Creek” though, the device is completely wasted. I didn’t like how much the film
borrowed from “The Blair Witch Project” in terms of character and story. I didn’t
like that it took so long to get to where the film was going. I didn’t like
that we had to watch so much boring character interplay before we got to the
big finish. It is sad that the pros are overwhelmed by the cons here.
I have already read a few reviews of “Willow Creek”
that Jim and Kelly are both likable. Honestly, I couldn’t disagree more. Jim
and Kelly are a couple who have decided to venture into Bigfoot County to
discover if the fabled monster is real or not. Despite being criticized by the
locals, they press on and soon find out why that was such a terrible idea. Both Bryce Johnson and Alexie Gilmore are both
bright young leads, but they look like they are impersonating countless other
actors who were once in their shoes. They don’t bring anything new or
invigorating to the characters we find in found footage films. In fact, that is
my biggest beef with “Willow Creek” it feels too much like every other found
footage film I have seen in recent years that I wonder why Goldthwait even
bothered in the first place. After seeing how well Goldthwait can write a
satire script with “God Bless America,” I can’t believe how dull the characters
are in this film.
If you want a great final thirty minutes of film in
movie that features nothing else worth of merit, then “Willow Creek” is for
you, had that final thirty minutes been in a movie with creepier atmosphere and
richer characters, then I think “Willow Creek” would have been something to
talk about. With the director involved, I am slightly disappointed by this
films outcome. This is a cardboard, cookie-cutter of a found footage movie, and
I can’t believe how annoyed I am by it.
FINAL GRADE: C-
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