Bobcat Goldthwait is racking up the director credits over on his IMDB resume. Two of his biggest hits so far, comedy Sleeping Dogs Lie and the underrated Robin Williams-starrer, World’s Greatest Dad, are in a world of their own when compared to his latest effort. Shot in 2013, found footage horror Willow Creek isn’t what you would come to expect from the comedian who made his name playing helium-pitched buffoons. His big break came as the absolutely crackers Zed in the Police Academy franchise, who stole most of his scenes what with his bizarre fish-kissing antics and the like. Times have changed though and so has Goldthwait – whose current goal is to scare your trousers brown.
The newest trailer and poster for Willow Creek have arrived today to heighten the anticipation before the upcoming release. In true found footage style, Willow Creek is a bricolage of film shot by people who struggle to keep a videocamera still. This time it’s a couple. One is a huge Bigfoot fanatic (Bryce Johnson) and the other is his trepidatious girlfriend (Alexie Gilmore), who follows him into the Six Rivers National Forest in California – the location of many Bigfoot sightings. The pair try to seek down sasquatch and capture some elusive footage of the beastly behemoth in the process.
Thankfully, Goldthwait has pre-empted potential detractors by pegging it as “The Blair-Squatch Project” – and judging from the trailer, that’s exactly what it comes across as: a perfect splice of The Blair Witch Project, Troll Hunter and the Bigfoot legend. It opens with the girlfriend ragging on her boyfriend (Josh and Heather in Blair Witch), cuts to a few clips of them interviewing hostile locals (Blair Witch, Troll Hunter), then they discover a sock in a tree (the stick figures from Blair Witch)…. you get the drift. The biggest homage appears at the end, wherein the couple cling to each other inside their tent as something rustles inches away outside.
Thing is, it still looks scary as hell. Which is why Blair Witch worked so well. Willow Creek might not offer anything new to the found footage genre, but there’s definitely a chance that it’ll give us nightmares, and that’s why you should absolutely check out the trailer. Go on. Be adventurous.
Willow Creek stomps into theatres, onto VOD and possibly into your tent on June 6th.
