Review: Creature from Black Lake

Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films, 2023
Images from the Internet

Creature from Black Lake
Directed by Joy N. Houck Jr.
Howco International; Multicom; Synapse Films; MVD Entertainment
95 minutes, 1976 / 2021
www.synapsefilms.com
www.MVDVisual.com/

I remember seeing this film early on, and thinking it was silly. But I was young, and now, all these years later, I don’t really remember it much, so it will be nice to see it under my present mental state in this new widescreen 4K restoration from the original 35mm camera negative.

This was one of a bunch of either Bigfoot or woodland creatures tearing up the place and causing human deaths that were released at that time, such as The Legend of Boggy Creek (1972) and Prophesy (1979). Here, we fall closer to the Sasquatch than a mutant bear.

John David Carson, Dennis Fimple

After the intro where we see a mash-up of an attack by said creature (Roy Tatum) in a Louisiana swamp in Oil City, in Caddo parish (yes, a real place, though it was also filmed around Shreveport, 20 miles away) on a couple of fishermen, including Joe (wild eyed Jack Elam; d. 2003), and a professor in Chicago, Dr. Burch (the director, J.N. Houck Jr.; d. 2003); the latter is essentially an exposition for the viewing audience on the creature at hand. This leads to two anthropology students, comedy relief and ‘Nam vet Pahoo (toothy Dennis Fimple, who is known to the modern horror crowd as Grampa Hugo in 2002’s House of 1000 Corpses; d. 2002), and prettyboy Rives (John David Carson, who was in the underrated Pretty Maids All in a Row in 1971, and 1974’s awful incest film The Savage is Loose; d. 2009) set off to the swamps to find Joe and the monster.

The reception the two receive is not pleasant, especially by the Sherriff, Bill Carter (Bill Thurman; d. 1995). Interestingly, the two asked the locals about Joe and the monster, and you get the feeling this is being done to actual residents of the town who seem baffled, much like in the overrated The Blair Witch Project (1999).

Jim McCullough Jr., Dub Taylor

Along the way, our two intrepid Yankees meet a bunch of colorful characters, such as one of the early witnesses of the creature, Orville (writer of this film, Jim McCullough Jr.; d. 2022); his grandpa is Western film star and a semi-regular on “The Andy Griffin Show,” Dub Taylor (d. 1994). Then there are the two romantic leads for our protagonists, high school students (saywhat?!) Michelle (Michelle Willingham), and the beautiful Becky (Becky Smiser, in her only listed IMDB role). In an unintended cameo, playing a toddler Orville in a flashback, is future WCW professional wrestler Chase Tatum (d. 2008).

Throughout, there are the requisite POV shots via a handheld, shaky camera. At least it wasn’t re-colored or distorted…well, occasionally it is fuzzy, but that’s about it. We occasionally see what the Sasquatch-ish thingy observes, often through the foliage.

Carson, Becky Smiser, Fimple, Michelle Willingham

Of course, our students are going to meet up with Joe, and then the young’ns will hunt the hunter. Or, perhaps, be prey? I will not tell. My question is, if the point is repeatedly made that Pahoo is a Vietnam Veteran, why is draft resister Rives responsible for holding the rifle?

The last act as they face the upright monkey-looking Sasquatch, seen mostly in silhouette, is pretty exciting in the third act, with a bunch of jump scares and some unexpected actions. The ending, though, is a bit anti-climatic and left open for a sequel which never came. And considering most of the cast is now passed on, I doubt it is going to happen, unless there is a remake at some point (and the way Hollywood is at the moment, that is not farfetched).

Bill Thurman, Jack Elam

There is a bit of a “Dukes of Hazzard” (TV series, not the film) vibe, and also a buoyancy, that makes this watchable. It is better than I remembered, but kinda goofy at the same time. It is also a piece of its period: there is little blood and no nudity, and barely cussin’. It was rated PG (content is not recommended for viewing by people under the age of 15 without adults). However, it does have quite a bit of clever and humorous moments, though not technically a comedy. At least there are some decent jump scares.

Notable extras are a full-length audio commentary with author/filmmaker Michael Gingold (whose bibliography includes 2017's Frightfest Guide to Monster Movies) and film historian, fanzine publisher, and blogger, Chris Poggiali. they come across as likeable and occasionally humorous, and give the usual information about the making of the film, historical info on the cast and crew, and its effect on the culture of the time. "Swamp Stories" (19 min) is an all-new featurette with Dean Cundey, who waas the Director of Photography. He discusses what it was like to be shooting in a swamp after coming out from Los Angeles, how it was working with some big-name actors and the crew (such as the director), and even some Bigfoot history. Last is the original theatrical trailer and radio spot. 

Roy Tatum

The cinematography by Cundey is exceptional and, for me, one of the strongest aspects of the film. This is the kind of release that would play as a second bill at a drive-in, especially in the South. I find it amusing that it is in widescreen, but was a big hit playing on television when the medium was a box, rather than the new, rectangular screens, so it had to have been serious cropped. Glad it is back to all its widescreen glory.

IMDB listing HERE 

Review: Ditched

Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films, 2022
Images from the Internet

Ditched
Directed by Christopher Donaldson
Shadowbrook Pictures; Epic Pictures; Dread; MVD Entertainment
86 minutes, 2021 / 2022
www.facebook.com/ditchedmovie
www.MVDentertainment.com

Being under siege is an indirect subcategory genre, with the likes as varied as Assault on Precinct 13 (1976; apparently, according to the director, this film gets mentioned a lot in reference to this one) or even The Hills Have Eyes (1977; 2006). A small group is beset upon by people or things unknown, and need to violently fight back in kind, equaling the battlefield, bringing their own humanity into question. As one character says, “So whatever happens next, know this, whatever you have to do tonight, no matter how horrible, it’s for (your daughter).

For this film, in the middle a foggy night (‘natch), both an ambulance carrying a couple of criminals for a prison transfer and a cop car with another convict crash when their tires simultaneously blow. This happens even before the film begins, whose story starts moments after the crash (good budget saver!). They are in a ravine (hence the film’s title) in the woods north of Edmonton, Alberta. If you know the Province, there are some fun town namedrops, such as Lethbridge.

Lee Lopez, Marika Sila

Our main characters are broken into two groups at this point. The protagonist is paramedic Melina (Inuit actor Marika Sila), her cowardly co-paramedic Aiden (Lee Lopez), injured driver Jake (Declan O’Reilly), and surviving prattling criminal Derek Franson (Kris Loranger), who were in the ambulance. For the cop car participants, there are officers Richard Revesz (J. Lindsey Robinson) and Kerr (Lara Taillon), and convict Sideburns (Reamonn Joshee).

Slowly and very suspensefully, someone or something is picking them off. And it’s here it really gets interesting. It is already intense, but it kicks up quite a few notches from the second act onward, and rarely lets go.

The third group that starts off mysteriously, led by Caine (Mackenzie Gray), is more than they seem, pitting the first two groups against the third. You know it is not going to end well for most of them. The rules float back and forth, over who is the good guys and who are not.

This is a hard movie to review, because there is so much I want to say, and so much of it would give too much away. Speaking of which, I recommend not watching the trailer, which I have included, because it gives away way too much of the story. I am glad I went into this blind.

Sila, Declan O'Reilly

What makes this movie, for me, is how at the start of the second act, as reasons become clearer, it also muddies it up by turning the story on its head and giving it a whole different perspective while not losing its vision. The director nicely sets up two distinct camps and lets the viewer decide whose side they are on, and it is not always an easy choice. Some, like Franson and Sideburns are obvious choices, but everyone else are up for grabs.

The lighting of the film is standard primary colors, mostly red and blue with some green/yellow, but that makes sense as the ambulance and police car barlights are the main source of illumination in the dark and foggy ravine. The editing is swift without giving one whiplash, and then there is the gore, and lots of it. It looks really well made and, on occasion, looks nearly surgical, but oft-times it’s just the right amount for a gorehound (though not for a blood-phobic or newbie viewer). And all of the SFX are practical; I did not catch any digital effects (other than gunshots).

The extras include two versions of the trailer, the Official one (which gives away too much, as I stated), and the other is the Production version. There are also Dread Trailers for the films Val and Bad Candy, both of which I reviewed recently on this blog.

There is also a second version of the film called “Original Cut of Movie”; I was a bit peeved at that because I certainly am not going to watch them both right now, and I’m not sure what the differences are between them; some information on that would have been nice. Then there is the Director’s Commentary that is really worth the listen. Without getting too deep to the point of being academic, Donaldson discusses horror film philosophy, anecdotes about the making of the film, and dealing with extreme low budgets that compare vision with practicality (“It’s like trying to create the Mona Lisa with crayons”). He is engaging without just raving on.

While this is story-based, it is also filled to the brim with action that is nicely dispersed throughout the film, gaining speed and traction as the story plays on. This is the director’s first feature after a few episodes in a television series and a short, but it shows so much promise.

IMBD Listing HERE 

 

Review: Feed the Gods

Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films, 2021
Images from the Internet

Feed the Gods
Directed by Braden Croft
Random Bench; BMC Pictures; Compound B; MVD Marquee Collection
84 minutes, 2014 / 2021
www.facebook.com/FeedTheGodsFilm
www.randombench.com/films/
www.MVDVisual.com

Films that use the idea to feed local “gods” is not a new concept; just off the top of my head there is Jug Face (2013; reviewed HERE) and two others I won’t name because it is the plot twist of the end. One could even include the original King Kong (1933) as Faye Wray is chained to be sacrificed to the big ape. Actually, this Canadian film is closer to Kong than the others.

The prologue, of which I will not give too many details, is effective in a number of ways. First, it sets up the story of the two main characters, brothers William and Kris. Second, it is creepy and tense as hell at the border of the town of Tendale (population 60, filmed near Vancouver, British Columbia), and third, it can be seen as a social commentary about the heartlessness of the coyotes who work the southern border of the United States thanks to antiquated and cruel immigration laws. But I’m a proud liberal, so please excuse the politicizing. Anyhoo, if the rest of the film is of this caliber, it’s going to be interesting.

Emily Tennant, Tyler Johnston, Shaun Roberts

In the modern-day body of the main story, we meet the brothers as grown-ups: William (Shaun Roberts, who played Albert Wesker in the later Resident Evil franchise and was a semi-regular in the last season of the Canadian “Heartland” show) is a brutish, fly-by-night guy who wears sleeveless tees to show off his hulk and smokes pot, while Kris (Tyler Johnston, Samadriel on “Supernatural) is super uptight and looks like he just stepped out of High School Musical (2006). After finding some family artifacts, the sibs decide to head on back to Tendale (though the stress level is up to Elevendale…sorry) with Kris’s girlfriend in tow, Brit (Emily Tennant, who was the voice of 2017’s “Polly Pocket”). The bros are at odds (you know they will bond by the end, as all road movie companions do, no matter what the genre), with Brit in the middle as mediator. A bit formulaic, but one that tends to work.

On the way to search for their parents, William says prophetically, “Let the hunt begin.” Of course, at some point who is the hunter and who will be the – er – huntee? It’s telegraphed pretty early on (and hell, even on the front of the box), that there is a Bigfoot/Sasquatch problem and the town is living in fear.

Britt Irvin

For a place as isolated as Tendale, it seems to be hopping in the brothers’ perspective. They stay at a B&B run by Emma (Britt Irvin, Stargirl on “Smallville” and the voice of Sunny Flare on “My Little Pony”), which has a couple of extra guests from down undah beside our heroes. It’s not hard to figure out why they are there. Anyway, the film likes to telegraph itself, so while the tension remains (especially between Will and Kris), it remains not hard to figure out what is going to happen next in many cases, and who are the good and bad people.

While the film lulls for a while as we are fed necessary expository information, but somewhere about the half way point, it begins to pick up steam once our three stalwart explorers start to camp out to search for Bigfoot, since they aren’t having much luck with the parents.

Aleks Paunovic

With some really nice yet somehow sympathetic bad guys like the massive Pete (Aleks Paunovic; Julius in the recent “Van Helsing” series), and a couple of good double crosses in various directions, the story goes from predictable to… not. Sure, all the telegraphed things come to fruition, but surprises arise in around that, and there are even a few decent jump scares.

There isn’t a whole lot of blood, not to mention gore, but the story gives us a pretty decent body count, whether it is by the gods or in a Straw Dogs (1971) kind of scenario. The acting is well done, though I really wanted to smack the two brothers on a number of occasions due to some ridiculous and constant bickering for the first two acts, but that is more on the characters than the players.

The extras start with a full-length commentary by director/writer Braden Craft and associate producer and SFX/props builder Travis Shewchuk. Honestly, the commentary for this is kind of a wash-out. After about 20 minutes, I started to skip around a bit. There are large blank gaps, and when they do discuss the film, it is on mostly a superficial level, though the third act is the most interesting. If you listen to it, fine, but you really will not miss much if you do not. There is also a Behind the Scenes featurette (13 min). Again, it is with Craft and Shewchuk, but this is a bit more pertinent. One of the things they discuss that I found thought-provoking is that the original concept was as a found footage, and I am grateful they did it in narrative form instead; there is nothing I find more annoying than running through the woods at night by the light of a hand-held camera.

There is also the theatrical trailer, two other MVD coming attractions for relatively mainstream fare (with the likes of Zoë Bell and Jeff Goldblum), captioning, and a reversable cover.

The film helps show off the beauty of British Columbia. I have been there a few times, and it really is stunning (and recommended). Meanwhile, stick around for at least part way through the credits for more story information, and if there is a sequel, I will happily watch it.

 

Review: On the Trail of Bigfoot: The Journey

Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films, 2021
Images from the Internet

On the Trail of Bigfoot: The Journey
(aka On the Trail of Bigfoot: The Legend and the Search)
Directed by Seth Breedlove
Small Town Monsters; 1091 Pictures
96 minutes, 2019 / 2021
www.smalltownmonsters.com
https://onthetrailof.tv/

Who is the cryptozoology king creature in popularity? Is it Mothman? The Jersey Devil? Arguably, the big macher is Bigfoot, aka the Sasquatch (with its cousin, the Yeti, a close second). There are dozens of fictional movies about the mythical woodland beastie, often with it being a killer monster often stalking teens in wooded cabins. So, who better to do a self-involving documentary about the true legend than the leader in cryptid mythology films than Seth Breedlove, and his Small Town Monsters brand?

Seth Breedlove and tattoo on right

Starting off in Wadsworth, Ohio (I once stayed near there on a voyage to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in the early 2000s), Breedlove and some friends take a road trip to Upper New York State, specifically to Wells, New York (an over 7-hour drive), in the heart of the Adirondack Mountains. Apparently, this truly majestic range is a hot-spot for the hairy one, dating back to Colonial times when he was known as “The Wild Man.” Through the course of the film, they travel to various connecting free spaces, including the Green Mountains of New Hampshire and the Berkshires of Western Massachusetts. It’s easy to tell which one of the intrepid travelers is Breedlove by the “Small Town Monsters” logo tattoo on his arm. But I digress…

Breedlove wisely starts the film with both positing his reasons for the trip and this film (which I will discuss later), and as a expositional foundation, presenting some talking head experts on the topic, such as Aleksandar Petakov, who directed the 2016 television documentary “Sasquatch: Out of the Shadows”, Bruce Hallenback, author of the 2015 book, Monsters of New York: Mysterious Creatures in the Empire State, Paul Bartholomew (who also joins the Small Town Monsters group at some point), writer of 2020’s Bigfoot Encounters in New York and New England: Documented Evidence, Stranger than Fiction, podcasters Emily Fleur (“The Forest Fleur”) and Mark Matzke (“Monstoropolis”), as well as Dr. David Floyd, an English Professor at Charleston Southern University, who did a Bigfoot in Literature podcast (HERE). 

This gives the viewer a solid basis of why they picked this particular area, and its history with The Wild Man. One of my favorite parts is these historians telling stories they had heard about sightings. There is a fine mix of second-hand stories, with some first-person eyewitness accounts, including one anonymous tale (thanks to being hidden behind a COVID mask) by a guy originally from Brooklyn(!), but they were all fun to hear.

Joining the crew in this self-shot doc for the nearly a week in the area around Buck Mountain to Whitehall, New York, near Lake George, is a number of investigators of various types, including Steve Kulls, Michael Anne, and Ted Varamogiannis, one of whom claims to have had an encounter with the 8-foot, hairy creature about five years earlier.

Our crew has lots of adventures traveling around various areas, including Kinderhook, NY and the Savoy Mountain State Forest in Western Mass, where they talk to a group of enthusiasts called the Sasquachusetts Group.

The Journey also presents a number of really nice animations and illustrations, as well as a few short re-creations of encounters. The format of the documentary reminds me of paranormal search shows, where the participants walk around often after dark in green night vision lights with glowing human eyes, trying to find something out of place. For example, one of the investigators noticed that there had been some kind of “disturbance” among flowers. Could it have been Biggie? Sure. But it could have also been a dear, a bear, or a coyote (whether you pronounce it Kai-yow-tee or kai-yout). Amusingly, one of the trackers gives a howl out to try and attract the creature, but my question is, how does he know what the mysterious Bigfoot sounds like, to “imitate” it. While this seems kind of silly to me, I have to admit it is also part of the charm of almost innocence of the team, and the entire documentary (and is a motif of previous Small Town Monster cryptozoology-focused releases, as well).

You may ask, at this point, whether I believe in Bigfoot. Honestly, I am 100 percent on the fence. I feel there is a possibility, but I am skeptical, which I believe is an appropriate approach about any cryptid phenomena. Could there be a Sasquatch? Sure. Could there be a Mothman? Why not? The thing about cryptids, especially Bigfoot, is people seem to think of it as a singular, like the Loch Ness Monster. But there must be a troop of them unless they are immortal. They would need to breed, which means the ones sighted in the 1970s would be at least the grandparents of any that would be sighted today.

It seems odd to me that if they are that big, and even in a wide expanse of the Adirondacks through the Green Mountains, there should be more evidence of, say, sleeping places, if a number of them were together, especially in the winter. And with modern technology, motion sensor cameras are relatively inexpensive and could be placed in suspected spots, which are often used by human hunters to find prey like deer. Hunting season is generally in October through early December, if I remember correctly, and what are the odds of hunters not coming across them or their camps, even with the thickness of the woods?

All that being said, I am not arguing for or against their existence. Personally, I think it would be cool if they did, and also fear that they would be mercilessly hounded by those who would wish to exploit them, and put them in cages in zoos and circuses, or do experiments on them. Perhaps it would be better if they were not found?

And do our travelers on their quest find the hairy grail? Well, I will not say, but there is a feeling of satisfaction of the venture. Besides, the scenery is absolutely breathtakingly beautiful, especially on the last day when Breedlove rents a helicopter to fly him over the very heart of the vast wilderness of the treed and rock-faced mountains of the Adirondacks. I actually replayed that part over because it made me smile so much. Part of the reason for that is, like much of the cast – which ties in COVID-19 – as this was filmed in the summer of the rise of the pandemic and the following isolation, there is the desire to be out in nature after being locked up for so long.

Emily Fleur

There are many who have the Squatchitude of wanting to find the creature and learn about it, Jane Goodall style, as so beautifully expressed in the film by Fleur. Yeah, I would love if Bigfoot was proven as long as they get the respect they deserve. And the love for both the beast/s and its/their environment, is present and strong here, which is part of what makes this documentary so compelling, and a love story for the natural creature.

On the Trail of Bigfoot: The Journey is available on various platforms from 1091 Pictures, including iTunes, Amazon Prime Video, Vudu and FandangoNOW.

Trailer is HERE 

Review: Abominable (Special Edition)

Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films, 2018

Images from the Internet

Abominable (Special Edition)

Directed by Ryan Schifrin

Red Circle Productions / MVD Rewind Collection

94 minutes, 2006 / 2018

www.abominablethemovie.com

www.mvdvisual.com

Some form of the Sasquatch, or big foot, has been the subject of horror films for so many films over a span of decades that it could easily be classified as a sub-genre on its own; for example, there is another film called Abominable due out in 2019, which features an animated and kid-friendly Yeti. Personally, I feel the reason for the proliferation of this monster is a move that mixes the mystery of the dark and dangerous woods and a bit of the werewolf motif, i.e., a creature that is not normalized in culture (such as a lion, or wolf), but still human-line and… possible. Director Schifrin also points out during the commentary that  the Bigfoot is one of the few well known monsters that is not under copyright. More times than not – okay, nearly always – the beastie is a guy in suit (including here), which is okay with me because it depends on how it looks and how it’s used that matters.

This re-release version of the 2006 film is a two-disc combination of Blu-ray and DVD, both discs identical with one exception which I’ll get to in the next paragraph. For point-of-reference, I only put in the Blu-ray disc.

Right off, there is an option for an 8:35 minute contemporary introduction by the director, Ryan Shifrin, who discusses how the film was taken from its original format and made into 2K HD from the original camera negative, with some extra production values (e.g., redoing the CGI glowing eyes). For this reason, there is both the original and HD version available on the Blu-ray disc only, hence the two-disc difference.

Matt McCoy

Starting the film, there is a prologue about some scared farmers, namely Dee Wallace Stone, who I think of more in The Howling than the overrated ET, and veteran character actor whom you’d recognize in a sec, Rex Linn (that’s just the start of the many cameos, but I’ll get to that later, too). After, we are introduced to the protagonist, Preston, played by Matt McCoy who most people probably remember from many television appearances, but to me he’ll always be Lloyd Braun (“Seinfeld”). After an mountain climbing accident that cost him his wife and the use of his legs, he has now returned to a cabin he owns in a wooded area, doing the Jimmy Stewart / Rear Window thing, seeing all through a window with binoculars. He’s caught on that there is something literally afoot out there in the dark.

The others in the locale are Preston’s nurse and caretaker, the obnoxious and creepy Otis (Christien Tinsley, who also did the effects and make-up for this release, is a master make-up artist on the likes of “American Horror Story,” “Westworld,” and he won an award for Gibson’s The Passion of Christ), and a group of five young women partying in the cabin next door, which is apparently the only two in the vicinity. Soon, one of the women becomes missing, and only Preston has an idea of what’s going on.

As for Biggie, we see him in bits and pieces, such as his glowing eyes, and the inside of his mouth, but we do get the classic monster-in-woods-POV-shots with starburst flare around it, as he watches his potential prey. A group of attractive and nubile women in peril; isn’t that special. Dare I say shower scene? Well, it is way back in the good-old-days of 2006. Make Horror Movies Great Again?

Haley Joel

Okay, okay, I know I’m kinda mocking this as a throwback to the ‘80s, and yeah, in some ways it is, but don’t get me wrong: considering some of the hokey bits, such as the way the creature looks when we finally get to see it in full, it’s still a very effective film and honestly, quite enjoyable.

I read a review recently about the horror genre in general (sorry, but I can’t remember the source…if you know it, tell me and I’ll add it in), and it posited that jump scares are overused and they customarily have sudden loud sounds and spiked, dissonant shrieks in music to enhance the effect. Well, this film definitely relies on that formula, but they manage to use it quite effectively. Also, what Hitchcock liked to do is leave some cinema “space” on one side so you expect the jump to come from there, and then come from the other side. This is another tool that this film uses effectively because it doesn’t overdo it, unlike Carpenter did in the original Halloween, which kinda ruined the fear in the film for me.

A large cast means a numerous kill count, and this one goes hog wild. Not only are there the people in the two houses as potential fodder for the freak, but there is also a string of very impressive cameos (see, told ya I’d get to it) that show up throughout, such as those I mentioned before, Lance Hendricksen, Jeffrey Combs (the Re-Animator, himself!), Paul Gleason (the principal in The Breakfast Club and a high level police officer in Die Hard; he passed away the same year this was originally released), Phil Morris (who was the Martian Manhunter on “Smallville,” and best known as lawyer Jackie Chiles on “Seinfeld”), the underrated and yet arguably the one with the longest film credit list Tiffany Shepis as one of the members of the inevitable slumber party Bigfoot massacre. The entire cast does incredibly well for the budget we’re talking about at the time, considering it was shot on film stock. And may I say, Haley Joel’s sustained lip gloss in both volume and longevity considering the activity is impressive.

Dee Wallace Stone and Rex Linn

Speaking of body counts, the deaths are nice and gruesome with some fine effects. The gore looks great and there’s lots of it, building up to near the end. Despite the addition of some CGI in post-production, most of the SFX by Tinsley are practical and look great.

As with most Blu-rays, as I’ve said numerous times, there is a teeming of extras, so let’s get to the ones I haven’t mentioned yet. Because they had all the original negatives, they were able to put together some nice raw footage for the “Deleted and Extended Scenes” (6:13). Everything that was excised feels right, especially the last one as it gives out too much infomraiton; it’s left in much more subtly, which works better. Then there’s the “Outtakes and Bloopers” (4:09), which is time-coded footage with errors. Some of it is quite amusing and during one scene filmed over and over due to laughing, I kept thinking, “This is film stock and I bet the director is pissed.”

Some of the minor extras are different sound choices, two trailers for this film (and a few for other MVD Rewind releases), a “Poster and Still Gallery” and “Storyboard Gallery.” On a larger scale, there is the original cut of the film, which I saw parts of and there is a definite difference is some aspects and the way scenes are present, but I just skipped and jumped.

Jeffrey Combs

It starts to get more serious with “Back to Genre: Making Abominable” featurette, a 37:15 documentary of the making of the film from story to distribution, broken up into chapters filled with interviews with most of the cast. Now, long making-of documentaries tend of be tedious, but this really was interesting all the way through. It kept a nice pace and also avoided the fluff. Nice!

There are two short films included by the director, one of them being the 8:07 student film, “Shadows.” Shot in black-and-white, which follows a paranoid, wealthy artist who is afraid to leave his house hearing about local murders on the radio (the only voice you hear throughout). He is not nice guy to others, but is that his fear or sense of privilege? The other one is “Basil & Mobius: No Rest for the Wicked” (16:16), which follows two British scallywags as they try to steal some secret plans from a mob boss who runs a gambling house in Jolly Olde (played by Malcolm McDowell). There is gunplay, martial arts, quick repartee dialogue, and even a couple of zombies (one is Kane Hodder). These films are touched with some humor, and quite excellent fun.

Last up is the full length commentary, which I found very impressive. Just so you know, I usually write the main part of the review before watching the extras, so it was nice to hear some confirmation on some of my comments (e.g., the Rear Window connection and the lip gloss). Recorded in June 2006, it features Schifrin, McCoy, Combs and the film's editor Chris Conlee. Now, what I thought was remarkable was that while McCoy was there for most of it, Combs and Conlee’s comments are edited in (sans McCoy) for just the scenes with Combs’ Clerk character. This cut down on the over-talking and made everything clear. What’s more, the content of the conversation was kept to the film, so while there is some humor, it’s pretty straight forward and hardly any filler. A great commentary from beginning to end, and I don’t say that very often.

There is a folded, printed poster that also comes with the Special Edition, which is neat. The only thing missing, that I could think of, was captioning, but I’m not holding that against anyone.

I have to say, for a throwback via homage of some of the great horror films of the 1970s-1990s (though Rear Window was 1954), this is an effective thriller, and a fun time all around on so many different level.

Review: Stomping Ground

Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films, 2016
Images from the Internet

Stomping Ground

Written, produced and directed by Dan Riesser
Anvil Entertainment / Irrational Films
80 minutes, 2014 / 2016
www.stompinggroundfilm.com
www.irrationalfilms.com

Ahhh, the Bigfoot subgenre. I reviewed one for this blog called Fear the Forest (2009) and another called – I kid you not – Sexsquatch (2012) The last one was from Australia called Throwback (2013), and now this one is from the wild and woody area around North Carolina.

John Bobek as Ben

Over a holiday visit down South, we meet our central characters, Ben (John Bobek), a ginger from Chicago who works in Social Media, and his girlfriend, Annie (Tarah DeSpain), a Greensboro local whose reputation whose high school nickname starting with the word “Crazy…” She, of course, being computer-phobic, isn’t even on Facebook (is it any shock she does not have a job in Chi-Town?). Opposites attract, I guess, but should they always?

From the start, Ben comes across at first as a bit of an elitist urban-vs.-rural dick who doesn’t cotton well to all the old boyfriends hitting on his gal, but is not enough of a he-man to fight them off. Actually, I respect him for that last part; similarly, she should be more sensitive to him being a “stranger in a strange land” than feeding into his jealousy. I would say the same thing if it was reversed, if one of his citified friends picked on her in the Windy City for being a Country Girl.

Yeah, from in the onset, the story starts off a bit like Straw Dogs (the real one, 1971; wonder if it’s a coincidence that his name is Ben, the name of Dustin Hoffman’s character in 1967’s The Graduate, who would play the lead in Straw Dogs… yeah, probably a stretch and a case of Cultural Overthinkingitis). Leading the redneck side is Paul (Jeramy Blackford), who from the gecko (yeah, I do know the correct word) you wouldn’t trust with a donut and a pickle.

Tarah DeSpain as Annie

One piece of information we learn right off (and it is in the trailer) is that her boyfriend doesn’t know that she is interested in the Bigfoot, and as a teen she and her friends would camp out searching for it; this includes the comedy relief character, Jed (Justin Giddings, doing an occasional scene-stealing turn), who is just as much into it as Annie. I’m assuming that these “hunting trips” included some large amounts of partying from the looks of things.

Of course, our unbelieving intrepid weenie Yankee is taken on a Bigfoot camping search with Annie, some of her friends (aka the fodder), and the outing’s instigator, Paul, who you just know has some devious plan behind all this, and y’get the feeling Ben is not going to like it. At all. But will he grow a pair like Hoffman in Dogs? I’m not promoting machismo masculinist training, I’m just going with the story, donchaknow?

An interesting aspect of films like this, which is actually closer to fact than is usually acknowledged, is that all the yokels call Ben “City Boy,” but when he uses the term “Redneck” after some of their despicable behavior, he gets called out on it. That’s a very Republican sensibility; if I do it, I’m expressing my freedom. If you do it, you are warring on my freedom.” This is both very blatantly and subtly indicated multiple times. I’m not sure which side the director falls on, but I will posit that he is a Greensboro native (mind you, the one time I was in Greensboro, I met some incredibly wonderful people).

For the first half of the film, during the Dogs part, as I refer to it, I was feeling kind of restless, but not necessarily in a good way. The whole “let’s gang up on the stranger” mentality is one I’ve never been casual with, though I understand it’s point to make it uncomfortable; if it was me in that situation, however, rather than be jealous of something that happened years ago, I would laugh Jeff off, especially his intention to steal his ex-fling, Annie. To his face. I’ve done it and it works as long as it’s in a public shared space and everyone around is informed and understands the context; if it’s approached defensively, the Ben position doesn’t have a chance. Besides, if nerdy Ben is that insecure about his relationship with wild-child Annie, he shouldn’t be in the relationship. I mean, he’s probably going to have to go back South again if the relationship is to continue, as her mother lives there. There’s new thing out called The Holidays during the last two months of the year.

The film's original poser

It’s the second half of the picture where the story and interest really starts to pick up, once you get past the portal of the stereotypical pair of hunt’n’ good-ol-boys, who are the slasher film equivalent of the weirdo loner who warns everyone to stay away! That’s about the time we get to finally reach where we all know the general direction of where the story is going, in the form of the beastie.

Ah, yes, the beastie. I’ve seen some really terrible Sasquatch costumes in my time, because it essentially comes down to a person in a suit, after all. Well, I’m happy to say that this one actually looks really good (you can see a couple of flashes of him – I’m assuming it’s a he considering some of his actions – in the trailer and on the poster). I’m even willing to forgive the sole layer of the creature’s foot/boot which is evident at the one-minute mark of the trailer, though it’s much easier to see in the film itself.  The reason is that everything else about the monster and including the body SFX of the victims, looks pretty nice. Not a huge body count, but an effective one.

Despite the nebbishness of Ben, Bobek fleshes him out a bit, and makes him a character you may not like on some level, but you can put yourself in his shoes and feel sorry for him as a bully target. I don’t know if I felt the compadre level with him as he stands up for himself though I supposedly should, but it does take a lot for him to give any credibility. Even after this, I hope Annie dumps him. The cute DeSpain also does well with Annie as the flip side of Ben’s personality. While he is an off-putting in a know-it-all way, Annie is equally annoying in that she doesn’t really seem to give a shit about him as she flirts back with her exes. Again, DeSpain makes her human and not just a mean girl, though I would also like to add that if Annie doesn’t dump Ben, Ben should also ditch her. They are so not right for each other. It’s Blackford’s Paul who seems the most real, though, and I hated his bully character, which is why I thought Blackford stood out so well. Paul is the only member of the triangle that remains true to himself: a conniving bastard.

Of course, there has to (and should be) a cameo of a genre star from the past who can headline. In this case, it’s Theresa Tilly, who plays Annie’s mom in the first couple of scenes (yeah, she’s in the trailer, too). Tilly is better known among us who grew up on VHS as Shelly, one of the not-so-fortunate cabin dwellers in the 1981 classic Evil Dead. Back then, she went by the nom de acting of Sarah York.

While some of the action is predictable, such as the manning up of Ben, there are some nice and different twists and turns, and a chance for a sequel. I say sit through the first half and think of it as the cranking ride up the coaster, and then enjoy the ride down.