Let us end
the Bigfoot marathon fun with another movie I found on Amazon Prime. Here we
have a group of kids headed off to a cabin in the woods for Spring Break.
Seriously when has that ever worked out well? I watch enough horror movies that
I’m never going anywhere for Spring Break! Though I really am too old for that
anyway so no big loss. After running into an obnoxious shop
owner, some
shoplifting kids, and a redneck who really enjoys eyeshadow they make it to the
cabin. After a party/acting like a dumbass montage we get a couple of things.
First up they get naked and have sex… in the woods. Again, have they never seen
a horror movie? Oh, and something is watching them. I mean other than the shop
owner who is being a creeper with a video camera. Eventually we find out that
there is a Bigfoot in the woods and that it has decided to start killing
people. The locals all end up dead and then it starts on the kids. We
eventually get down to our survivor girl who kills the monster. Or does she?
Really? Of course she didn’t kill it. Have you ever seen a horror movie?
I’m having
some fun with the plot synopsis mostly because I had fun with the movie. Holler
Creek Canyon knows exactly what it is and doesn’t shy away from that. We get
pretty people going into the woods, meeting up with scary locals who are just a
bit creepy. They make some bad decisions and pair off for some naughty
activities. Much skin is shown, both male and female, and then the creature
shows up. From that point on we get blood spraying, heads squished, guts torn
out, and legs shredded off at the knee. But the best is a callback to Night of
the Demon, which I’ve already covered for this marathon. Yes, ladies and
gentlemen there is some violence towards the wang, though unlike Night of the
Demon it is off screen.
Ranger Rik Rules! |
A couple
other things of note here. I thought they were doing some stunt casting when I
saw Ron Jeremy’s name on the poster. But instead of the normal cameo he has an
actual part here with several scenes and is rather funny. He plays the greasy
shop owner who spies on the kids, waves his gun around (and I mean an actual
pistol…), and eventually goes out into the woods to kill the rogue bear blamed
for all the killings. Spoiler he does get the bear but that wasn’t what was
killing all the critters in town. He has some snappy dialogue and lands most of
the best jokes.
The other
thing that surprised me was the special effects work. We don’t get to see the
gore happen but do get some shots of mangled bodies after the fact. That was a
little disappointing, but they do make up for it a bit with how cool the bodies
look. Where they did a great job was with the Bigfoot costume. It is all
practical and looks much better than I would have thought. They keep it in the
shadows for most of the movie but when you get a glimpse it looks like a real
creature. The actor can move in it and is able to chase the cast and be
menacing.
I do have
a couple of complaints, though they are minor. We get a few montage/dialogue
scenes that drag the pacing down a bit. The movie is around ninety minutes long
and could have done with about ten minutes of it cut. I also didn’t like the
tacked on ending which felt forced. But overall this is a decent movie that
surprised the heck out of me. I can’t believe it took me fourteen years to
watch it! I recommend Holler Creek Canyon.
© Copyright 2019 John Shatzer