In BIGFOOT: THE LOST COAST TAPES (2012), a TV show crew travels to California’s “lost coast” region to debunk a hunter’s claims to have the body of a Bigfoot creature, only to become hunted themselves. This found footage movie follows all the conventions of the form and doesn’t add much that’s new, but it’s well done, and I thought it was fun.
The film begins with a journalist planning his excursion to a remote forested region of California. A Bigfoot hunter claims to have the body of one of the creatures and is willing to share it for payment. The journalist and his crew travel there, meeting the eccentric hunter and finding the whole camp and its defenses amusing. Soon, they end up discovering signs that Bigfoot is real, there are many of them in the area, and any humans in the area are under real threat. Soon, the camp is under siege.
It’s all typical stuff, a movie churned out in what was a veritable flood of found footage and Bigfoot movies at the time it came out. It follows the found footage playbook pretty well, with an obsessed protagonist, reluctant crew, Captain Ahab type we just know the monster would love to gets its paws on, the final confession and comeuppance for the protagonist, and plenty of spooky things happening that build up to the brutal finale. And there’s a twist about who the real monster might be.
The result isn’t particularly scary and the conflicts over what to do are often overwrought, but overall, it’s a very competent film. It does exactly what it promises, it doesn’t try or pretend to be anything else, and I thought it was fun. If you like found footage, this one ain’t bad, and I think you might have fun with it too.
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