Hoax

Horror fans are a fickle lot. Serve them something with some "fava beans and a nice Chianti," and they'll clean their plates, only to then whine about what they've just wolfed down. Yet they're also film's most category-loyal bunch, always returning to the table in an attempt to quell an insatiable blood lust. It now seems those genre junkies may have found their perfect three-act meal in director Matt Allen's creature feature "Hoax" - an engrossing refresh of the Bigfoot vehicle, and a candidate for instant cult classic. In the nocturnal mountains of Colorado, young campers congregate around the fire as troop leader Alex (actress Ryan Lee) ominously reacquaints the group with the legend of the mighty Sasquatch. Within moments, the team meets with a brutal demise. Bear attack? Hunter ambush? Only a washed-up TV producer has the desperate wherewithal to exploit our culture's lust for sensationalism by taking a production team deep into the woods to monetize the carnage. Played by Ben Browder of "Farscape" fame with the knowing male ditziness and contrived machismo of a slow-cracking soap star, Browder's Rick Paxton is hell-bent on pinning the unsolved crime on the always-elusive monster - after all, what better to drive ratings and stave off Paxton's own mounting irrelevance? It's a premise one would think must have been tapped within the Bigfoot subgenre as many times as a dorsal fin has been spotted within the shark flick template, and yet it's tough to cite any preceding 'Squatch tale that fires on all of "Hoax's" unique cylinders. In fact, Allen does draw mightily on the 'delayed reveal' device Steven Spielberg used in "Jaws," as "Hoax" only hints at the hairy brute long before allowing us to stare into its (allegedly-red) eyes. It's an exercise in great restraint, and heightens the sensory storytelling of the film's beast-tracking scenes in particular: Breathtaking aerial shots of gorgeous Colorado mountain terrain establish the vastness of the Wookiee progenitor's indigenous kingdom, and as the group canvases the dark thicket, we're fed all the wonderfully thick fog and refractory lighting we demand from our forested horror tropes. Truth be told, there's very little blood spilled at all up to and through the second act of "Hoax." Allen knows you want it, yet knows better than to give you too much too soon. So when it does arrive, late-stage, it rains down like the finale of a fireworks display, culminating with a mondo bizarro and intensely queasy finishing move that has us suddenly feeling like we're watching "Deliverance" on bad acid. Engrained in the DNA of "Hoax" is a campy sense of humor too easily missed in early reviews. Case in point, the casting here shrewdly marries the veneered over-acting of b-movie cheese merchants like Browder and Brian Thompson ("The X-Files") with compelling straight-line performances from Cheryl Texiera, Lauren Ashlyn O'Brien, Brian Landis Folkins, and the aforementioned Lee. The net result is a wonderfully counterpointed, realism-be-damned marriage between "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" and "Melrose Place," and viewers would do well to note that aspirational intentionality. Similarly, the costuming provided to our 'Squatch knowingly eschews any true creep factor and instead pays giddy homage to 1933's original "King Kong." Laud it or loathe it, it feels like horror fans are about to consume "Hoax" in hordes, because that's what they do. Here's hoping the feeding frenzy buys this production team its next (and well-deserved) big opportunity.

Following the disappearance of several hikers, an executive looking into the group's whereabouts hires a primate specialist to join his team to trek into the wilderness believing that Bigfoot has taken them, only to discover that the legendary creature is now hunting them one-by-one. Overall, this one was quite an enjoyable Bigfoot film. One of the strongest features here is the expected ferocity that arises during the film's encounters with the creature. These are generally quite fun and chilling with the initial attack on the hikers serving as a fine series of ambushes on everyone. Out in the woods with the rest of the crew, the ramping up of the brutality towards the group which makes this one incredibly enjoyable with the first ambush on the lone girl that draws everyone's attention while everyone else is scattered throughout the campsite and sets up the fine series of encounters that are featured throughout the finale where the creature is shown chasing them through the woods creating some tense encounters here. Given that these are still accomplished with practical effects while keeping the creature off-screen for large portions of time, there's a lot to like with this aspect of the film. As well, there's also an enjoyable setup that arises throughout the first half as this starting point serves a lot to like. With the whole plot being based on the search for the missing hikers and the team coming together to find them, there are some rather enjoyable aspects to be had with the crew setting up their respective skills and preparing for their mission. Dedicated to not only bring them back alive but capturing an image of the creature as well, there's some fun to be had with the film following professionals doing their job in this situation. Building off of that in a fine matter is the later scenes where they're becoming aware that something's out in the woods with them as the evidence, the slowly-dawning realization of something in the woods with them is a highly enjoyable effort. Together with the practical effects used for the Bigfoot creature, these here are what hold the film up over it's few minor flaws. Among the film's few problematic areas is a rather disappointing middle section that spends far too much time in useless subplots to detail much in the way of Bigfoot encounters. Rather than bring in more attacks by the creature on the group who are now fully aware of its existence, the fact that this is mostly dropped for the backstory on most of the characters that should've happened earlier in the running time as this ends up taking time away from the Bigfoot encounters. Likewise, there's very little need for the final twist here that turns what could've been a fun genre effort into something else entirely through a cliched revelation that undoes everything the film had built up before for no reason other than to have a change that was unexpected from the start of the film. Otherwise, there isn't much to dislike here. Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language, Brief Nudity, a brief sex scene and implied violence-against-animals.

Sure, Bigfoot slaughters lots of innocent kids camping out in the woods, but did you know that he also paints watercolor landscapes? Something the "lame-stream" media never mentions. He also enjoys watching figure skating on TV and playing with model trains. The most shocking truth is that his feet aren't really that big, at least not for his size. They are just normal feet, but that doesn't make much of a nickname. Average-size Foot. That name doesn't exactly instill terror, does it? How about Huge Foot? I'm just thinking out loud here so bear with me, no pun intended. This may be the best movie about Bigfoot that you will see this month, but there's still more than a week left so this accolade may not stand up. I can't believe this was made.

If you can get this thing for free do it! The Producers Actors and Director and anyone else involved in the making of this garbage does not deserve your money.