- Directed by Corey Grant
- Written by Brian Kelsey, Bryan O’Cain
- Stars Drew Rausch, Rich McDonald, Ashley Wood
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 30 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCO8mcqoj1c
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
When a documentary crew teams up with a Bigfoot expert, things go south when it seems like they are the ones being hunted. But it’s a little more complicated than that as they try to figure out how to get out of their predicament. It’s on the low budget side, but well made and entertaining overall.
Spoilery Synopsis
Sean Reynold comes out of the bank with money to finance his new Bigfoot documentary. Darryl Colemen is there to film the whole thing. Robyn will be the producer of the show. Sean is a skeptic, but Robyn believes all the “woo.” Curtis, on the other hand, is their regular sound guy, but he’s reluctant to go out and spend weeks in the woods. Camping in the woods is a “white folks thing,” so he refuses to go. He recommends Kevin go with them instead; Kevin is clueless and smells bad, but he agrees to go.
They’re going to interview a guy in the woods who claims to have a dead Bigfoot body. Sean insists that they film at all times– “Fill those cameras up!” Kevin wakes up and he knows all about the guy with the Bigfoot as he’s become an Internet sensation.
Carl Drybeck’s land is way out in the country, and they get lost on the way there. Drybeck meets them in the woods after they get stuck. “We don’t want to be travelling after dark.” Sean pays him $75,000 to do the show with Drybeck, who insists on collecting their cellphones and making the crew wear black hoods over their heads. Yeah, he’s weird, creepy, and paranoid.
When they reach Drybeck’s camp, Kevin immediately insists that they’re all going to get hacked up by a serial killer. Robyn, however, gets started on her rituals to purify and welcome nature. She senses something large moving in the woods. Drybeck’s assistant LaRoche is there, and he looks suspicious.
Drybeck explains that the wildlife has been getting aggressive at night, and he’s installed an electric fence. As they sit around the campfire, the old man tells them his best Bigfoot story. He tells about running into the 9-foot-tall monster many years ago. They hear branches cracking in the woods, and Drybeck insists they all go inside.
Sean is skeptical, and he asks Drybeck some tough questions. Drybeck has theories as to why no one else has ever produced real proof of Bigfoot’s existence. Drybeck has done his own research about Sean’s trip to a mental hospital.
Suddenly, the lights go out. “They’ve gotten to the generator,” yells Drybeck. They hear something growling outside the house. Everyone smiles and runs outside. They find the fence has been sabotaged with a large log thrown into the power cable. Sean and Darryl go to the van for more batteries, but a tree nearly falls on them, so they return to the cabin. Something outside bangs on the walls and everyone is terrified except Sean, who thinks it’s LaRoche out there. Everyone eventually goes back to their cabin for the night.
Sometime in the morning, Drybeck drives off in his Jeep, leaving everyone in the camp. Sean insists that they can still get plenty of footage without him. They find a bad odor and really large scratches on the outside of the cabin, and Sean uses all this for the tapes. They also find footprints of both Bigfoot and… sneakers.
Robyn finds a Bigfoot nest, and Kevin freaks out and quits on the spot. Sean sets up game cameras on the nest and the footprint area. Everyone argues for a bit about staying; Sean agrees and wants Kevin to walk to the van and bring it to the cabin, while wearing a bodycam.
Night falls, and neither Kevin nor Drybeck have returned. Robyn wants to go outside and do some kind of sage-smudging ritual. Everyone hears something in the woods, and Robyn gets a good scare as something drags her through the woods.
Drybeck is there all of a sudden, and he yells for them all to get back to the cabin. Sean immediately accuses Drybeck of doing all this. LaRoche has been attacked, and Drybeck has been trying all day to get him to a hospital; there’s no way out on the road. There’s more arguing. They get their cellphones back, but no one has reception. Darryl drives Drybeck’s car, but all the roads really are blocked.
In the morning, Drybeck offers to take them to town on the back road, and they can stop where he’s stored the dead sasquatch. He shows them a preserved finger in a jar. Robyn talks to Drybeck alone, and she feels that the sasquatch was trying to protect her from something. “What are they protecting us from?” He makes light of that.
Robyn locks herself in the cabin with LaRoche while the men hike the trail that Drybeck takes them to. LaRoche wakes up long enough to mention that there’s a camera out his car, and she watches a video that Kevin made as he walked to the car. Kevin is brutally killed on camera. She rushes outside and starts the generator that powers the electric fence.
Drybeck explains that the body is hidden in a sea cave and is only accessible at low tide; he’s very paranoid. They get to the box that holds the body, but Drybeck hears something and goes to investigate. Drybeck rushes them out, saying “They’ve broken through!” Darryl sees something huge, but it’s not clear.
Back at the cabin, something pulls LaRoche through the window, and Robyn gets out Darryl’s gun and waits. She runs to the car, but something kills her and drags her away before she can get there.
In the woods on the way back to the cabin, Sean and Darryl watch as Drybeck is impaled way up high in a tree. Sean and Darryl are a lot less skeptical after that. When they get back, all they find of Robyn is the gun. Darryl grabs a shotgun and runs off into the woods, crazy, and when he comes back he shoots himself in the head, not completely effectively.
Sean is alone now. He sees a really bright light outside along with the roaring. “People need to know!” He shouts. He looks out the window and sees Bigfoot, which he describes for the camera. Except the light shining in the windows is awfully bright. He opens the door and shouts, “It’s not a Bigfoot! It’s not a Bigfoot!” and we see something with green eyes get him.
Brian’s Commentary
The trailer for this one wasn’t promising. The budget is fairly low, but otherwise, it’s really well done. It could be a hoax or maybe not all the way up to the last few minutes, and even then, we’re left wondering what the full story was. And no, we never do get a good look at the creatures.
It’s pretty good!
Kevin’s Commentary
I appreciated that they added another layer of depth to it by not just having Bigfoot be real. Which is the problem with cryptids and aliens and so forth. If one was really real, any or all of them could be. They made a lot out of what they had to work with, and it’s pretty entertaining. I enjoyed it.
