Horror Movie Review: The Bigfoot Tapes (2013)

The Bigfoot Tapes…a found-footage (yay!) movie about a trio of documentary hunters who go out to Siskiyou County in the hope of finding out more about the legend. Their main point of interest is a 911 call from a desperate man claiming his dog had been ripped in half by something that looked like Bigfoot.

With a very sketchy plan & very little in the way of story, our trio (brothers Stephon & Davee along with Shy) trot of to try & find out more. It’s not long before they get into an encounter with some local hicks & start getting warned off by some of the townspeople.

The first 20 minutes or so follow the exact same formula that the Blair Witch set out back in 1999, interview townspeople who are all very sceptical of the Bigfoot story but have enough sense to not go wandering in the woods in the dark.

Later we find out that this is because some locals grow cannabis out there & don’t take kindly to trespassers. Thrilling, huh?

So, the trio of filmmakers meet Travis, the local who made the 911 call. He’s going off the deep end with some strong religious views. Something one of the brothers just has to mock because nothing endears you more to the locals then making fun of their beliefs & customs.

Travis agrees to show them where his dog was attacked & leads them deep into the woods. If you don’t have motion sickness, you will by time this movie ends. The rough terrain & handheld camera angles ensure a shaky-cam experience like you’ve never had before. The realism of the filming style is completely lost when as a viewer, you can barely see what’s going on.

Travis eventually gets spooked leaving the gang in the woods to fend for themselves. They try to find their way back but get lost & find their markers have been destroyed. Cue strange noises in the night, a very unfriendly meeting with a local & a whole lot of darkness.

The Bigfoot Tapes could have been onto something here, a story about 3 arrogant city-kids venturing into the woods of hick-ville looking for a legend that could never possibly exist. Even if the idea was that they were out to show how one grainy still image could capture the imagination of so many people & bring life & money into the town it would have been better then this Blair Witch/Deliverance mess.

So, little makes sense in a movie with such a short run time (78 minutes), it confuses itself in attempts to make the viewer jump. Is it the local cannabis farmers messing with them? So, who the hell drags Shy off as if she’s been grabbed by the shadows from Ghost!? Who lifts a tent with Davee inside straight up into the air past the trees?

That’s some serious ghost stuff!

It isn’t Bigfoot as he doesn’t actually make an appearance until the final scene. I won’t spoil it for you except to say it’s not worth the wait…not in the slightest.

The characters are forgettable, boring & so damn stupid at times. They make dumb decisions & their reactions (or lack of) to events is hilarious. Shy gets dragged off suddenly & neither of the brothers make any attempt to try & find her. Instead they wander about the next day shouting her name.

At 78 minutes, The Bigfoot Diaries somehow ends up feeling like 108 minutes instead. It’s another example of just how bad the found-footage sub-genre has become. It’s not the worst of the bunch but it’s pretty damn close.