TrueJoshNight Truly Dreadful Film

PodBill Just what I expected

Steineded How sad is this?

CommentsXp Best movie ever!

twhiteson Why are the characters in horror movies always so incredibly stupid? Is there a rule among horror movie makers that their characters must act like complete fools when faced with dangerous situations? "Exists" is a low-budget affair. Its cast and crew are all unknowns. It uses a lot of first-person "you are there" camera angles to hide its budget ala "The Blair Witch Project." Plus, it's a Sasquatch film which almost never attract big production bucks. There are two types of Sasquatch films: 1) the Big Hairy Guy is a big-hearted softie with a passion for ecology ("Harry and the Hendersons" and its ilk) or 2) he's menacing and scary. "Exists" is definitely in the latter category.The plot: a group of 20-something year old nitwits decide to head-out for a weekend at a backwoods cabin. As they near their destination, their vehicle strikes what they think is an animal. Despite finding blood and strange hair on the vehicle, they're unable to find a body. So, they proceed towards the cabin. However, it turns-out the local Bigfoot was not happy about the car accident. Our "heroes" find themselves isolated, besieged, and assaulted by the Big Hairy Guy. Will they survive?My biggest issue with "Exists" was the sheer stupidity of its characters. Every hoary old horror film cliché of stupid victims was used in this film for no other reason than to avoid its characters saving themselves. They're aware it's a life-and-death situation. So, what do they do about it? Well, they repeatedly split-up from each other. They take "short-cuts" through dense woods rather than follow a clear road. They cower and cringe when their friends are attacked and make no effort to help them. They don't arm themselves except for finding a convenient rifle whose ammo they quickly waste. (Were there no knives or axes in this backwoods cabin? Couldn't they sharpen some sticks? Or what about fire?) Essentially, these characters allow themselves to be hapless/helpless/hopeless movie victims for no other reason than lazy screen-writing and directing.The overwhelming stupidity of its characters made me overlook any other merits that may have existed in this film. It's the 21st century. So, you'd think by now that horror film makers would stop recycling "Halloween/Friday the 13th" clichés from the late 70's.

Scarecrow-88 Eduardo Sánchez returns to found footage, a genre that made a name for himself (and also done him serious harm it seems), also tackling the Bigfoot subgenre as well. A group of friends decide to trip to a cabin (two brothers of the group have an uncle who owns it and has warned them *not* to come to this territory), hitting something while on the way. Come to find out, it was a sasquatch. Well, perhaps that sasquatch (or another?) is not very happy being hit by a vehicle in his neck of the woods and retaliates much to their puzzlement (they didn't realize they had done harm with said vehicle to the extent that would enrage the 'squatch so), leaving behind a body count as a result. Will any of the five survive? The group consists of Matt and brother Brian, their pal and his girlfriend, and Matt's girlfriend. After this excursion into the woods of Texas, their lives will never be the same.What makes this stand out is that the harm the humans cause is not known by them. They didn't intentionally provoke the sasquatch or wish to earn its wrath. It comes down to territory, invading it with your vehicle, and through the accident causing irreparable harm no one will come out of fully unscathed. Brian (the one without the girl; there's always a guy who represents the kind of "loser" of the bunch without a pretty girl by his side) is the character who can somehow communicate with it in a way that doesn't totally spurn the creature to destroy him. There's an exact purpose behind why the sasquatch is out to obliterate this group. They find a shot gun in the basement of the cabin, which comes in handy to wound the creature, but it more or less just makes the thing even madder than before. The recording camera is used extremely well in instances where the sasquatch can be seen in brief glimpses, charging towards characters, reaching at characters, tipping over an RV with characters hidden inside as it tumbled over a cliff, a character lifted off his feet and tossed right into a turned-over tree, a slight capture of one character with her hair pulled as she's lifted off her feet and suffering a neck snap in the process, and acknowledging the presence of the creature in how it sounds in its breathing, anger, movement, and rampage. The destruction of the cabin (what is heard and the aftermath) is epic. The use of the camera in this day and age can provide a number of inventive angles and visual tricks even civilians who aren't in the filmmaking business can pull off. Like the helmet cam, as an example. I think it is time to realize that our scrutiny on "found footage authenticity" is like beating fists at the air. We might as well put away questions like "why would he continue shooting after his brother goes missing, the cabin is destroyed, and his friends start to die?" Or "would any of us be free to see all of the events play out like this in their entirety?" Sometimes we just have to let go and allow the show to do what it intends to do: entertain or thrill. I think so often, the found footage is rightfully criticized if it is just an excuse for people trying to break into film using a cheap format at their start without delivering anything fulfilling for horror fans. Willow Creek is an example of a Bigfoot movie similar to Exists that doesn't quite give its audience much to really offer praise to. On the side of Exists, though, you get plenty of the 'squatch. It certainly is visible and ultimately isn't rendered just a bloodthirsty monster killing people for kicks and giggles. There's a reasoning any of us could understand once Brian is forced by the sasquatch to recognize what the flies buzzing about are attracted to. Thankfully, too, there's no tiresome CGI, and the suit isn't laughable. Great lengths were expended to see that this provides a creature and doesn't abhor it. The characters that endure horror when it goes off aren't total cretins, but fun-loving buddies just in the woods at the uncle's cabin to have a good time. So there's a dramatic angle that works because of the tragedy of it all: an accident leads to everyone being damaged...some worse than others.

bowmanblue 'Exists' is about a group of teens who get stalked in the forest by Bigfoot. Only, I just so happen to have seen a horror film before, therefore within the opening five minutes, I had a pretty good idea of what was going to happen every step of the way.The group of friends is like every other group of friends you've seen in every other horror film where five friends go into the woods and come a cropper with rednecks/aliens/vampires (delete as applicable). It's kind of like 'I Know What You Did Last Summer,' but with Bigfoot. They bump into him in their car and – guess what – he doesn't take kindly to the hit and run and decides to hunt them down. But, before they're totally wiped out, they crack jokes, are oversexed and generally annoying (plus you have the black man here who feels the need to constantly point out that he's black –just in case the audience couldn't work that out on their own).Some aspects of the film are 'found footage' or at least they appear to be. Thankfully not all of it, so it doesn't confirm to all the latest 'found footage' clichés that come with the annoyingly overused genre. Naturally this film doesn't really have much of a budget. Bigfoot does himself towards the end and he's not that bad. However, before that you're left with the obligatory 'jump scares' and darkened searches through the woods.If you like horror films, watch one you already own. If you already own it then you already like it. That way you don't have to bother with this one. It's not that bad, it's just not original enough to warrant a viewing.

Lucabrasisleeps Obviously the director is allowed to make movies based on his previous movies. In this case though, he is interested to show the monster and he has added music too.That is a baffling decision honestly. I know certain found footage movies have added music. But if you are adding music to this extent, then why not drop the shaky cam and have a normal film then? Leave out any pretense of realism and make a regular horror movie. The music is effective though. It is not annoying and it enhances the atmosphere. Obviously the shaky cam thing bothers me often but generally I am able to look beyond these aspects.The movie doesn't waste time on character development or in building atmosphere. In many ways it is surprising since Blair witch or Lovely molly were pretty all about atmosphere. This is a total action film. Even if the monster is shown, it doesn't really bring down the movie. The monster makeup is realistic. The monster is also shown rarely and only from a distance for the most part. There are quite a few effective scenes here. What I liked about the monster is that he actually seems like a genuine threat. He is not a large lumbering predator, he is actually quite fast and even clever. He thinks like a human being.I didn't like some of the characters and their attitudes but in general the characters are not so important in this movie. Rather it is the action which never lets up that is more interesting. It is also not longer than necessary, it is short and to the point.Overall it seems derivative now, it doesn't show anything new. But it is a very entertaining action filled found footage movie.7/10