Countdown To Halloween!  Amy & T.J.'s Creature Feature Pick #2: “Willow Creek”

00:00:10
Speaker 1: Hey there, folks.

00:00:10
Speaker 2: It is Sunday, October 11th, and we have a fantastic Halloween horror movie recommendation.

00:00:19
Speaker 1: Yes, another creature feature.

00:00:23
Speaker 2: And to be honest with you, we are a little nervous about recommending this one. And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ Roped. It's weird to say this is a movie for anybody, but it's not for everybody.

00:00:36
Speaker 1: Yeah.

00:00:37
Speaker 3: Yes, I understand where you're coming from.

00:00:39
Speaker 2: Okay, you get where I'm coming from there. Because if you don't like horror movies, you can stomach this one just fine.

00:00:43
Speaker 3: Absolutely. This is one of the ones we actually watched with my parents recently. They're not big horror movie fans. But this one is literally fun for everyone, even non-horror movie watchers. You've got basically the premises. Oh, we love it. A couple hiking in the woods on the hunt for... Bigfoot.

00:01:08
Speaker 1: That's your creature. That is your creature. You don't get that a lot. This is a Bigfoot creature horror movie. You know what? We should go back.

00:01:17
Speaker 2: We have only been talking about it for 90 seconds, babe, and I'm already excited.

00:01:20
Speaker 1: I want to go back and watch this one again. It's a fun one.

00:01:22
Speaker 3: It's so good. The name of the film is called Willow Creek. And I don't even know how we stumbled across this one, but the release date was March 9th. 2015. So this has been around for 11 years and we've just recently discovered it. And we're very excited to include this in the Creature Feature Sunday edition. So this comes in at number two, our Creature Horror Recommendation. And I do love that this is a recommendation that every single person I think will appreciate because it's got great writing, great acting, a, a wonderful build. There isn't blood and violence and gore. Again, it's funny. We've chosen some creature features that, that aren't the gory mess you might expect. And that is why I think this is one of the craziest critic review score versus audience review score I've ever seen. There is a massive departure between what the critics said and what the audience said. And I have to think it boils down to the lack of gore.

00:02:26
Speaker 2: Because you do. If you're watching a horror movie, you do have an expectation. You have an expectation of certain elements, Robes, including a backstory. You have an expectation of a payoff, a confrontation of good versus evil at the end. And if you are a horror movie fan and you go into this thinking that, you're not going to get some deliverables there.

00:02:50
Speaker 3: No. This is more about the story, about the build-up, about the anticipation. And yes, you are on the edge of your seat waiting for something to happen. And for something to happen, it does take a while, but it is worth it. I mean, just the whole experience of getting to this crescendo at the end of the movie, in our opinion, based on all the horror movies and creature features we've seen, we appreciate the... The art and the deliberate choice to build this slowly. It is an awesome movie.

00:03:25
Speaker 2: It's a skill, what these folks pulled off. You can tell clearly it's a lower budget movie, Robes. But their commitment to that buildup, I give them so much credit, Robes, because this is not a movie, if you described it to me necessarily, I... Not just the synopsis. I mean, if somebody was describing this movie to me, maybe it's not for me. I cannot believe how much they hold your attention and how well they pull this off. Is it fair to say if you liked Blair Witch, you'll like this?

00:03:58
Speaker 3: Yes, yes. This is a little bit of a found footage-esque type of movie because the premise is, and we'll read the official synopsis, but this guy basically has been obsessed with Bigfoot his whole life and he sets out to this town, this area, where he is most notably known to appear over the ages. In fact, this whole town is like Has this like, they lean into their book, Bigfoot lore, and build basically all of their town, like even the motel and the diner, they all lean into this, we've got Bigfoot around us theme.

00:04:34
Speaker 1: Think Branson, but Bigfoot themed.

00:04:38
Speaker 3: Bigfoot Branson. Yes. And so he goes out there deliberately with his video camera in tow to create his own documentary of finding or looking for Bigfoot.

00:04:49
Speaker 2: And the relationship part of this comes into play, Rose, because he's taking his.

00:04:54
Speaker 1: Girlfriend along who's just. entertaining this foolishness.

00:04:57
Speaker 3: She's awesome she's an act i want to be oh she's an actress she's an aspiring professional actress right and so she's there and again you get into their relationship i love it they're it's very similar to passenger in the sense that they're trying to figure out what's next you know do they get married do they move to la together So she can be the actress that she wants to be. Is he willing, this outdoorsman, this guy who likes to be out in the wilderness, is he willing to trade that all in for the L.A. life? So all of these conversations are happening. While she's entertaining him, he's debating whether or not he's going to entertain her.

00:05:34
Speaker 1: Their dynamics are cool.

00:05:36
Speaker 2: And she is, and I think a lot of, I was going to say women, but yes, women, but men as well. No, this is more so I say women. who go along with some of their guy's foolishness. Like, wait, this is a very man masculine.

00:05:51
Speaker 3: Really?

00:05:51
Speaker 1: We're going to go camping looking for Bigfoot. Really?

00:05:55
Speaker 2: We got to go see Avengers at the 2 a.m.

00:05:58
Speaker 1: Showing?

00:05:58
Speaker 3: Right.

00:05:59
Speaker 1: Really? It's one of those things.

00:06:01
Speaker 3: Well, we got to watch some people say football all day Sunday. Yes, a lot of women will understand what it's like to say, okay, my guy is obsessed with this. I'll go ahead and do this for him. So she's giving him a solid by going on this camping trip to this town that's known for Bigfoot in the Pacific Northwest somewhere, I believe. Yes. So here's the official synopsis.

00:06:24
Speaker 1: Did we say the name of the movie?

00:06:25
Speaker 3: Yes, I did. But once again, for everyone, just in case. You didn't get it the first time. Willow Creek. So here's the official synopsis. A man and his girlfriend camp in the woods to capture firsthand evidence of Bigfoot. And it's cute because along the way as he's making his documentary, he's interviewing people in the town. And most of them think this Bigfoot thing is total malarkey. So it's fun to see him get excited. And they're like, are you kidding me? This is nothing.

00:06:53
Speaker 2: Doesn't really, I'm just thinking about it. We have to watch this tonight. The fun scene where the guy hadn't seen, the maintenance guy, right?

00:06:59
Speaker 3: Hilarious.

00:07:00
Speaker 1: Okay, that was a great scene.

00:07:01
Speaker 3: Or even like the older woman who's in charge of the Bigfoot Museum. She's like, please, this shit isn't real. So it's very fun.

00:07:10
Speaker 1: It's a good movie.

00:07:10
Speaker 3: It's a great cast. So Bryce Johnson plays Jim and Alexi Gilmore plays Kelly. I have never seen either one of these folks before, but they were effortless. They were natural. I believe they had great chemistry. I believed they were a couple. Just the writing, everything was so natural. Hell, probably a lot of it was ad-libbed. That's what it felt like because he was doing all these different takes trying to be like, you know, the documentarian or the, I don't know, the influencer. And she's like, she's the actress, so she's schooling him a little bit. It's fun. And the director, Bobcat Goldthwait. I like his name.

00:07:49
Speaker 1: Wait, what?

00:07:50
Speaker 3: Yeah. What? You know him? What?

00:07:54
Speaker 1: Yeah. I am just... That's hilarious. Obviously, you put this one together for me. He has been around a long time. And I'm looking at... No, wait a minute.

00:08:03
Speaker 3: No way. And I'm looking at all of his movies. They all have like 100% Rotten Tomatoes scores. Like literally, Joy Rod, 100%. It Started as a Joke, 100%. Patton Oswalt, Annihilation, it's 100%. Chop... Chop and Steel, 100%. Robin Williams, Come Inside My Mime, 94%. This dude, everything he does, the critics love.

00:08:27
Speaker 1: Okay. I was a kid who came up in the era of Police Academy. He.

00:08:34
Speaker 2: played one of the most moronic characters in that he's not forgettable. It's just not possible. And his name also stands out. Bobcat Goldwaite. You'll remember that name. I did not know he was directing movies.

00:08:50
Speaker 3: Willow Creek, yes.

00:08:51
Speaker 1: Who the hell knew? That is amazing.

00:08:54
Speaker 3: I love that you just now realized this.

00:08:56
Speaker 1: You don't forget that name, Bobcat Goldwaite.

00:08:58
Speaker 3: I'm telling you, if you Google him... And you look and see what he's done. I cannot find one thing he did that was panned by the critics. He's been a director, a screenwriter, a narrator, an actor. Yes, he has done incredible, incredible work. That's so funny. I didn't know that you knew him.

00:09:20
Speaker 1: Immediately, that name. Oh, my goodness. Because he has a delivery.

00:09:25
Speaker 2: He's a totally black comedy, but he delivers in a certain, like he screams and His delivery.

00:09:31
Speaker 1: He's a unmistakable character.

00:09:34
Speaker 3: Who knew? This is funny. I'm looking at his background now because now you're getting me all into this. So he's from Syracuse, New York. I'm sure you wouldn't be surprised by that. Wild comic persona, well suited to his professional name. His career as a punk rocker quickly fizzled. Instead, he went on to make a name for himself in the comedy club circuit in the early 80s. Yes, they talk about his Police Academy sequels. He had a his first big film bombed, Hot to Trot. But then after that, everything he's done has literally turned to gold. It's so funny. Jimmy Kimmel live like he's done. He has comedic talent. Absolute foundation. And that's perhaps why this movie is so good. I didn't realize the writing was so funny and just effortless.

00:10:20
Speaker 1: This all makes sense. That's amazing.

00:10:23
Speaker 2: That guy has decades upon decades of comedy education behind him.

00:10:30
Speaker 3: I love that we just came together and realized this.

00:10:32
Speaker 1: He is amazing.

00:10:34
Speaker 2: The same as who was the director from the movie previously, the Norwegian guy.

00:10:38
Speaker 3: Yes.

00:10:38
Speaker 1: You say his... I think, oh yeah, that movie. Oh yeah, that movie. This is kind of cool.

00:10:43
Speaker 2: We didn't look for movies based on directors or actors or anything, but it turns out all of these people have their hands in successful things that we actually loved.

00:10:52
Speaker 3: Yeah, and these weren't box office successes. And so I do love bringing this to folks' attention. If you're looking for a great creature feature, you don't want gore, you want something that everyone's palate can handle, including even your parents who might not like horror movies or kids who might get scared too easily. This is such a fun one. And guess what the run time is? One hour and 18 minutes. Who can't check out a movie for one hour and 18 minutes?

00:11:19
Speaker 1: I think that's why we picked it with your parents. We're like, you know what? No matter what, we can stomach this. No matter what happens, you guys are going to love it. I cannot believe we said it. It was late at night and we were... And it's not an action-filled movie. It's not like... You would think you would go to sleep on it, Robes, if you actually describe it. But this is.

00:11:40
Speaker 1: To pull this off is brilliant.

00:11:42
Speaker 3: Yes.

00:11:43
Speaker 1: It takes talent to me, babe.

00:11:44
Speaker 3: And it was clever. And to me, it was engaging because you were invested in the characters. You were invested in their relationship. You were invested in their journey. And you wanted to see what they actually found in those woods. And so Rotten Tomatoes, 81% from the critics. That's a damn good movie.

00:12:02
Speaker 1: If you would have asked me, babe, I never would have thought critics would have liked this.

00:12:06
Speaker 3: Movie that much. They loved it. 81%.

00:12:07
Speaker 1: I never would have thought that.

00:12:09
Speaker 3: But the audience score is shocking, 34%. But when I went online and started reading what the audience was upset about, They wanted action. They wanted gore. They wanted Bigfoot to rip people apart. And that isn't what you get in this movie. So I guess I can understand that because I was shocked. 81% from the critics. Here's the critics' consensus. Writer-director Bobcat Goldwaite's first foray into horror doesn't break any new ground, but it does, wiring fresh terror from a well-worn genre formula and offers... A few nasty laughs in the bargain. Look, it does ring fresh terror. Yes. I mean, you, the last 15 minutes, you can't believe how tense you are. It's just brilliant in terms of how they do it, how they show it. The scene in the tent, it's, I've not seen anything quite like it.

00:13:06
Speaker 2: Sound is very important. The timing of that sound, the volume of that sound, grunts. I cannot believe they had us that fearful, and all we saw was two people in a tent for much part of it. Robes, I think that makes sense, and I hate an audience listening to us. How y'all going to recommend a movie that only 34% of the actual audience liked it?

00:13:34
Speaker 1: But to hear what you're saying makes sense.

00:13:37
Speaker 2: Robes, if I say, hey, got a creature feature horror movie for you, and the creature is Bigfoot, you might automatically have some expectations.

00:13:45
Speaker 1: Yes, exactly. That he is going to rip arms off people.

00:13:47
Speaker 3: Yes, and I think people go into it thinking that they're going to get some sort of like, high budget slasher creature movie. And that's not what this is, but it is so dang good. When we come back, we're going to tell you where you can watch it and why this is a guaranteed hit. Welcome back everyone to your scary Sunday. This Sunday's theme in our countdown to Halloween is creature features. So yeah, we're talking about monster horror movies that we love. We picked our favorite three that we've recently watched and hopefully ones that maybe weren't on your radar. So this is putting a new idea into your, uh, well, if you're like us, if you like to put on horror movies, especially during this month, this is a fun one that just about everyone in your crowd, in your household will enjoy with the right expectations. I think it's so important to set the right expectations. So this begins as like a documentary style interview of the locals in this town that has leaned into their Bigfoot lore. But what you get is a, it's a comedy. there is action. You are anticipating what's going to happen next. It keeps you guessing. It keeps you laughing. You're invested in the romance. That's why I love it. I think sometimes some of these movies will play strictly to a specific audience. I think this is a great film to watch with your partner. There is something about a date night-ish about this, I feel.

00:15:33
Speaker 1: This is a date night movie. This is complete. Every light off.

00:15:37
Speaker 2: Your Lola blanket on the couch and something, not a drink that would stain the couch, I would say. Something you can keep in your hand and not worry about spilling a little.

00:15:51
Speaker 1: Certainly popcorn. It is, Ropes. You just get everybody quiet. I wouldn't watch this with a group. You're right. You said date. But if you got too many people, what did he say? What are they doing? Oh, my God. Did y'all hear that?

00:16:05
Speaker 2: You need one person, your snuggle, that you feel their body energy and you get tense at the same times and the same sounds.

00:16:12
Speaker 1: That's what this movie is. It's so good.

00:16:14
Speaker 3: There was an audience review. And again, the audience reviews have been pretty awful because they had an expectation there was going to be nonstop action. But I did like the way Brian W.

00:16:24
Speaker 1: Put it.

00:16:24
Speaker 3: He said, I came across this film recently. To be honest, I didn't get it until the night scene started. The buildup was nice. The acting was honestly good. But the jump scenes in the tent was solid gold. Yep, it's been a minute since I got that in a film. I'll definitely revisit it again. Nice job, Bobcat. I'm impressed. And this is a film, like he pointed out, and you just said, you could absolutely watch this again. Because it's funny enough that you get into it, but those last 10, 15 minutes are... I really think like filmmaking, like excellence, because it's done without any of the bells and whistles, without the CGI, without like the big budget costs. And yet you get all of the same intense fear edge of your seat. The way they, he build or built the drama was so impressive. And those actors were so natural. I did feel like I was watching a documentary and It was awesome.

00:17:23
Speaker 2: Again, I'm just so impressed with folks who don't have all the bells and whistles and can scare the hell out of me just the same as somebody who had every bell and every whistle and every budget. Robes, this is nothing but two people and a camera.

00:17:38
Speaker 1: That's it.

00:17:40
Speaker 2: And they found a way through sound. And, you know, I think I mentioned this as we were watching it with your parents. music in here is there any music in this.

00:17:49
Speaker 3: Movie at all i don't think so they didn't use some of the same and if you really start to watch horror movies you can really see what directors do what producers do to try and build and create the tension and the fear and and i appreciate it the sound is a huge part of it and in this movie it's the sound not the soundtrack you don't get um the the they don't go for the obvious low-hanging fruit.

00:18:14
Speaker 2: No, and there's no music that builds that tension, no chase, no that thing. Sound is used in a very clever way. There's another movie we watched in the theater, Undertone. I don't think it necessarily did that well, but the whole point of the movie as a horror movie was I think it was a podcaster who had an audio track in the whole movie. You got scared based on what you were listening to. We both liked that movie.

00:18:38
Speaker 3: I thought that was a fantastic film. I think there is something. Again, I've always said this. It's what your expectations are going into it. And if you're just looking for something. Well, I like to read nothing about a film oftentimes when I go in. and just say, okay, let's see what this is. Let me get, because horror films come in so many different varieties, as we're explaining over these next few weekends, showing all the different sub-genres of horror films, and I think sometimes we lump it all into one and then have an expectation. As bad as the audience reviews were, I have two right here in front of me that I think nail it and really sum up why this is a guaranteed hit for everyone in your house. Once you get past the fact that the movie is about searching for Bigfoot, which I imagine is a real hurdle for some because it seems like a cheesy plot. This is one of the best horror movies I've seen in a while. There is a sequence that captured the feeling of being scared in the woods. That's the best I've seen since Blair Witch and genuinely left me unsettled and weary of my surroundings all night long. Maybe those who don't camp can't relate, but I was seriously impressed. The acting is also impressive. All of the characters feel very real, like they actually went to interview people with these stories instead of hiring actors. this movie was very well done And the next one, this is a found footage masterpiece. You really have to stick with it, which might be frustrating for some, but it will be worth it. The last 20 minutes of this movie are spectacular. I agree wholeheartedly with those last two.

00:20:06
Speaker 2: Folks, we can't say it strongly enough. This is a winner for any and everybody. The only people who won't like this movie are folks who just want to criticize it because it's not, really, it doesn't fit into some expectation of horror movie. And you hear horror movie... Got to be a killer. Got to be a slasher. Got to be people getting taken out. Got to be this and that.

00:20:25
Speaker 3: No, no, no.

00:20:26
Speaker 2: This is another sub, maybe even sub-sub genre of horror movie. And it combines a lot of genres of a lot of horror movies. Rose, but yes, Creature Feature with Bigfoot. There is plenty of comedy in here.

00:20:39
Speaker 3: Found footage.

00:20:40
Speaker 1: There's found footage.

00:20:41
Speaker 3: Hiking, camping.

00:20:42
Speaker 2: Yeah, hiking, camping was just one. You could almost argue Survivor. They're all in there, but this is a gem of a movie. We got lucky in finding this. And I'm telling, we tell you, if you got folks collected, we recommend watching it just with one person.

00:21:00
Speaker 3: It's a fun date night.

00:21:01
Speaker 1: Blanket together. Oh, it's a wonderful film.

00:21:04
Speaker 2: But if you have a group of people together, this is going to satisfy everybody. You can raise your hand and say, hey, guys, I have a guaranteed horror movie.

00:21:14
Speaker 1: For you tonight.

00:21:15
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a popcorn horror movie because you can stomach it. You don't have to worry about what you're eating that night. We always appreciate those. And we always appreciate you listening to us. We've got one more for you, so you'll have to check the feed. We will count down to our number one creature feature a little bit later. So please, please, please keep your eye out for that. But in the meantime, go ahead and start streaming Willow Creek. It's on Amazon Prime. And with that, everyone, we always appreciate you listening to us. I'm Amy Robach alongside TJ Holmes. We will talk to you soon.