15 Things You Didn't Know About Bigfoot (#1 Will Blow Your Mind!) (2021)
Herculean Feet
Like the mythical creature at the heart of 15 Things You Didn’t Know About Bigfoot (#1 Will Blow Your Mind!), writer/director Zach Lamplugh’s new comedy made me believe in something I’d long thought impossible: the resurrection of the found-footage movie.
You remember found footage movies. They were popularized by The Blair Witch Project in 1999 and briefly overlapped with American J-Horror remakes and 80s-Slasher reimaginings throughout the early twenty-tens. While much of the output was uninspired, a few bright spots made an impact by sliding into other genres—like Josh Trank’s Chronicle and Bobcat Goldthwait’s WIllow Creek.
The era of Branded Content brought all that to an end, as it did for most other small-to-medium-budget indies and original studio pictures that weren’t comic-book movies, sequels, YA adaptations, or remakes. Which is fine, in a way, since by the end (as happens with most fads that hang on too long), the desire for found footage was as half-hearted as the movies themselves.
Why on Earth would anyone try to resurrect something so passé? I can’t speak to Lamplugh’s motives, but the effect is a reinvigoration of the genre’s language with a wild dose of humor, horror, and brain-bending social commentary.
Brian Emond stars as Brian Emond, a frustrated internet journalist whose ambitions far outstrip the clickbait fads-and-celebrity-gossip junk he’s stuck producing. His break into legitimate news gets sidelined early in the film, and he attacks his latest assignment (covering a Bigfoot convention in Georgia) with all the disdain of someone who makes a show of quitting their job after winning the lottery.
Brian and his needy cameraman, Zach (Lamplugh, also playing a version of himself), agree to follow a boisterous yet insecure Sasquatch expert named Jeff (Jeffrey Stephenson) into the woods—ostensibly to track the mythical monster, but also to get some easy, look-at-this-rube content for their YouTube channel (the joke’s on them: Jeff also has a YouTube channel).
Brian and Jeff don’t get along; Brian’s a self-absorbed snob and Jeff’s a lunatic who hasn’t moved on from his last relationship—which ended due to his fruitless Bigfoot obsession. You might expect that this oddball trio finds more than they bargained for during their days-long excursion, but I wouldn’t go much further in trying to figure out where this movie is headed.
Just when you think 15 Things You Didn’t Know About Bigfoot has begun to coast (a good deal of the film’s narrative language hinges on mockumentary-style reaction shots, ironic edits, and left-field absurdity—most of which works, luckily), Lamplugh jumps genres into a full-blown action movie (more precisely, an action-comedy). I won’t spoil what happens to Brian, Jeff, and Zach on their way to discovering whether or not Bigfoot is a myth, but it involves one of the craziest, funniest interstitials I’ve seen in years.
On a dime, we switch from a gag that pays homage to Blair Witch’s labored tent-confessional scene to a series of over-the-top-grisly encounters that could’ve been directed by Adam Green. I want so very much to tell you what’s in store, but that would be a crime (the movie’s trailer spoils some of the fun, of course, which is why I recommend checking this one out sight unseen).
While that surprising change in direction makes for a perfectly sweet cherry on top, another key ingredient makes 15 Things the perfect treat for audiences who prefer depth with their absurdity. The fact that Brian’s search for Bigfoot mirrors his search for Internet fame is a cute bit of cohesion. The fact that just about everyone else in the movie is grappling with a fierce need for validation (or even just attention) provides the kind of thematic support that makes a comedy great instead of just funny.
Like the veeeery different movie Beast Beast, 15 Things confronts the effect of rapidly mutating technology on the human psyche. And it does so amidst jokes about Jurassic Park and drinking pee.
If you’d told me ten years ago that there’d be a bright future for a genre that insisted on allowing Paranormal Activity 2 to exist, I would’ve called you crazy. And it’s true that there are at least two dozen movies along the lines of the Blair Witch remakes for every one like15 Things or Willow Creek. But the exceptions aren’t just more effective versions of the formula; nor are they simply twists. They change our understanding of what the genre can be and give us permission to demand better.
Watch Ian’s interview with 15 Things You Didn’t Know About Bigfoot writer/director Zach Lamplugh!
