Exists (2014)

In an effort to get some new and wilder footage to bump up their views, extreme sports-stunt YouTubers Brian and Matt Tober (Osborn, Davis) head into the notorious Big Thicket of east Texas, with an uncle’s abandoned cabin nestled deep in the nigh impenetrable forested area their final destination.

Wait. Why was it abandoned, you ask? Well, we’ll be getting to that in just a sec.

For now, keep it under your hat as these two, along with Matt’s girlfriend, Dora (Madison), and their friends, Todd and Elizabeth (Edwards, Williamson), are enjoying their time on the road, documenting everything on multiple cameras, checking out the sights, guzzling beer, encountering a near perfect rural redneck gas station, and shooting bottle-rockets off from inside their moving SUV.

But this joy and gaiety eventually wears off as the trip grinds on, night falls, and the Tober brothers struggle to remember the exact route to get to where they need to go. They’re not lost. They just don’t know exactly where they are. And where they are right now has no cell reception, meaning no GPS. And the road conditions will only get worse from there the deeper they get into the Thicket.

Not much later, everyone except Matt and Dora are asleep. But instead of watching the road, Matt watches as Dora plays a practical joke on Brian, where she films her efforts to singe his beard off with a cigarette lighter. And with Matt distracted, their vehicle strikes some poor animal crossing the road, giving everyone onboard a good jolt.

Getting out to investigate, they find a busted headlight, a dented bumper, some blood, a few scraggly hairs, but no other evidence of what they hit. Their flashlights do show something big moving away in the woods, followed by an intense howl of pain that sends everyone scrambling back into the vehicle to put as much distance between whatever the hell THAT was and them as fast as humanly possible.

As they drive on and finally find the blind turnoff leading to the cabin, Brian checks the footage on his camera and comes across Dora’s prank, which also kinda-sorta captures a brief glimpse of what they hit through the front windshield. And while none of them can identify exactly what it was due to the vehicle’s speed and lack of light, the trip comes to a sudden halt due to a fallen tree blocking the road, meaning they’ll have to hoof it the rest of the way in.

Upon arrival, their guests are a little nonplussed by the deplorable condition of the accommodations, which have apparently been abandoned for years by the sight of it -- and abandoned in one helluva hurry, too, judging by what was all left behind. Then, when it’s discovered the cabin is also harboring some wildlife, the decision is quickly made to spend their inaugural night in the Thicket back in the SUV.

But while everyone else sleeps, Brian keeps going over the footage of what they hit. And when he hears more monstrous howling in the woods, almost mournful, he notices Matt is wide awake and listening, too.

Here, Brian tries to hushedly talk about what could be making that noise, but his frightened younger brother doesn’t want to hear it, meaning they both know exactly what’s making that noise; and why their uncle abandoned the cabin in the first place; and maybe, just maybe, they had some ulterior motives for coming out here with all of those cameras.

Letting it go for now, the following morning the group is recharged a bit as they reclaim the cabin from the rogue javelina and spend the rest of the day using a ramp to launch themselves and their bikes into a nearby creek.

Later, as the couples pair off and do what couples do, odd-man-out Brian withdraws and explores the nearby woods, where he finds several impossibly large footprints. Then, as he tries to track them, he stumbles upon Todd and Elizabeth making out. 

But while the perverted practical joker trains the camera on them, he notices something else moving behind them -- a large black hairy something, booking it along the ridge until it disappears!

Startled into an expletive over this, the nearby Todd and Elizabeth are alerted and outraged, rightly thinking this creep was trying to film them having sex. Not interested in what he has to say or what he saw, Todd confiscates the camera’s memory card and pockets Brian’s proof. And once more, Matt stifles Brian’s conjecturing on what that really was out in the woods, even accusing him of hiring someone to come out there and scare them on film for YouTube ratings.

Undaunted, Brian sets-up several GoPro cameras at various strategic points around the cabin and waits for whatever that was to come back. That night, while the others party inside, Brian is still outside, blazing a blunt, and beseeching the creature to show itself. Then suddenly, he hears something moving nearby and freezes; but he's then overwhelmed by a volley of paint-balls as Matt and Todd appear and pummel him mercilessly; payback for his earlier attempt at making an unsolicited sex-tape.

But then the night air is splintered by a monstrous roar and the three men quickly retreat to the cabin as this roaring continues, and continues to get closer. Inside, they reunite with the panicked girls as the roaring and howling continue.

Meanwhile, outside, Brian’s cameras pick up something large and hairy and walking on two legs moving up the stairs and onto the porch.

Inside, the terrified group listens as something extremely pissed off stalks around the cabin, banging on the walls, probing for a way in. And when all of this cacophony just as suddenly stops, Brian, camera in hand, creeps up to a window and looks outside -- only to have his view quickly blocked by a monstrous inhuman face that screams at him before withdrawing, giving them all the proof they need that Bigfoot really does exist...

Nestled between Nacogdoches to the north and Galveston to the south, The Big Thicket is a notorious patch of two to three million acres of rolling forests and marshlands in east Texas. With its eastern border demarcated by the Sabine River while the western edge ends at the Brazos, the Big Thicket is one of the most dense and bio-diverse and inhospitable areas on any map. It was also no stranger as a source for many tall tales and rural legends.

Back in the 1940s, stories began to surface about ethereal mystery lights seen along the aptly named Saratoga Ghost Road, an old dirt trail near an abandoned railroad line, with explanations and theories ranging from long dead conquistadors looking for treasure, Civil War ghosts from both sides looking for payback or the way home, a decapitated railroad worker, and a lost hunter damned to an eternity of searching for a way out of the infernal brush.

Now, while usually associated with the Pacific Northwest, Bigfoot or Sasquatch sightings have actually been reported in nearly every State in the Union. The Sasquatch has long held a place in Native American folklore, and frankly, Texas has always had a cryptid problem.

The first reported sighting in the Lone Star state happened way back in 1837 with tales of the “Wild Woman of the Navidad” as mysterious barefoot tracks were frequently seen in the area, which were linked to the sightings of a creature covered in short brown hair that moved very fast and always eluded capture.

The Muskegon Chronicle (1901).

Over the decades since, the creature has held many names: the Caddo Creature; Old Mossy Back; the Lake Worth Monster; Liberty County Monkey Man; and the Bear King of Marble Falls (pictured above), who allegedly kidnapped Miss Ramie Arland, took her to his cave and struck her with a club, later killed by her rescuers. 

But when the Patterson-Gimlin footage hit in 1968, everyone settled on referring to the elusive creature as Bigfoot. And speaking of the Patterson-Gimlin film, I’m hard-pressed to come up with a better or more appropriate subject-matter for a found footage movie than Bigfoot.

Obviously, found footage movies existed long before The Blair Witch Project (1999) came around, but Eduardo Sánchez and Daniel Myrick’s mini-movie that could, which owed a huge debt to one of the most brilliant viral marketing strategies of ever, suddenly made the sub-genre a going concern and a relatively cheap cash-cow that’s still being flogged and exploited to this very day.

As a child of the 1970s, Sanchez had always wanted to make a Bigfoot movie. A victim of the cryptid-mania from that era, he was inspired by the Patterson film, the TV series In Search of… (1976-1982), a few legendary episodes of The Six Million Dollar Man (S03.E17-18 and S04.E01, 1976) and The Bionic Woman (S02.E01, 1976), and especially Charles B. Pierce’s The Legend of Boggy Creek (1972).

TV Guide (September, 1976).

The Blair Witch of its day, Boggy Creek, with its pseudo-documentary style, which inspired dozens of imitators as well, did almost as much if not more to sensationalize and make Bigfoot a household name than any footprint or “real” footage ever found. And ever since The Blair Witch Project hit big, Sanchez and screenwriter Jamie Nash had kicked around the idea of making the definitive Bigfoot movie.

But unlike a lot of Sasquatch cinema of the era, there would be no external subplots getting in the way; and they would keep the conflict between the players and Bigfoot, not each other. And most importantly of all, Bigfoot would be a creature of this Earth, an as-of-yet to be cataloged North American primate, and not some spiritual manifestation, extraterrestrial, or inter-dimensional being from another plane of existence.

“Whether you believe in Bigfoot or not, I definitely believed when I was a kid, it was always about making this creature as real as possible and treating it like a real creature,” said Sanchez in an interview with Samuel Zimmerman (ComingSoon.net, February, 2015).

“It was very important that the creature not come across as a killing machine. Even though I think JAWS (1975) is probably the greatest monster movie ever, there’s no character arc to that shark [laughs]. It's a killing machine, that’s what makes it scary. A lot of the monster movies that I loved as a kid, King Kong (1933) and Frankenstein (1931), there was always a human element to the creature. You kind of pity the creature, or at least relate to what the creature's going through. It was very important for me to convey that in this movie.”

Strangely enough, as conceived, Exists (2014) wasn’t even intended to be a found footage movie at first; but drawing inspiration from all those cryptid docs and YouTube sighting videos, which proved sometimes less is more, Sanchez compromised, treating it like a feature that just happened to be shot by the people in it.

“Once we made the decision to go found footage, it actually became very clear that it should be found footage,” Sanchez told Zimmerman. “The more we thought about it, we broke down the idea that Bigfoot is actually kind of a found footage superstar, really. The only time it was reportedly seen is somebody’s found footage. Once we made that decision, it was like, Wow, we should've made that call a long time ago.”

Thus and so, the camera is still rolling the following morning when our campers beat a hasty retreat, only to find the creature spent the rest of the night demolishing their ride.

Then, once back in the cabin, Matt and Brian reveal they stole the keys to the cabin and no one knows where they are. Thus, with no cell reception and very few options, Matt volunteers to bike out alone for help.

Several miles later, in a clearing, a few intermittent bars pop up on his cellphone. He tries 911 first but the signal isn’t strong enough. But he does get a hold of his Uncle Bob and relays where they are before the Bigfoot silently appears in one of the best executed jump-scares of ever. And after a brief chase, the creature easily runs Matt down, who screams as the camera cuts out.

Meanwhile, back at the cabin, the rest of the crew has spent the day barricading the doors and windows, uncovering a cellar where Todd finds a shotgun and a dozen shells. Then all they can do is wait, hope, and pray Matt makes it out OK. But they’re prayers are answered as the sun sets and the Bigfoot chucks what’s left of Matt’s bike onto the porch.

That night brings another attack, too, where Elizabeth is mortally wounded as they all take refuge in the cellar until Todd manages to finally drive the creature off with the gun.

The next morning shows signs that Todd hit the creature, judging by all the blood; and emboldened by the notion that they’ve injured it, maybe even killed it, and knowing the cabin is no longer safe, the three remaining survivors decide to hike out on foot.

Listening to Brian, who says he knows a shortcut, they abandon the road and head into the woods, where they find Matt’s backpack and helmet covered in blood -- but no body. They also find an abandoned camper before hearing Matt screaming in the distance.

They trace this to the creature’s den, a series of narrow tunnels, which Brian enters to retrieve Matt; and after several harrowing turns, manages to not only pull his injured brother to safety but also manages to put another slug into the Bigfoot.

As dawn breaks, the survivors take refuge in that camper, where Brian’s cell phone rings. It's his uncle, who’s at the cabin looking for them; but the signal dies before they can relate where they are. 

Here, Todd bravely heads outside to shoot off the last of his fireworks as a signal, which he does manage to accomplish before the Bigfoot attacks and, essentially, Louisville Sluggers him against a tree.

The beast then lays siege on the camper, which proves no protection at all. In fact, it becomes a deathtrap as the enraged monster easily pushes it over a cliff and into a deep ravine. Both Matt and Dora are killed on impact but a dazed Brian survives and flees -- with the Bigfoot, after making one helluva jump in another outstanding shot and stunt, in hot pursuit until his prey falls into another ravine and knocks himself out.

When Brian wakes up, he is being dragged by the foot into a burnt out area of the forest and is brought to rest by the gathered bodies of his fallen friends. He panics, but the creature is seemingly gone. His attention is then drawn to a small shallow grave, whose contents explains why the constantly reported docile creature was so enraged at them.

Putting it together, Brian realizes it was the creature's juvenile offspring they hit and killed that first night and everything since was grief-fueled payback. When the adult Bigfoot returns, it forces him closer and closer to the body as Brian hysterically apologizes.

Suddenly, a shot rings out and the creature flees. It’s Uncle Bob (Schwan), who grabs Brian and they quickly flee. And they are in sight of his truck when the Bigfoot ambushes them, killing Bob before turning on Brian, who takes up his uncle’s rifle and begs his attacker to just stop.

But then, taking in the creature’s injuries, the pain in its eyes, and the grief they’ve caused it, Brian puts the gun down, turns around and drops to his knees, essentially giving himself up, ready to take his punishment and pay for what they’ve done.

Meanwhile, the creature takes all this in; but instead of attacking, it quietly stalks off into the woods, the blood vendetta done, leaving two survivors to grieve in the cleansing rain.

With Exists, Sanchez solves the two fundamental problems folks had with The Blair Witch Project -- three if you count his minimal use of the shaky-cam here. First, we like these protagonists better. And second, the threat they face is physical and something we can see and quantify.

In fact, one of the best decisions Sanchez made was to redo the whole opening credit sequence. The original version is included on the Lionsgate DVD, which paints our protagonists as irredeemable douche-bros. But with a little bit of trimming, removing the majority of the dialogue, and adding a mellower soundtrack, they quickly switch from insufferable dickheads to a group of people who admittedly aren’t all that interesting, or very bright, but at least you don’t want to see them get killed.

“When we did Blair Witch, it was all about realism,” said Sanchez (ComingSoon.net, 2015). “It was all about, there can’t be any shot of this movie that can't be completely explained logically. Even the edits, we were very careful about that. [For Exists] I just thought that we could push the envelope a little bit. It’s a movie, it’s definitely found footage, but it's an action movie, a monster movie. That idea of it being real is pretty lost on the audience. The audience knows it's not real. There's a freedom to that.”

Personally, I’ve always felt that found footage films had one less layer between the feature and the audience, making them active participants. Here, Sanchez kinda breaks the rules he helped write on the subgenre, again, to the film’s betterment, by hitting the ground running and showing us a full-frontal monster rather early.

There’s also an effective musical score by Nima Fakhrara, and some impressive sound-design by Jaime Horrigan and Jason Strickhausen, and top-notch editing courtesy of Sanchez, Andrew Eckblad and Andy Jenkins.

Again, inspired by the cryptid docs and films of his youth, Sanchez took the less is more JAWS approach with his monster, showing enough but then hiding it or obscuring it. And while the attack on the cabin is a thinly veiled homage to the siege of the Ford house during the climax of The Legend of Boggy Creek, the director then proceeds to put his own personal stamp on Bigfoot cinema with the attack on the trailer, perhaps drawing some inspiration from Bigfoot and Wildboy (1977), which showed a Sasquatch could hop around like the Incredible Hulk.

Said Sanchez, “I had yet to see a Bigfoot movie that really got it right, or respected the creature enough to try to get it right; not be about exploiting the fact that this creature is strong and ripping people's heads off. It was about creating something that felt real. The best monster movies are the ones that reveal truths about ourselves.”

Originally teaming up with WETA, who provided some initial concept sketches, the Bigfoot suit was designed and constructed by Spectral Motion; it looks fantastic, and Sanchez utilizes it beautifully as we get to see more and more of the creature as the film progresses. Stuntman Brian Steel would wear the suit and gives an outstanding performance. You can honestly feel the monster’s rage and grief as he goes on this rampage.

The film was initially scheduled to be shot in the fall but had to be postponed until the following spring due to some massive wildfires. But the production decided to incorporate this into the film, setting the climax in the burnt-out, ashen moonscape. And if you look closely, there’s another filled in grave next to the open one, leading to some easy conjecture that the creature also lost his mate in the fire, and has now lost its offspring, too, making this lashing out even more understandable and his redemption at the end a little more poignant.

Of course, Bigfoot cinema has been around almost as long as there have been sightings. There was the seminal Sasquatch vs. Biker flick Bigfoot (1970). And then there was that time Bigfoot subbed in for Jason Vorhees in Night of the Demon (1981). There’s even been a mini-resurgence of Sasquatch Cinema lately with Corey Grant’s Bigfoot: The Lost Coast Tapes (2012) and Bobcat Goldthwait’s Willow Creek (2013), both of which also employed the found footage technique.

But Exists shows the old master still has a few tricks up his sleeve, resulting in a pretty excellent flick, which easily pushes this feature to the top of my list for this kind of cryptid whackadoodlery.

Originally posted on October 10, 2016, at Micro-Brewed Reviews.

Exists (2014) Court Five :: Haxan Films :: Miscellaneous Entertainment :: Lionsgate / EP: D. Todd Shepherd, George Waud, Reed Frerichs, Gregg Hale / P: Robin Cowie, Mike Elizalde, Jane Fleming, Andy Jenkins, Mark Ordesky / D: Eduardo Sánchez / W: Jamie Nash / C: John W. Rutland / E: Andrew Eckblad, Andy Jenkins / M: Nima Fakhrara / S: Samuel Davis, Dora Madison, Roger Edwards, Denise Williamson, Samuel Davis, Brian Steele