By Geno McGahee
Horror has been in this found footage holding pattern for some time. They are easier to make and take less thought than any other sort of film. Put a bunch of people together, make small talk, and then have the money shot. In HAPPY CAMP we have mixed found footage with the most underappreciated and underutilized horror would-be icon of all time, Bigfoot. Nobody can get it right. What the fuck is so hard about making a good Bigfoot movie? If you are in a rush and have no time to read this entire review, I will save you the time. HAPPY CAMP will leave you limp. Isn’t limp the opposite of happy? Fuck yeah it is.
We start with the legend of Happy Camp, a place that had many reports of missing children. The area is cursed and we have one kid, now in his thirties, returning to explore what happened to his missing brother. They interview a bunch of rednecks and hillbillies and learn that there is something strange going on in the woods and that there is a cover up.
The majority of this film follows this group and the mental breakdown of Michael Tanner (Michael Barbuto). He cries, whines, and then runs away. The group hunts him down, finds him, and repeat. There’s a lot of yelling at each other, which happens in every found footage film. Is it supposed to add suspense? Maybe. Not sure. It did nothing here outside of just being filler. It’s hard to imagine that this had a screenplay. I imagine the director saying: “OK, just yell at each other. You’re mad. Just yell anything.”
We move along slowly and then finally get the money shot(s). It’s a CGI bigfoot. Is it that fucking hard to get a suit? I’m so sick of this reliance on CGI. Sometimes it may be necessary, but here, it could have been done better the old school way. I waited all this time to see a bad CGI bigfoot tear people up off screen? What a bummer.
HAPPY CAMP started out rather well. The old footage was nice and I was compelled early on, BUT it fell into the same trap that so many found footage fall into. It became a bunch of meaningless dialogue leading to the reveal of the monster and the payoff wasn’t worth the trip. As a Bigfoot supporter and believer, I am offended! They made the legendary beast look like a chump. Shame on them.
So, HAPPY CAMP is a found footage fail. A mediocrity and a slap in the face of the Sasquatch. Avoid this one people.
Rating: 3/10
