Hoax (USA, 2019)

Movies about Bigfoot have always been very miss - can this movie buck that trend? It certainly tries. Watch the review and let me know what you think in the comments below.

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This review contains spoilers

Six teens go missing on a camping trip deep in the woods. Their bodies are never recovered, but some grainy drone footage appears that seems to show some kind of large hairy creature attacking them. Could it be the work of Bigfoot?

Bigfoot has been the topic of relatively few movies – and usually because the premise is ridiculous that makes it hard to take the film seriously. This movie is no exception. It’s clearly a movie of three distinct parts.

The first part sees a luckless TV producer, Paxton, score an opportunity to assemble a cast of characters to investigate if it really is Bigfoot. And, starting with Paxton, what an unlikeable cast of characters he has assembled. These are no Avengers.

From the onset you will immediately hate almost every character, with exception of the Vet Dr Freese and Cooper Barnes, the father of one of the missing teens. The cameraman wavers between bearable and not – but that’s it. Everyone else you’re just cheering to die.

The second part of the movie sees the ensemble in the woods, with their cameras and traps, trying to lure and capture Bigfoot. Thankfully its in this third of the movie where most of the characters either get injured or die. Really not sure what kind of documentary is being made when only one cameraman, sans any microphone or sound recording equipment, is sent to document the story. Additionally, its clear the producer, Paxton, has a clear lack of direction. He just wants things to happen and luckily for him it does.

Then we get to the third part of the film – and this is where it gets all “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” minus the chainsaws. The whole thing is a hoax – and its not really a spoiler considering its there in the movie title – perpetrated by a family of gypsies living in the wood. Cannibal gypsies – because why not? It makes no sense.

If the movie wasn’t already stupid and unbearable, this bit will really make you wonder what the hell happened and why the direction of the movie went from horror thriller to hack’n’slash gore fest in the blink of an eye.

Its badly acted, badly directed and badly written. If this was a movie from the Asylum, it’d be understandable why its so terrible. But it isn't. Thankfully we live in a time where you aren’t paying good money to rent a film like this – rather you are streaming it from a service you’re already paying for. Hopefully a service that provides some better quality movies.