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HOLLER CREEK CANYON
Produced by Chanda Fuller and John Poague
Directed by John Poague
Written by Barbara Kymlicka and John Poague
Edited by Michael Todd Schneider
Director of Photography - Joe O'FerrallJill - Anna Bridgforth
Bree - Melisa Breiner-Sanders
Viv - Tammie Taylor
Matt - Justin Alvarez
Danny - Gentry FerrellIt'll be hard not to discuss John Poague's Bigfoot horror opus, HOLLER CREEK CANYON, without discussing the sex, so I'll cut to the chase and jump right in. The sheer amount of nudity and sex make them points for discussion, but also, as a concept, sex is so fused to the story that a good majority of character discussions, as well as their internal motivations, revolve around the act. Rarely is the romantic notion of love mentioned, the characters in HCC plunge headfirst into bumping uglies so fast that one has to wonder if these kids stopped long enough to think about using protection. Being that sex is a numbers game, the statistics are bound to catch up with this group sooner or later. Any sequel could effectively be called BABY CREEK CANYON, or, even worse, HERPES CREEK CANYON, as the tweens deal with the repercussions of their promiscuity.
Along with other reoccurring motifs, such as drugs and alcohol, the sex reinforces the idea that HOLLER CREEK CANYON is pure id. At least in so much that the movie works on two levels, both dealing with our basest of needs, survival and gratification. Two of the easiest way to satisfy those needs is through reproduction and eating, and in recent millennia both acts have gone from merely required necessity to acts of pleasurable ecstasy. Keeping that in mind, at least half the characters are given some sort of introduction where they're indulging in self-gratification. Take porn legend Ron Jeremy, known for his gluttony, who gets some of his first pure-character moment in HCC as a storeclerk while devouring spaghetti. We soon find him spying through a window as lovers entwine in blissful rapture. Then there's Matt, the badboy, introduced hiding his two three-way partners from his ex. For that matter, let's look at the opening scene, the set up for the movie, where a couple out camping are killed during a break in coitus. To further drive home the point, when this cast of characters are not getting laid, they're talking about getting laid.
Despite the abundance of sex, HOLLER CREEK CANYON is still a movie about a rampaging Bigfoot in the hills of Appalachia. Why Bigfoot is rampaging, we don't know. Why didn't Bigfoot kill off the locals living out in the woods before our horny youngsters came to town, we don't know. There's a lot we don't know about what's going on in HCC, probably because the filmmakers spend most of their time passing sex off as story. As much as I appreciate the female form in all its glory, it would have been nice to have some plot with my tits.
Readers might think I'm making too big a fuss about the nudity in HOLLER CREEK CANYON, which would be understandable if the movie billed itself as an erotic horror film (with a heavy emphasis on the erotic) rather than a horror film. In HCC, the sex is the movie. Allow me to clarify that last statement, this is not a softcore flick, in fact, probably less than a quarter of the movie is devoted to on screen sex. Again, as stated earlier, all character motivations and nuances seem to revolve around sex. When viewed as an exploration as current sexual trends among twenty-somethings, HCC works better than it does as a horror picture. One could even argue that Bigfoot is little more than a metaphor for the primitive carnality of our heroes lust-filled base instincts, and how, in the end, it will be the need to instantly gratify those instincts that will be their undoing.
The relationships, as they're established, are trite....and based around sex. Jill once dated badboy Matt until he cheated on her. Now, filmgeek Danny wants to bed her, but scatterbrained Bree wants to bed him. Then there's Viv, who after sex breaks up with her boyfriend, not that it matters as she's sleeping with another member of the group. When Bree and Danny finally do hook-up, it's just that, a hook-up. Danny realizes that Jill is returning to Matt's bed, and to find solace, or more likely to get even, Danny gives in to Bree's advances. Then there's previously mentioned porn legend Ron Jeremy who is the butt of both visual and verbal innuendo. Rounding out the cast, is a psuedo-tranny make-up-wearing woodsman. They're all such unlikable characters that one really can't wait for Bigfoot to take their heads clean off.
The actors do an adequate job in their roles, and there's a real naturalism in their performances. So much so that I recently asked one of the actresses how much of the film was improvised since I got the impression that a large part of it was. "Hardly any," she replied. When I told her that it seemed as if more care was given to filming the sex scenes, she replied "not at all. About the same." On the one hand director John Poague is skilled enough to coax performances that feel off-the-cuff and natural, on the other hand his visual style bestows a rushed feeling to the production that undermines the action.
When Bigfoot does decide to cap off our cast of lecherous miscreants, viewers are treated to some nifty make-up effects - something I don't usually talk about in reviews. You won't find spattering gore, just the aftermath of torn flesh, beheadings, and disembowelments rendered by Bigfoot's claws. Bigfoot himself is rarely seen on screen, Poague opts for the less-in-more strategy when it comes to his monster. Given that HOLLAR CREEK CANYON is a brimming with carnal excess, I'm not sure that was the right approach. Perhaps it was simply budgetary reasons, or perhaps the monster looked overly cheesy in close-up, but Bigfoot is such a part of modern pop-culture that little mystery is created by choosing not to reveal him immediately. Thanks to shows like IN SEARCH OF and countless Discovery Channel documentaries, we already have an idea what Bigfoot should look like - a man in a big gorilla suit.
Poague treats the material seriously, opting to make a horror film reminiscent of those from the early 1980's fused with the sexual attitudes of today's society rather than giving into the trend of self-referential humor. For me, HORROR CREEK CANYON might have worked better with a lighter tone. It is, after all, a shot-on-video exploitation romp dealing with a beast gone wild. The trick to making a movie like this successful is for the filmmakers to realize exactly what they're making and not delude themselves or the audience, and to have fun with everything. Perhaps the cast could have treated sex as recreational fun rather than the centerpiece of their self-absorbed existence. Perhaps Ron Jeremy shouldn't have been the sole source of humor. Unfortunately, a "perhaps" given in hindsight doesn't affect the final movie. Instead of a fun low-budget romp, viewers are treated to a technically proficient piece of mediocrity that's no better or worse than anything premiering on Sci-Fi or going directly to home video.
The self-distributed screener DVD contained no special features.