PLOT: 15 years after two young girls were found dead at Merrymaker Campgrounds, the staff plans a grand reopening. When a rash of murders ensues, all signs point to a copy-cat killer. Or do they?
REVIEW: Making an excellent Bigfoot movie seems to as elusive as spotting the mythological beast itself. And after seeing John Woodruff’s deeply duplicitous new movie ANIMAL AMONG US, we’ll have to wait a little longer for such a theory to be disproven. Not because Woodruff has made a poor film per se, but because this is no Bigfoot movie at all, rather a cleverly mismarketed one that, like the halcyon Grind House movies of yore, boldly promises one thing but insouciantly delivers another. Without shame, Woodruff capitalizes on the popular craze Bigfoot continues to stir in the cultural zeitgeist, mockingly sideswiping viewer expectations along the way. Alas, the major cross for the movie to bear is that it isn’t very scary or gory, and save one effective jump-scare in the middle, won’t likely to appeal to hardcore horror-heads all that much. It also takes one last swing of ambition that almost works, but not quite. However, thanks to an attractive female cast, an intriguing air of mystery behind the so-called Bigfoot subplot, and an eminently amusing pace to the 85-minute runtime, ANIMAL AMONG US is a fine enough diversion that ensures we’ll have to wait for Eric Red and John The Arrow Fallon to make the definitive Bigfoot flick via NO MAN’S RIDGE. Not such a bad thing!
Roland Bumgarner (Christian Oliver) is an author and expecting father who wrote a single bestselling horror novel called The Merrymaker Murderer. Based on the real case of two young girls who were mysteriously slaughtered 15 years prior, a suspect was never apprehended. Bumgarner took liberties with the story and concocted a wild slasher plot that landed him on the nation’s #1 Bestseller’s list. However, locals tend to believe the girls were killed by a cryptic Bigfoot type of woodland-creature. The owner of the Campgrounds, Anita Bishop (Larisa Oleynik), writes a fan-letter to Bumgarner inviting him to attend the camp’s grand reopening. Anita, her sister Poppy (standout Christine Donlon), and their aptly named stepfather Burl Wolf (Don Frey looking like Tom Selleck in Blue Bloods if he got stung by a wasp) begin acting erratically when a Mexican tourist shows up with video footage of a humongous monster lurking in the woods. Is it real? Doctored? Someone playing a prank? A slasher in a costume?
It’s this very air of intrigue surrounding what the Bishops know, what they’re not letting on, and what they’re furtively plotting that keeps the engagement level high. It seems the Bishops have some knowledge about the alleged beast prowling their land. But to what end? Are they protecting their home from vandals and harassers asking about the infamous “Merrymaker Murderer”? Are they secretly involved in the girls’ murders from 15 years ago? Are they just drumming up tourism fanfare to increase business ahead of their reopening? It’s these sorts of questions that keep us interested in the answers, even if the answers provided in the end amount to one large snub of the nose and giant flip of the finger to those ardently awaiting some kind of payoff to how the “monster” movie is marketed.
Meanwhile, with his pregnant wife Christine (Erin Daniels) discovering sordid secrets about Roland back at home, an admirably ambitious but over-striding third-act swing ties each storyline together in a way that almost works, but doesn’t quite have enough time to do so. First-time feature screenwriter Jonathan Murphy could have spent a few more pages hashing out this angle. Whether by design or not, the focal shifts from protagonist to antagonist and back are never made clear enough throughout, and certainly not smoothly enough in the final few moments. It’s this I take more umbrage with than the deceptive and devious plotting, which, while irksome, at least boldly backed it up with a few more twists and wrinkles along the way.
I also thought German actor Christian Oliver was slightly miscast. There are times when he’s perfectly passable and others when he’s required to spout some, albeit dopey dialogue, with American pop references to Grizzly Man and Smokey the Bear, but Oliver recites them with an awkward misunderstanding of how the jokes must be delivered to work. A minor gripe, sure, but between that and the histrionics he displays when becoming frightened or emotionally fraught, the movie takes a bit of a hit in whatever credulity it had left. Conversely, the female cast in the movie is a superb, constant joy to watch. Christine Donlon in specific steals the show as Poppy, an unruly vixen beholden to no moral sway or familial bond. Throw in Kara (Jasmine Dustin), Roland’s dastardly coed mistress, and Marilyn Bishop (Heather Tom), the maniacal Merrymaker matriarch, the female cast is one of the undoubted strengths of the movie's appeal.
The successes of ANIMAL AMONG US only slightly outnumber its misgivings, so if you’re able to forgive its gravest sin of false advertisement and appreciate how the mendacity is used in service of a more nuanced and fascinating plot, then give it a look. If, however, you’re looking for a straightforward Bigfoot flick, look elsewhere. It’s a bit convoluted at times, but because of its entertaining tempo, badass female cast and an underlying sense of brow-furrowing mystery, ANIMAL AMONG US is worth a peek when it debuts on VOD Tuesday, November 19th.