Black Creek (Movie Review)

February 14th 2018, 10:47am

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

PLOT: Returning to their family's cabin in the dark Wisconsin woods to scatter the ashes of their father, a troubled young man and his brash sister are terrorized by signs that an ancient, Native-American spirit, awakened by a ritual murder, has marked them for death.

REVIEW: Reviewing films like this one presents a moral conundrum in me sometimes. The film is obviously low-budget and thus the talent behind and in front of the camera did their jobs for little more than a passion for their craft. But I also cannot sit back and give a flick a positive review based on good faith alone. What kind of review would THAT be? Exactly. So, unfortunately, I have to tell it like it is. And the "like it is" is that BLACK CREEK is a terrible film.

Usually, during this part of any given review, I tend to give a rundown of the opening act of the film, bringing the reader up to speed on the plot of the film in question. Should I even bother here? What the hell, you probably saw the trailer already so there is no need to tell you more here than the film involves (you guessed it) a group of horny and annoying teens heading out for the weekend to (you guessed it) a cabin out in the middle of the woods where they are attacked by (yep) an evil force out in them-there woods.

All jokes and snarkiness aside, the plot involves a pair of siblings and their annoying friends who head out to the family cabin so the siblings can scatter their father's ashes. A noble enough plot which is inherently primed to make for relatable characters that immediately gain our sympathies, right? Nope. The script tries, God love it, it tries. But no. We do not care. Not about the brother, or the sister, or the blonde girls, or the jerk buddies. None of them. Go figure. The movie doesn't score any points for originality, but this is a slasher flick, so that is easy to overlook.

Now, while the film has more than its fair share of issues, the main sin of the flick is the acting. Mother of God, the acting. This movie shows the power of finding quality actors for your low-budget productions. The actors in this film are all fairly horrid across the board. The screenplay doesn't do any of them any favors mind you, but still, wooden acting is one thing, the acting found with this film is something else entirely. It makes the film almost unbearable to watch.

I don't like bashing flicks so how about we spend a bit of time talking about the positive aspects of the film? Sounds like a good change of pace to me. Let's start with the screenplay. While I need to point out ASAP that this is by no means a quality script – the world-building and the backstory of the creature and the surrounding areas is fun to piece together from stories told here and there. But my God, the dialogue. And Heaven help us, the "character development." Please, let's just skip these aspects as it seems the screenwriter did as well. Moving on.

The locations used within the film are fittingly beautiful and sinister in equal measure. And the cinematography does the movie more than its fair share of favors, keeping the film afloat when the acting and the dialogue try with all their might to sink this slasher ship. And while we're at it, another positive aspect is the score which combines a few different styles to make something catchy, cool and more than serviceable. I particularly dug the John Carpenter synth throw in there for good measure.

In the end, Black Creek is a slasher flick with a cool score and slick cinematography, but horrible dialogue and even worse acting continuously bash our heads into submission. If you can overlook bad acting, give the film a viewing. But if you're like me and bad acting serves as little more than a constant cheesegrater to the brain, then steer clear of this creek. You've been warned.