This is one of those films that greatly benefits from being very short, only about 1 hour and 15 minutes, and probably could've stood to be 5 or 10 minutes shorter, even.
it's unclear what the actual subject of the documentary the characters are filming is, but it doesn't matter and no one cares, this is a Boogin Film and we want to see the boogin, while not actually seeing the boogin in case the boogin costume/puppet/effect is poor quality and draws us out of the immersion.
the film does a great job of balancing that, giving us perpetually tantalizing quick shots of the boogin while not letting us see very clearly what it is. Its very first appearance is rather Bigfoot-y, while the first time you get a frontal shot of it, it looks like a giant sloth, and the more the film lets slip of it, it ends up looking rather like an orangutan or gorilla with the head of an owl.
this film treads over a lot of clichés of found footage horror, including the disbelieving friend, a red herring stranger encounter (in the form of a wacky ass guy with a gun claiming to be looking for his dog), and a secret government facility with weird shenanigans happening. However the film does good by not lingering on these tropes, either drawing them out or having a strained sequence where, for example, the main characters wander into a government lab and come across a working computer or big binder fully explaining all the details of what's going on and them having a big revelation like "THIS is where all the Bigfoot sightings come from!" or "THIS is the source of the Philadelphia Experiment!"
the entire sequence through the government facility is one of perpetual running, with no time to sit still and look around or take in what is happening. More of the Boogins begin to appear, and when we get the reveal of their source, it continues to not let us get much more information or any clear reason why the Boogins look and act the way they do.
the end credits sequence is rather messy, with lots of pseudo digital distortion making it difficult to see or read things on screen, while also showing a quick compilation of random clips apparently taken in the government facility involving the boogins. it's not clear whether these take place before or after the film itself, and they too give very little actual information on what is happening and why.
And I like it that way. I love movie mysteries that are either unresolved or only partially solved. I love that there was a whole world of backstory in this secret government facility that was completely denied to us because we were busy being chased by murderous owl-sloth boogins. Our lives are in danger, we shouldn't care about any of this. It was a fast and fun ride.
it's unclear what the actual subject of the documentary the characters are filming is, but it doesn't matter and no one cares, this is a Boogin Film and we want to see the boogin, while not actually seeing the boogin in case the boogin costume/puppet/effect is poor quality and draws us out of the immersion.
the film does a great job of balancing that, giving us perpetually tantalizing quick shots of the boogin while not letting us see very clearly what it is. Its very first appearance is rather Bigfoot-y, while the first time you get a frontal shot of it, it looks like a giant sloth, and the more the film lets slip of it, it ends up looking rather like an orangutan or gorilla with the head of an owl.
this film treads over a lot of clichés of found footage horror, including the disbelieving friend, a red herring stranger encounter (in the form of a wacky ass guy with a gun claiming to be looking for his dog), and a secret government facility with weird shenanigans happening. However the film does good by not lingering on these tropes, either drawing them out or having a strained sequence where, for example, the main characters wander into a government lab and come across a working computer or big binder fully explaining all the details of what's going on and them having a big revelation like "THIS is where all the Bigfoot sightings come from!" or "THIS is the source of the Philadelphia Experiment!"
the entire sequence through the government facility is one of perpetual running, with no time to sit still and look around or take in what is happening. More of the Boogins begin to appear, and when we get the reveal of their source, it continues to not let us get much more information or any clear reason why the Boogins look and act the way they do.
the end credits sequence is rather messy, with lots of pseudo digital distortion making it difficult to see or read things on screen, while also showing a quick compilation of random clips apparently taken in the government facility involving the boogins. it's not clear whether these take place before or after the film itself, and they too give very little actual information on what is happening and why.
And I like it that way. I love movie mysteries that are either unresolved or only partially solved. I love that there was a whole world of backstory in this secret government facility that was completely denied to us because we were busy being chased by murderous owl-sloth boogins. Our lives are in danger, we shouldn't care about any of this. It was a fast and fun ride.