“Hoax” Film Review
By: Joseph Perry (@JosephWPerryJWP)
Horror movies about Bigfoot, America’s favorite hirsute cryptid, are always welcome for me and countless other creature feature fans, and new entry Hoax is a solid, and at times disturbing, entry into the subgenre. With a game cast including some familiar genre-film faces, and a fun Sasquatch suit design, Hoax has plenty of reasons to come recommended.
As the film kicks off, a group of twentysomethings who should know better than to go cavorting and frolicking off-path in the forest are viciously attacked by something big and mean, though at this point largely unseen. All of the party members are found dead except for one who is still missing.
This incident leads television producer and all-around jerk, for lack of using an expletive or two, Rick Paxton (Ben Browder) to assemble a team of reality television cast and crew members to bring back solid evidence of Bigfoot’s existence. The team includes primate specialist Dr. Ellen Freese (Cheryl Texiera), former Marine (Brian Thompson of late-1980s favorites Fright Night Part 2, Nightwish, and literally a hundred other projects) and Cooper Barnes (Max Decker), father of the missing camper. Tensions are high between the documentary crew members long before they even set out for the woods, and things only get worse once they are isolated there.
Director Matt Allen (who cowrote the screenplay with cinematographer Scott Park) takes a fun B-movie approach with Hoax, with some cast members pushing the scenery-chewing line (Browder and Shoshana Bush as substance-abusing TV personality Bridgette Powers, for example) but others keeping things grounded in reality (such as Texiera and Decker). Adrienne Barbeau of Swamp Thing, The Fog, Escape from New York, and loads more genre-movies, turns in a nice cameo appearance. The cinematography ranges from gorgeous nature shots that convey how far away from civilization the reality television group is to found footage style camerawork that keeps the mystery of what is stalking and attacking the team members, with Park doing a crackerjack job throughout. Keeping with the B-movie strategy, Allen peppers the film with dashes of humor and displays a keen knack for cranking up the suspense.
Hoax leads up to a third act that goes unexpected places, and it does so in absolutely savage fashion. There are plenty of wicked kills and impressive practical gore effects throughout the film, but the final 30 minutes kicks things up a couple of notches.
Monster movie fans and Bigfoot aficionados should all find plenty to like about Hoax. When It Was Cool readers and podcast listeners will also appreciate the occasional references to 1980s horror films.
Hoax, from Epic Pictures and DREAD, is available on Blu-ray and VOD from August 20th.
Joseph Perry is one of the hosts of When It Was Cool’s exclusive Uphill Both Ways podcast (whenitwascool.com/up-hill-both-ways-podcast/) and Gruesome Magazine’s Decades of Horror: The Classic Era podcast (decadesofhorror.com/category/classicera/). He also writes for the film websites Diabolique Magazine (diaboliquemagazine.com), Gruesome Magazine (gruesomemagazine.com), The Scariest Things (scariesthings.com), Ghastly Grinning (ghastlygrinning.com), and Horror Fuel (horrorfuel.com), and film magazines Phantom of the Movies’ VideoScope (videoscopemag.com) and Drive-In Asylum (etsy.com/shop/GroovyDoom).
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