The Wildman of Shaggy Creek

The legend of Sasquatch has led to a plethora of B-movie Bigfoot fodder much akin to the ceaseless zombie movie craze.  Jesse Edwards' family adventure The Wildman of Shaggy Creek arrives to screens close to the debut of the fifth season of Stranger Things and treads the familiar troupes: young misfits bicker and bond as they become convinced strange goings on are happening in their hometown.

Scott (Hudson Hensley) moves reluctantly with his mother (Allee Sutton Hethcoat) and father (Josh Futcher) to a dream home, leaving behind friends but making a new one in plucky princess Hailey (Ayla Bullington).  However, strange smells and sounds suggest to Scott that all is not well.  But, on this occasion, it’s not a sinisiter satanic house.  And when Scott learns of the scary story of a missing youngster, he soon becomes convinced that the mythical Wildman, said to lurk in the outside woods, is no fantasy but reality.

Adapted from a children’s book by the aptly named R.L Grimly, Edwards keeps everything very familiar throughout.  The kid who has to leave for a fancy new home because of his mother’s new job which soon strains their relationship.  The groan-inducing cliched high-school bullies.  The girl who he clicks with and who sticks with him.  What’s different here (to most of the standard Bigfoot cannon anyway) is that Edwards tells ‘Bigfoot horror’ as a children’s / familial tale rather than going out for the all-out scares of the likes of Willow Creek and Exists, among many others.  The opening scene is the closest Wildman ever comes to horror (though the obligatory jump scares do sneak in here and there).  In fact, the adult characters never experience or suspect any Wildman phenomena.  Yet, Edwards uses a more mature tone than a typical children’s film (with the exception of a rather silly ending with all the kids and parents together).  The story becomes more about Scott overcoming trepidation and terror to camp out in the woods, not to find the Wildman, but to face his fears and earn the respect of his peers.

The central cast put some meat on the movie.  Hensley is competent and comfortable in his role.  Bullington is a delight.  Futcher is charismatic, but Hethcoat is particularly good.  If the film doesn’t always convince, or particularly know what it’s supposed to be (family movie or horror), the quartet at least bring a degree of authenticity and earnestness to the piece.

Everything naturally builds up to the much-anticipated ‘meeting the monster’ climax.  One can’t help but wonder how more effective such genre entries would be if we never did see the monster and things are left - as in reality - to the imagination of the audience (which of course was the masterstroke of the similarly spooky-wood centred The Blair Witch Project), but too often filmmakers presumably swerve this for fear of short-changing the audience.  That said, Edwards’ Bigfoot finale is surprisingly effective and worth the wait.

The Wildman of Shaggy Creek treads a line between family comedy and creature-feature horror and its ending plays to both camps.  More suspense and tension could have been rung from it.  More chuckles and thrills could have been had with it.  Yet, Edwards and his cast make the most of what they have to work with and cough up a fun enough Bigfoot flick for the family.