The Bigfoot Trap review
The Bigfoot Trap gets a lot of mileage out of its simple setup. An enjoyable watch about people stuck in a winless situation. And possibly Bigfoot.
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The Bigfoot Trap
Directed by Aaron Mirtes
Written by Aaron Mirtes
Starring Tyler Weisenauer, Zach Lazar Hoffman, Andy Kanies, Chelsea Fuller, Barron Boedecker, Henry Haggard and Luv Patel
The Bigfoot Trap Review
The Bigfoot Trap pretends to be one thing long enough to make what it really is work very well. A simple set-up gives way to a surprisingly taut thriller that will make you forget the original conceit of the story. Aided by two strong lead performances…The Bigfoot Trap delivers on more than its initial promise and becomes a genuinely engaging movie.
Josh (Tyler Weisenauer) is a video journalist for Point Zero media. His claim to fame is humiliating his subjects by exposing the silliness of their beliefs. When he is sent to cover two friends attempting to trap a Bigfoot…he finds more than he bargained for. Josh becomes embroiled in a dangerous game of cat and mouse…where Bigfoot is the least of his problems.
Red (Zach Lazar Hoffman) and his buddy Kyle (Andy Kanies) are well aware of Josh’s history. They don’t want to be portrayed as a joke for their passionate hobby of Bigfoot hunting. Red believes that sasquatches exist…and he intends to prove it with his man-made jail cell of a Bigfoot trap. Josh is aware of his reputation too. Quietly wishing to do more interesting work…but stuck covering crackpots and their equally insane theories.
The dynamic between Red and Josh lives at the center of The Bigfoot Trap. It allows the movie to go from light-hearted to dangerous at the drop of a hat. Or the shot of a gun…as it were. Things start off exactly as you’d expect. A camera documenting…nothing. No Bigfoot. No nothing. The bulk of the story is set in the woods. East Tennessee outside of the Smokey Mountains, to be exact. Red heads the self-titled Southern Sasquatch Research Foundation. He truly believes that he is going to capture proof that Bigfoot exists.
He also knows that this sets him up to be the subject of ridicule when Josh submits video of Red’s failure. Red becomes frustrated when they see and hear something in the woods the second night…but Josh is hesitant to believe that it is Bigfoot. Desperate to avoid mockery…Red conspires with Kyle to give Josh the proof he needs. The result changes The Bigfoot Trap from predictable found footage in the woods movie into a genuinely thrilling chess match between Josh and Red.
Kyle approaches Josh’s tent decked out in full Bigfoot costume. The good news is that, for a moment, Josh becomes a believer. The bad news is he gets hold of a gun. Forget everything that The Bigfoot Trap was trying to do…we’re playing a whole new ballgame now. Josh finds himself locked in Red’s trap…both men desperate to find a way out of their horrible situation.
From this moment on The Bigfoot Trap twists and turns on itself. Who has the upper hand? Who will get out of this alive? Can Red convince Josh to report on an actual Bigfoot sighting? Can Josh trust that he will be set free if he does what Red asks?
While a large part of The Bigfoot Trap is a two-hander featuring Josh and Red…we do eventually get a third character involved to ratchet up the tension. It arrives in the form of a cop. A cop who is well aware of Red’s passion…and the person who went missing before our story even began.
To say any more would ruin the fun of discovering where The Bigfoot Trap is heading. Weisenauer and Hoffman deliver realistic performances in a heightened situation. You understand where both are coming from and fear there is no good way out of their predicament. Throw in some cat and mouse games in the woods and a solid lot of twists and turns…The Bigfoot Trap delivers more excitement than its early minutes set in a quiet wood would have you believe.
A journalist ashamed of his work covering something that’s going to make people look stupid. A Bigfoot enthusiast who believes beyond reason that he is right…willing to kill to prevent that from being mocked. Simple character traits that grow into more meaningful ones by the time the credits roll. Seeds planted early allow us to understand every move Josh and Red make. Both with and against each other.
Oh…and there might be a Bigfoot in the woods.
Scare Value
The Bigfoot Trap presents realistic characters in a heightened situation. The script and performances are strong enough to make you forget about whether or not there actually is a sasquatch lurking about. Hidden inside this trap is a taut, smart thriller. You’ll care about more here than capturing proof of Bigfoot’s existence. That’s the mark of a quality Bigfoot story.
3.5/5
The Bigfoot Trap Links
Streaming on Paramount+
Rent/Buy on VOD from Vudu and Amazon
