HUNTING GROUNDS (VALLEY OF THE SASQUATCH) (2015)

Studio:       Uncork’d Entertainment
Director:    John Portanova
Writer:       John Portanova
Producer:  Matt Medisch, Brent Stiefel, Jeremy Berg, John Portanova
Stars:     Miles Joris-Peyrafitte, Jason Vail, David Saucedo, D’Angelo Midili, Bill Oberst Jr.

Review Score:

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Summary:

A Sasquatch attack tests a father and son’s broken bond when a family hunting trip becomes a fight for survival.

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Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

In search of a lost gold mine, a hunter named Bauman comes across a dead body around a campfire in the woods. A Sasquatch suddenly attacks Bauman.

Broke and unemployed, widower Roger Crew is forced to move with his teenage son Michael into his brother-in-law Will Marx’s disused family cabin in the woods. When Roger and Michael arrive, they find the cabin mysteriously trashed.

Roger’s insufferable friend Sergio Guerrero comes to the cabin with Will. While Roger and Sergio share beers, Michael and Will have a private conversation about Michael’s troubles with Roger. Will mentions Sergio’s job with a logging crew that recently displaced wildlife in a nearby area known as Ape Canyon.

Roger, Michael, Will, and Sergio go hunting. Even after Sergio has a frightful encounter with a large creature initially presumed to be a bear, the four men camp for the night.

A Sasquatch comes to the camp while the four men sleep. The Sasquatch flees when Sergio fires his rifle. Sergio runs to the nearby construction site for help and realizes that Sasquatches killed the entire logging crew. A Sasquatch attacks Roger and drags him away.

Michael, Will, and Sergio run back to the cabin. Realizing they don’t have the keys to Roger’s truck, Will demands Sergio’s keys so that they can get to the police and help Roger. Sergio refuses to leave the cabin. A fight ensues over the keys and Sergio stabs Will to death.

At gunpoint, Sergio forces Michael to move Will’s body into a bedroom. Michael manages to get Sergio’s hunting rifle and uses it to knock Sergio unconscious and lock him in the bedroom.

Starving and in a disheveled state, Bauman comes to the cabin in search of help. Bauman explains to Michael how he was abducted and held in a cave by three Sasquatches for days. Bauman eventually killed one of the creatures and escaped to the cabin.

Having escaped himself, Roger stumbles back to the cabin with an injured leg. The two remaining Sasquatches attack the cabin. One of them kills Bauman by tearing off the hunter’s arm. Michael and Roger fight off the Sasquatches, with Roger cutting off one creature’s forearm.

Sergio recovers and helps Michael and Roger barricade the door. Michael volunteers to go outside to recover wood from the shed in order to board up the windows. Roger uses the distraction to shoot Sergio in his leg as retribution for Will’s murder. Sergio falls out a window and a Sasquatch crushes his head.

The two Sasquatches chase Michael and Roger outside. Roger kills one of them. Both men then escape to their car. The surviving Sasquatch attacks Roger. Michael points a rifle at the Sasquatch and the creature drops Roger. Michael promises the Sasquatch that they are leaving and not coming back. The Sasquatch attends to the fallen creature while Michael and Roger drive away.

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Review:

If you’ve seen “Valley of the Sasquatch,” then you’ve also seen “Hunting Grounds,” and vice versa.  Not because they both feature similar stories concerning a troubled father and son encountering several Sasquatches in the woods, but because they are literally the same movie.

Somewhere between the film’s 2015 festival circuit marathon and 2017 home video release, it was seemingly decided that while still fine for the UK, “Valley of the Sasquatch” was too on the nose as a name for US audiences.  “Valley of the Sasquatch” piques more interest as far as Bigfoot aficionados are concerned, not to mention provides more information about the kind of horror in store.  Yet in a weird way, watering down the title to “Hunting Grounds” makes strange sense because it speaks to how interchangeably tame the well-meaning movie is.

The untimely death of Mrs. Crew has hit widower Roger and teenage son Michael hard.  Jobless, homeless, and what little money remains reserved for beer, Roger is forced to move with moody Michael into his brother-in-law Will’s shack of a cabin in the Washington woods.

Michael wishes Roger put as much effort into fulfilling the teen’s college dreams as he does into overlooking fundamental flaws in their two-person family.  For Roger, priorities like employment and repairing their disused woodland abode can wait.  Of more immediate importance is a drunken hunting weekend with Roger’s loudmouth lout of a pain-in-the-neck pal Sergio, and Michael’s level-headed uncle Will.

Michael doesn’t want any part of a party that involves pulling a trigger on an innocent animal.  He wants even less to do with the foursome’s forest excursion when a creature comes to camp after killing a logging crew that displaced wildlife nearby.  Their forcibly friendly outing is now a fight for survival.  And circumstances demand each man prove who he is through willingness to protect each other when lives are on the line.

“Hunting Grounds,” or “Valley of the Sasquatch,” tries complementing its creature carnage with meaningful character conflict.  It truly does.  The level of inspiration for the writing and acting just isn’t up to that of the story’s emotional ambitions.

“Hunting Grounds” positions itself as a father/son story, yet the teen boy spends more time bonding with his uncle than his dad.  Their human element is ultimately unrewarding mostly because it isn’t really resolved by the climax’s conclusion.

Strokes are brushed about what an ignominious jerk Sergio is, how negligent Roger has been, Michael’s perpetual disappointment, and Will’s potential to be the father Michael wishes he had.  Few of these notions ever develop their full drama, however.  Once Bigfoot bears tooth and claw, which isn’t until almost two-thirds of the runtime is spent, gears switch into a rhythm of attack, take a breath, and repeat.  From there, the movie never gets back to whatever it had in mind regarding the group’s collective connections.

The film isn’t bad.  It’s merely bland.  Serviceably standard performances have no room to improve due to conversationally dull dialogue.  Outdoor locations provide decent backgrounds, although flat scene staging can’t pump in additional energy.

Act three doesn’t skimp on Bigfoot’s presence, at least.  Perhaps it should have though.  Creatures look like distant relations of “Harry and the Hendersons,” except with more mask-like faces.  Sasquatch’s capacity to be scary is diminished considerably by a rubbery look that is hard to take seriously.

Giving credit where it is due on the other hand, any small-scale horror film dealing heavily in night setups and exterior settings deserves appreciation when shot competently, as is the case here.  Nighttime exteriors take time to light and commitment to be out in the cold.  Those facts count for something when considering DTV fright flicks, many of which are too lazy to put up with even minor inconveniences.

Temptation is strong for a first-time feature filmmaker on a shoestring to go the “found footage” route, or to capture something comparatively easy on camera.  Writer/director John Portanova shows he is sincere about his effort by taking his shot from beyond the arc.  If nothing else, “Hunting Grounds” pushes a low budget to its limits.  Given the glut of bigger and better Bigfoot movies it is going up against, standing out in entertainment value is another obstacle entirely.

Review Score:  45

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