With the terrifying found-footage bigfoot movie WILLOW CREEK now available on DVD, THN was able to catch up with the film’s writer and director (and former POLICE ACADEMY star, if you’re asking), Bobcat Goldthwait.
What is it about the legend of bigfoot that made you want to make WILLOW CREEK?
Umm, bigfoot’s sexy? No… I really made this film for the part of me that’s a little kid who loves bigfoot. Before I made the movie I drove around California visiting a lot of the major bigfoot sites. I didn’t know I was going to make this movie, I thought I was going to make a Christopher Guest kind of bigfoot movie. But then I said to someone, “I want to make it found-footage but I know they’re terrible,” so they said to me, “Just go and make your movie.”
Did you get involved with any real bigfoot hunters when you were making the film?
Yeah, there were a number that went to Bluff Creek with me. I’ve gone looking for bigfoot with them. But the thing is, if you go out to the woods looking for bigfoot, you don’t find him. There was a lot of caution from them – they were nervous I was going to make fun of them. I consider myself a weirdo and outcast, so I wasn’t going to pick on the culture. As far as sub-cultures and people having patience with them goes, it’s probably STAR TREK fans, then Al-Qaeda, then bigfoot people.
In the movie, the setting is isolated and genuinely very unsettling – is it like that when you’re really there?
The night we shot the 19-minute scene in the tent, we were on location and we’d seen mountain lions and it’s the middle of the night. The lead actor started crying and I said, “That’s good, but I’m not sure your character would be crying.” He said, “My character’s not crying, I’m crying – why aren’t we shooting this in a parking lot?!” It was definitely scary. There are filmmakers that tonally engage – they’ll make you frightened and there’s suspense. I never felt like I was able to do that before, so I wanted to see if I could do it. That was the challenge for me.
Found-footage has been down every way possible since THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT – what did you want to do with the format that was new or different?
Filmmakers sometimes leave out the things that are really good about BLAIR WITCH. I always wonder, who found this footage? Who’s the creep that says, “Sorry your daughter’s been killed, but I think if we re-edit this footage it could make a tremendous movie.” There’s a little over 70 edits in the whole of WILLOW CREEK and that’s the thing I wanted to do – try to justify why they had the camera on without writing that cringe-worthy line of dialogue where someone always goes, “Oh yeah, you’re the guy that always films everything!” That’s why that scene in the tent is 19-minutes long, so they didn’t have to keep turning the camera on and off.
Does bigfoot exist?
I hope bigfoot exists! I’ve got flack for believing in bigfoot but being an atheist. But I’ve spent time with guys who’ve seen bigfoot, but not the other way…
WILLOW CREEK is available on DVD now.
