Sublime, Texas is a dying town along the Navidad River. It is
home to Dale S. Rogers (Justin Meeks). He lives in a rundown ranch with his
wheelchair-bound wife, Jean (Stacy Meeks), and his lecherous help, Mario (Alex
Garcia). Legend has it that a shambling
monster-man lives near his land, and just to be safe he leaves fresh meat out on
the porch every night. It’s always gone in the morning. Dale loses his job, and
desperate for money allows hunters onto his property. One of them shoots a
figure lumbering in the distance, and soon the Wildman of Navidad comes for revenge.
The Wildman of Navidad
is deliberate recreation of the Bigfoot films of the 1970s. It’s filmed in
lo-fi grainy style with a quirky folk and electronic soundtrack. It’s
definitely a low-budget film, you never get a very good look at the monster,
but I think anything too technically proficient would break the retro feel. It
perfectly emulates the more lax pace of that period, which I can see turning
off anyone looking for something a little quicker and more visceral. The acting
is on average terrible, but like the special effects anything too polished
would break the illusion you are watching a piece of regional cinema from the
south in the 1970s. The Wildman of
Navidad works wonderfully as a technical exercise, but without the retro
element it doesn’t stand on its own as a work of film.
No comments:
Post a Comment