Director: John Portanova
Writer: John Portanova (Screenplay)
Starring: Bill Oberst Jr, Jason Vail, David Saucedo, Miles Joris-Peyrafitte, D’Angelo Midili
Plot: A father, his son and two old friends arrive at an isolated family cabin for a weekend of hunting. A trip deep into the forest looking for wild game uncovers a tribe of Sasquatch that are determined to protect their land.
There may be spoilers the rest of the review
Verdict: Enjoyable Horror
Story: Hunting Grounds starts as we see just how deadly the sasquatch is as it takes its first victim before we meet our main characters. Roger Crew (Vail) and Michael (Joris-Peyrafitte) father and son whose have recent lost their wife and mother who have re-located to a small cabin in the woods to save money.
When Roger’s two friends Sergio (Saucedo) the loud arrogant best buddy and Will (Midili) the calm smart almost second father figure for Michael the trip turns into a hunting weekend. With Michael, reluctantly on the hunting trip he gets a potential out when Will offers a chance for the education he desires but before this can come out the men find themselves in a battle for survival against a tribe of sasquatches.
Thoughts on Hunting Grounds
Story – When you look at the story we get a father & son needing to rebuild their relationship after a tragic family death with both have different ideas for what they want and can achieve from life. This side of the story is all good and just what you need for a horror which revolves around being hunted down by bigfoots which is something we have seen before but it works for the idea behind the story which is all horror needs to be.
Horror/Thriller – The threat of bigfoot is always good horror because no one knows the true power of a bigfoot which makes the threat have endless possibilities. I will say the horror isn’t going to leave you terrified but for a good bloody horror this checks the boxes well.
Characters/Performances – The characters are all what you would expect to see in a horror, you have the leads which are a family who need rebuilding, an asshole drunk, the friend who is a success but humble about it and finally the stranger who can fill in the gaps. When you look at the performances they are solid without being great but being all they need to be for horror.
Settings – The settings are either the cabin in the middle of the woods or the woods themselves they both work for creating isolation for our characters against the bigfoot threat.
Special Effects – The effects are all brilliant when it comes to the brutality of the kills when creating the blood and gore levels needed.
Final Thoughts – This is a good start to 2017 for horror showing us the threat of bigfoot could come in many different forms.
Overall: Easy to watch blood soaked horror film.
Rating
