Movie Spotlight - "EXISTS"

As someone that has seen many movies about sasquatch, I know that making a good one can be somewhat of a "big feat" (heehee). When I saw the trailer for Exists online I thought it looked great and I pre-ordered it as soon as it was possible. This movie is directed by Eduardo Sanchez, the director of The Blair Witch Project. Exists is another in the seemingly endless line of found footage style movies that have overtaken the genre since Blair Witch.
So here we go. A group of five young people are heading into the heavy thicket of East Texas to spend some time at Uncle Bob's isolated cabin deep in the woods. As they are making their way down the two track in the dark they clip something with their vehicle. They get out to investigate and find a broken headlight and grill, some blood, and some hair. Howling is heard in the distance. They had been filming each other while riding in the car, out of boredom, and they decided to play back the footage to see if whatever it was that they hit may show up on the footage. Just for a split second you can see a large creature as the car passes by. None of them seem to recognize that this is obviously a bigfoot. One of the characters is a stoner that has all kinds of cameras and recording equipment with him, and evidently he plans on recording their weekend of fun and making youtube videos of their shenanigans. He reveals that 8 years ago Uncle Bob abandoned his cabin after being scared nearly to death by an encounter with something in the woods. The movie proceeds at a snails pace for some time before ratcheting up the excitement a little. Good creepy atmosphere is attained as the group realizes they are being stalked by an angry beast and they are far from civilization and cell phone reception. That night, the beast destroys their car, leaving them stranded and terrified at good old Uncle Bob's hunting cabin. They did bring a couple of mountain bikes with them and they decide that one of them is going to ride for help, or at least until he can get some reception on his phone and make contact with the world.
Evidently Bigfoot doesn't like bikes much.
Things progress as you have seen in a hundred other similar movies. The good news is that the filmmakers know what they are doing, and even though this isn't an original concept and it brings nothing new to the table, it is fairly well executed and effective. Escalating tension is created and there are jump scares at all the right places. The characters all seem throw away to me though. I felt no connection or empathy for any of the people, but still the movie succeeds for me. The monster is heard far more than it is seen, at first just a glimpse or a silhouette is shown, but as time goes on we begin to be allowed to see the creature more and more as the human cast dwindles at the hands of the fearsome beast. When we are allowed to see the beast it is cool. They did a great job on the effects as this is one of the most legit looking Bigfoot creatures I have seen. No new ground is broken here, it's plain and simple a monster movie. A creature feature.  Of course the nice part about that fact is that I happen to love creature features, and I found Exists to be a fun little ride. The twist to the story was obvious early on, and I must admit I was kind of hoping to discover that the Sasquatch was just looking for some Jack's Links Beef Jerky. Now that would have been a nice little twist. If you dig movies of this type, this is a fun one. Pop some popcorn and grab a seat on the couch for a nice little Saturday afternoon at the movies. I'm glad that Exists exists.