Stomping Ground (2014)

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Just perfect...

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

okay so i am a huge fan of horror movies and have seen some decent yeti/big foot films, but most of them are trash. this one however is worse than trash. it has terrible acting and doesn't make much sense. if you're looking for a good big foot movie look elsewhere. i actually cannot believe this has 5/10 stars. If you want an okay-ish big foot movie try Willow Creek or Exists. this movie is utter trash and isn't worth wasting your time watching.I know i might be a little bit brutal in writing this but do yourselves a favor and don't bother. the whole movie is basically 4 idiots walking around in a forest with a banjo playing. it is cliché and written extremely badly, has no mid peak and is boring the entire way through, extremely terrible special effects even though it's a low budget film they could have definitely done it better. none of it is funny or humorous it's just lame and not one part of it was good besides when it finished and i didn't have to watch it anymore.

A young Chicago couple Ben and Annie return to Annie's small North Carolina hometown, bumping into some of her old friends they embark on an impromptu Bigfoot hunt which threatens their relationship and lives.I love a good Bigfoot film, the ones though with blood and guts, there's been a spate of the recently, like shark films and creature features they're a minefield in terms of quality ranging from Eduardo Sánchez's Exists to (Syfy, enough said) Bigfoot. Director Dan Riesser's Stomping Ground, is a low budget surprisingly good traditionally shot Bigfoot film. While the camera work is a little rough in places, it benefits from an on location shoot. To drum up the film's saleability to horror hounds Evil Dead's Theresa Tilly appears very briefly. We get some dead bodies, a severed finger, a severed head and a pretty good Bigfoot costume (no rubbish CGI, hooray).John Bobek's city boy Ben and Tarah DeSpain's Annie are strong enough to carry the film as their relationship is tested. For a low budget film the acting excels. Jeramy Blackford, is notable as Paul and gives performance (akin to Eric Balfour's Brad in Blackfoot Trail killer bear feature) as Annie's former boyfriend, which prompts some tension between him and Ben. Justin Giddings is amusing enough and plays local Bigfoot expert Jed. J. Michael Radtke's visual Bigfoot effects work better from behind and in the shadows, with the bright show down stealing some impact and effect.There's the expected Deliverance jokes and references to Wrong Turn, writers Riesser and Andrew Genser's script works best when it avoiding pop culture references, to their credit they give Annie enough back-story throughout without dropping everything in the first five minutes and the knocking, den building, hair and calls remind you it's a Bigfoot film. The extremely long build up struggles to hold attention with the Bigfoot segments coming late in the latter half of the third act. The ego-stroking, chest-beating competition between Ben and Paul gets a little repetitive objectifying Annie. Stomping Ground is more interesting when they're talking about local history, drinking moonshine, playing games and being attacked.At 80 minutes it feels longer than it is, tonally Riesser's offering doesn't hold up comedy wise to be another Tucker and Dale versus Evil, there's also not enough Sasquatch focus and gory action set- ups to fully satisfy horror fans. That said, it's a commendable independent film effort and certainly worth checking out especially if you're a Bigfoot lover.

"Stomping Ground" is yet another tale about the legendary Bigfoot. Ben and Annie leave Chicago to return to Annie's small hometown somewhere in North Carolina. Funny thing is, this place is constantly referred to as "The South." Honey, there is no way in heaven or on earth that North Carolina is considered "The South." During their visit, Annie reconnects with two of her high school buddies--both males. During a night of drunkenness--where nobody could have possibly lived given the amount of alcohol intake--one of her friends tells the local tale about "Bigfoot." A camping investigation ensues. "Stomping Ground" is billed as a horror/comedy movie. It fails miserably on both attempts. It might have been funny; kinda' hard to tell when those involved tried to insert every over-the-top redneck caricature they could think of. The acting was bad, although the guy that played Ben was decent. Annie could not act her way out of a wet paper bag. Sorry, hon, but dumb looks and blank stares do not count as acting. And why the director was hell- bent on dragging on this one-sided love story between Annie and one of her former beaus is beyond me. I mean, this thing moved at a snail's pace. I was surprised I actually made it through until the end.Unrated (I think); however, this is pretty much PG13 stuff. The movie lasts 80 of the longest minutes you'll ever spend. Not recommended.

Good Bigfoot movies are just as hard to come by as good Werewolf movies. For some reason, they are generally done quite poorly, and this is no different. It's a weak story to begin with, a country girl takes her city boyfriend to where she grew up in the south. Old flame shows up and tries to sabotage the relationship all whilst they're out looking for Bigfoot. Yeah. The editing, dialogue and acting are all pretty bad here. The slow pacing and anticlimactic ending do not help either. It's a pity too, this is shot OK and even the Bigfoot creature looks decent for something i imagine was done on a very limited budget. Forgettable and mediocre. Pass on this one.