The Wild Man of the Navidad (2008)

To me, this movie is perfection.

People are voting emotionally.

Great Film overall

Absolutely the worst movie.

3 stars for this turgid little poop of a movie because it is competently photographed and edited. Really, I'd like to rate it higher but it's hard for me to recommend a horror film where the people are more terrifying than the creature. The setting for this exercise in revulsion is a little redneck town in Texas. The director quickly makes you aware of the fact that all the crackers in the town are drunken bums and louts and it's all downhill from there because the drunken bums are going to be the focus of the flick. The creature actually gets very little screen time. Instead we're treated to a redneck daddy who takes his young 8 year old hunting. As he's making the kid drag out the carcass of a boar they had just shot he stops and slices a cactus in two with his hunting knife. He then has his son stick his little finger in the slit between the cactus pulp and tells him "That's what pu**y feels like"! What a charmer! There's also the sheriff who's in cahoots with the local moonshiner and the main character who knowingly sends the cracker men and gals to their deaths by allowing them to hunt on his bottom lands, the very place where the horrible creature lurks! But topping all of the disgusting excuses for humanity that populate this cinematic dung heap is our hero's Hispanic ranch hand. When we first meet this boil he is in the owner's bedroom with his pants around his ankles sniffing the wife's panties! The wife is paraplegic, confined to a wheelchair and unable to speak so, naturally, the farm hand molests her when the boss man isn't looking. As you might expect by now the director doesn't choose to simply imply that something disgusting is going on between them. No, he's gonna show us some of the sick action, probably because that's all he's really got. The monster isn't much when you finally see it and the quickness and ease with which the townspeople dispatch it once they set their minds to it simply makes you wonder why they didn't decide to do it decades ago and spare them all the loss of a few good drinking buddies and us this movie. There's zero suspense to be had because all of the townsfolk are so completely unlikeable that you're glad when they get killed. Minus any suspense the only possible use you could have for this movie is as a way to make yourself feel better about your life! You might have problems but at least you're not an ignorant drunken inbred loser like the folks in this flick. If this sounds like your kind of fare then Bon Appetit! Everyone else should just avoid.

The Wild Man of the Navidad is as authentic as a retro horror film can get. Every detail from the garish 'Tenocolour' opening credits, down to the local yokels delivering their stilted dialogue, seems to have been deliberately crafted to give the impression that one is watching an old school slasher film/public television documentary from the early 80s. The only reminder that one was watching a modern film was a hunter's wife wearing a noughties-style outfit halfway through the film. If it weren't for that detail, I would have doubted that I was watching a film from the 21st century.Other reviewers critiqued the films flaws but to me it was obvious that these flaws are intentionally left in, because they add so much to the retro B-movie vibe. That the film isn't technically perfect just shows the film makers expertise in making retro films. I found the characters amusingly whacked-out and the Wild Man scenario a funny, bizarre variation on the Texan massacre theme. It wasn't the scariest film ever but the wild man attacks kept the action moving along at a fast pace.So if you are in the mood for an twisted but fun little horror flick then The Wild Man of the Navidad is the movie for you.

I'm one of those kind of horror fans who supports the efforts of dye-in-the-wool buffs living the dream, putting together whatever monetary funds they can scrape up in order to make a little homage to movies that inspired them. That's not to say there hasn't been a fair share of rotten apples along the way, particularly within the slasher genre. But in the past few years I've come across a number of flicks made by horror buffs on peanuts which have more enthusiasm, energy, and verve, while also containing elements hardcore horror fans can enjoy such as Gutterballs, Hatchet, Behind the Mask:The Rise of Leslie Vernon, among others, than most high-budget fare without a soul churned off the Hollywood machine these days. I think The Wild Man of Navidad is such a film, and it pays loving homage to films like The Legend of Boggy Creek, with nods to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre(..in particular, the "room of bones" scene, except this time we see the remnants of the wilderness man-beast's meals over the past few days, the camera lens closing in tight showing buzzing flies entering gaping wounds in rotted flesh)as well.The movie focuses on the oddball trio of Dale S Rogers(Justin Meeks who also co-wrote / co-directed), his paraplegic wife(played by his relative, Stacy Meeks), confined to a wheel-chair after a devastating car crash, and pot-bellied Mexican hand, Mario(Alex Garcia)who keep the hostility of a carnivorous half-human / half-animal at bay through skinned rabbit meat each night at 9:00, while also containing 600 acres of prime hunting land off-limits to those who desire to use it for their leisure as deer season starts up. Through mounting medical bills, Dale sees few alternatives to make some necessary quick-cash, opening the land for local hunters, resulting in one of them firing off a shot directed at the wild man of the woods, sparking a violent, bloody rampage resulting in humans being ripped apart and eaten.I think what made this work for me was using real areas in Texas and locals from nearby small towns who would act for little to nothing while tolerating demanding conditions. Directors Duane Graves and Justin Meeks studied under the tutelage of Kim Henkel(who wrote the screenplay for The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and directed The Texas Chainsaw Massacre:The New Generation)who was teaching at a Texas college they attended. There's a good use of the rural setting and people who live there. The southern "hick" accents are thick and unrestrained and these people actually look like those who would live in a small rural area where everyone knows each other. The acting itself is often suspect because you are dealing with a great many non-actors who have never been in a film before. Graves and Meeks accentuate a variety of stylistic shots, using any number of make-shift apparatus which could compliment the scenes and characters, giving them an extra boost due to their limitations in budget. I believe an actor discusses a little buggy the duo rigged up as a rolling vehicle substituting for a dolly they couldn't afford..this is the same kind of motivation and ingenuity often elicited on Hooper's TCM.The gore scenes are shot in a way to obviously avoid confronting the fact that they had little in regards to effective make-up effects. We see screaming victims, blood all over the place, the girth of the wild man(..always covered by skins)nearly engulfing the frame with animal guts tossed throughout from off screen. Not every filmmaker has access to a Tom Savini or Greg Nicotero, so these young guys combat their restrictions any way they possibly can. I think something has happened as the opportunities for obtaining cameras during the digital age have evolved..it seems that the attempt at developing and maintaining atmosphere and dread has dwindled. I'm not sure what it was about low-budget film-making in the 70's that gave it an edge and power that seems hard / difficult to duplicate in this day and age where anyone can make a movie with the right kind of support in place. I think Graves and Meeks give it everything they have in their being to establish dread and atmosphere, attempting to evoke that spirit the 70's had..but, again, it remains untouched. This is 2009, not 1974, but filmmakers continue to strive for tapping into the "grindhouse wellspring". Charlie Hurtin, as local back-stabbing moonshiner Karl Crabtree(..he practically took Rogers' steel welding job from him), also provided the very restrained, quietly moody score. Seems the film is a sort of tribute to Charles B Pierce, the director of The Legend of Boggy Creek and The Town That Dreaded Sundown and The Wild Man of the Navidad almost succeeds. It does have the eccentric, colorful sort of Texas citizenry one might find in a film made by Pierce or others during the 70's, lacking only that needed atmosphere that seemed to be in abundance during that decade.

Wild Man is a truly great flick for those of us who love the great horror films of the 1970s that often tried to add a nice hunk of realism and earthiness to their bloodshed. In a day where the movie theaters are flooded with remakes and attempts at creating a nostalgic older quality while flooding us with Mickey Mouse Club rejects, this movie is a fresh breath of air. I watched it, and I kept thinking, Wow, I know a lot of people like this. Some, definitely not all, of Texas definitely has characters like it throughout..and the region of Sublime as portrayed in the film is spot-on for this group of folks. Dale is a very realistic character as well, as actor and director Meeks carefully treads the line of guilt and despair Dale feels without being too in-your-face about it. The music, close shots and the setting add to the sense of doom that pervades the film. Definitely worth seeing!