Intense, gripping, stylish and poignant

It is both painfully honest and laugh-out-loud funny at the same time.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

This is, in many ways, your classic "found footage" movie — perhaps not surprising since it is directed by Eduardo Sánchez, who brought us The Blair Witch Project. A group of friends aim to spend some time together in the woods, staying in an uncle's old, dilapidated cabin when they aren't riding bikes or taking a dip in the lake. Almost immediately — before they even reach the house — things start to seem a bit awry. They hit some kind of animal with the car — it runs off before they have a chance to even see it — and then hear this mournful cry from the not-so-distance, but, true to the rules of horror movie cliché, they push onward, insisting on arriving at the creepy house in the shroud of darkness.The characters are nothing to write home about — truly forgettable, really, as they all fit into their predictable and stereotypical roles. Brian (played by Chris Osborn) is the amateur filmmaker of the group, always seen with camera in hand. While this might not be the most groundbreaking route to go, it does its part to help explain the main gripe that people usually have with found footage style movies — "why the hell are they still filming and not running the hell away?". Once we get a glimpse of Bigfoot and it's clear that something is stalking the woods around the house, Brian is hopeful that he can catch it on camera and have his moment of fame and recognition. This doesn't mean there aren't a few moments where you're thinking "dude ya couldn't put the camera down for 5 minutes?", but it does help to explain the urgency.Ultimately what I liked about this movie is how much it's almost more of a slasher flick than a mysterious monster movie. Bigfoot is out messin' things up in the daytime and crashing through the windows of the cabin. It chases Matt (played by Samuel Davis) — the brother trying to go for help on his bike — and it's a pretty terrifying scene. It traps the remaining friends in a camper and then terrorizes them — shaking the outside, pushing them towards the edge, and jumping from a cliff down onto them (the scene pictured above — I actually said "WHOA!" out loud when it happened). It's a freaking action star, and I liked that they didn't shy away from showing it (and that the costume and makeup were awesome enough to hold up to broad daylight shots).I don't totally get why Brian was the only one who was spared, but I personally liked the reasoning for the attacks — again, not the most groundbreaking, but it added a sad air to the movie. Not the most unique horror movie, or even specifically monster movie, but definitely a thrill ride.

I was really disappointed with this movie. I thought if any director could make the concept of 'Sasquatch' frightening, it would likely be Eduardo Sanchez, the director of 'The Blaire Witch Project', and more recently 'Lovely Molly' and 'Altered' (all movies I highly recommend). After watching 'Exists', and 'Willow Creek' I think the idea of a 'scary' Bigfoot movie is impossible. If you are a fan of this sub-genre of movie and thought 'Willow Creek' was good (which surprisingly a lot of people seem to be of this opinion) than you'll likely enjoy this one as well. At least in 'Exists' we get to see Bigfoot, and the creature is impressive looking enough.The problem that plagues 'Exists' is that unlike 'Blaire Witch Project', the whole 'found- footage' angle seems really stretched here. In 'The Blaire Witch' we had students shooting a documentary film, which excused the hand-held POV angle, but in 'Exists' we get a camera- geek who conveniently comes along to stay with some friends at an uncles cabin. Even with today's culture, obsessed with selfies and posting every day routines and conversations on YouTube, it seemed rather forced that this character would not only have a camera for himself, but multiple devices attached to bicycles and from various locations around the cabin.Sadly, this is one of those movies that makes you understand why some people absolutely can't stand the 'found-footage' genre. I'm not biased one way or another, but one problem that I have with them is that for the most part, we almost always know from the beginning that the characters are going to die, so all we're left to wonder, is 'how' and 'why'? (the only exceptions to this that I can think of are 'The Bay' and 'Lake Mungo' which had a more creative take on the genre).

First off, I jumped at least 3 TIMES while watching this movie. Three jumps gets it a solid rating right off the bat. And I feel I have to write this one to bump up the average of this good 'found footage' film. I know a bunch of the people connected with "Blair Witch' and I met Dan and (Director) Eduardo Sanchez at an Artisan event out in LA. Gregg Hale who was producer on this is a very talented guy. When BW was happening, George Romero was 'Artist in Residence' at Valencia Community College's Film Program. He was shooting a 'mockumentary' as they were called then, of a Big Foot being discovered and running amok in Central Florida, 'Jacoranda Joe'. I'm sure that's what inspired the Blair Witch guys to do the film that has created the FF craze and I'm guessing it inspired this film as well. This movie has a little more depth to the lead character and what ends up being a VERY convincing Sasquatch. A VERY, VERY, ticked off one, too. There's some depth to the story and some pathos, as well. I think it's high time to cut the Blair Witch crowd some slack and forgive them for having such monumental success on their first outing. This is a heck of a lot better than sparkly bottomed vampires and the now tedious zombie invasion. Definitely give it a watch!!!

The thing that annoys me about the majority of these 1st person/found footage "Horror" Movies is that were these situations real, the last thing any normal, sane individual would do is continue filming, especially with a camera as big as this guy carries. The premise is good - friends come out to "cabin in the woods" and are hunted by Bigfoot. Nice idea, in this case badly implemented. There is absolutely no need for this to be 1st person perspective if the storyline and script were strong enough. Sadly, neither are. They hit something with their vehicle en route to the cabin and later - when there is only a couple of them left alive, they begin wondering what they have done to have this Sasquatch hunt them in this manner "we've done nothing wrong" one of them repeats. Not even then do they think to add two and two together. When "hiding" in the abandoned caravan(or trailer for our American Cousins) our Hero's first instinct while watching his friend get dragged of to his death by Mr Sasquatch is to film it all in glorious technicolour. Even when the Hairy guy is dragging him to the burial ground, he refuses to be separated from his beloved camera. 1st Person/Found Footage is an interesting genre if handled correctly, sadly so many movies aren't and this i'm sad to say is definitely one of them.