The Horror Show
Animal Among Us
by John Woodruff
The horror cinema sub-genre of the Bigfoot horror film (itself a sub-sub-genre of the “Nature Gone Wild”’ or “Vengeful Nature” sub-genre) has been around since the 70s. In some ways, these cheap, quick, little indie films have become the new generation of filmmakers’ ‘zombie’ flick—easy to make and likely to get even a small release.
There are some classics in the category, such as Creature From Black Lake and the cult classic Bigfoot horror film, The Legend of Boggy Creek, a film that arguably spawned the entire sub-genre.
However, Animal Among Us is not one of those films. It is, in fact, a fucking mess; an obviously pure-vanity production that meanders and does nothing for an hour and half.
A young, past bestselling writer and father-to-be (Christian Oliver) who once wrote a based-on-true-events fictional bestseller about some heinous events that happened fifteen years ago at a closed down summer camp, is invited by a mysterious unmarked letter to come back to the campgrounds because it’s ready to be reopened. Our boy, though, can’t seem to keep his dick in his pants, apparently, because he’s always flirting or fucking the various female characters who all look like they’re fresh off the woodland shoot for Penthouse, instead of actually writing.
When he arrives, he finds a bevy of weirdos, including the two surviving young, nubile daughters of the now “deceased” owner (Larisa Oleynik and Christine Donlon), a pervy older groundskeeper (Don Frye), and an insulting, pain-in-the-ass Hollywood version of a social media Bigfoot hunter (Jonathan Murphy), who are all there for various reasons that range from acceptable to ridiculously senseless.
I’d love to tell you that the movie gets better when he arrives, but what we get instead is yet another ten minutes of on-screen spoken exposition of the horrible deaths that occurred at the hands of some mysterious, carnivorous killer (although at one point one of the daughters mentions cannibalism and not carnivores as the means of death... yeah, it was that ineptly handled) that was never caught. But I can’t tell you that it gets better, because it doesn’t. It only gets more confounding and confusing from there. By the end, you don’t give two shits who did what and when.
Here’s just a short list of the obvious things that jar one from the experience:
The characters are thrown in without regard to context or value to the narrative, coming off more as pals getting together for a weekend in the woods to make a movie, instead of a semi-professional production. The music is misplaced and overbearing, and quite frequently, seeming to have been written for an entirely different movie. Early on, you’re gonna scream at the unseen camera person to hold the goddamned camera still! And stop with the lens flare shit!
Those are all glaring signs that you’re dealing with people who don’t know how to make a movie. At least not in any entertaining manner.
The best thing I can say about this hour and thirty-two minute sophomoric movie is that at least it wasn’t an hour and thirty-three minutes long. Seriously, count your blessings and your still thriving brain cells. There is absolutely zero reason to waste your time on this one. I already did it for you.
HMS received a screener of this film in exchange for review. Animal Among Us is currently available on demand.
Nickolas Cook, HMS
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