The Horror Show
Exists
by Eduardo Sánchez
No better way to encapsulate the essence of this movie than saying if you’ve seen one you’ve seen them all. Director Eduardo Sánchez stands behind the new Bigfoot horror and found-footage blandness Exists, which could be the movie’s biggest asset as he is one of the masterminds who fed The Blair Witch Project to the world fifteen years ago.
Unfortunately, even though the genre is anchored by his previous work, his latest effort to capture the horror in the woods only serves to prove that the found-footage subgenre has become utterly ossified.
Any effort to make Exists sound interesting or gripping is doomed to fail, as the synopsis writes itself in the most predictable and unoriginal manner. Five friends embark on a fun weekend in the deep Texan woods completely unaware of the terror that’s in store for them. Ever heard of anything like that before?
Their trouble begins when they accidentally hit what seems to be a big animal while driving on a remote road at night. Since they fail to identify their animal victim, the group of weak and generic characters continue their journey and are left without their car as the cabin they’re trying to reach is only approachable by a risky hike through the woods.
The silliest of them all, camera enthusiast Brian (Chris Osborn), is a key character for the outcome of the movie, as his constant recording proves the ubiquitous existence of a hairy beast and foretells that their ending will be bloody and violent – an ending that will only come after several nauseating minutes of shaky camerawork.
Despite the overwrought story, such a premise is often the source of moody thrillers and audience pleasing productions – with Bobcat Goldthwait’s Willow Creek coming immediately to mind – but in the case of Exists this is a dream that won’t come true…ever.
Using all kinds of tropes in the Bigfoot-horror-in-the-woods playbook, Sánchez only delivers a dull product that feels like a rote echo of numerous found-footage horror movies and frankly its shelf life is destined to be really short.
Maria Kriva, HMS
The Horror Show Menu.