derekjager Review of Cherokee Creek

Cherokee Creek (2018)

Gets better as it progresses, but much too long

[3/10 · 29 December 2018]

Starts slow with a go nowhere "things not to do in the woods to attract Bigfoot" prologue. Then a bunch of pretty crass guy talk about women that is just tiresome. Then a kidnapping with a nice, surprise twist--but doesn't make sense since we see it occur and the kidnappers don't act like it was planned ahead of time. Once everyone is in the woods, for some reason, they start talking about Bigfoot. It's very much out of the blue, the shift in conversation. One guy is called out for being an atheist and that's another go nowhere character plot. However, the cast comes together nicely, there's some good comedy timing and dialogue so you genuinely like the guys. But the story seems to bog down with their interactions---where is this going? Strippers show up and there is some very explicit sex, full frontal male nudity, and some gory attacks by Bigfoot, but most you can barely see since it's shot at night. The to-be wife of one of the guys is a lot of fun in her clueless behavior, very John Waters. But the film is simply too long which often occurs when you write/direct/edit your own movies. You lose objective focus. Also, a VERY annoying start and finish to the film with the two kidnappers shouting at you, the viewer, aiming a gun at you, telling you to promote their film. Not at all funny and just sort of dumb. Again, kudos to a great cast but I wouldn't really recommend this film--a shortened version would make it so much better.