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A little bit of clean up for Alexie’s film WILLOW CREEK where she played the part of Kelly, a woman who along with her Bigfoot enthusiast boyfriend Jim (Bryce Johnson) go on a trip to Six Rivers National Forest in California where the infamous footage Bigfoot was filmed by Roger Patterson and Robert Gimlin of the “mythical” Sasquatch. The film was directed by comedian Bobcat Goldthwait.
Alexie has completed a new film. It is called FOR ALL EYES ALWAYS and it is in post-production. The film also stars Sean Astin and Lynn Whitfield. I have one still and an article for you. Read on.
CURE FOR PAIN Director Adds Sean Astin And Lynn Whitfield To Indie Spy Comedy FOR ALL EYES ALWAYS
It was back in 2011 that we first came across the work of director Rob Bralver. The occasion at the time was his Cure For Pain: The Mark Sandman Story, an intimate look at the life of the former Morphine frontman that I like rather a lot and ended up programming as part of the Canadian Music Week film program in that year where it played to a very appreciative audience. Bralver has a pair of equally well received docs under his belt since then and is now launching production on his debut narrative feature, For All Eyes Always.
Indie spy satire ‘For All Eyes Always’ has added Sean Astin (Lord of the Rings, The Strain) and Lynn Whitfield (HBO’s The Josephine Baker Story) to an ensemble cast. Film is the narrative directorial debut of doc filmmaker Rob Gordon Bralver (Our Vinyl Weighs A Ton, Cure for Pain: The Mark Sandman Story, editor of Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia).
‘For All Eyes Always’ imagines the CIA’s efforts to win back the confidence of the American public by creating a reality TV show that purports to show with total transparency the covert operations that occur around the globe on behalf of the United States.
Said Bralver, “It is now a transparent world, and there are no such thing as secrets. How will the intelligence community adjust to this seismic change? Perhaps by embracing it like everyone else has had to do – using reality TV and social media to promote their goals.”
Ensemble cast also includes Joe Hursley (Fast & Furious), vine star Greg Davis Jr., Ganna Bogdan, Saïd Taghmaoui (American Hustle), Alexie Gilmore (Labor Day), Chasty Ballesteros (The Newsroom), Joseph Gatt (Game of Thrones), and producer Adi Shankar (Lone Survivor) playing a fictional version of himself.
Written and directed by Bralver, the film is produced by Amy Child via their shingle The Koaffalo Motion Picture Company.
Film is currently in production in Los Angeles.
Good news! I’ve finally gotten Alexie’s work as Kelly in the Bobcat Goldthwait found footage film WILLOW CREEK up in the gallery. There are three things including the main film caps, plus the extras…that aren’t much. The DVD/Bluray were a standard release with minimal extras. The upside is the screencaps for the main film are in 720p therefore a resolution of 1280X720 as are the HD trailer caps. The downside is the extras are in standard form with a resolution of 640×360. I couldn’t get any better quality than that without the pixels being blown or the quality being too blurry. Sorry about that.
I don’t know about anyone else, but I loved this movie with a capital “L”. I’m not all that fond of the found footage genre, however, this film is an exception. I love the premise as well as loving both Alexie (who wouldn’t) and Bryce Johnson as Jim. Bobcat Goldthwait knew what to do with this film. What was so good about it was the lore it was based upon. The infamous Patterson/Gimlin footage from 1972 was shown all over the world as proof of Sasquatch’s existence, however, there was plenty of scorn going around about the validity of the footage. I remember seeing this first on an episode of the Leonard Nimoy series In Search Of back in the mid seventies. I thought all the quirky characters including many in the area playing themselves added a bit of realism to the film. The draw though has to be the seventeen minute single camera shot toward the end of the film with Kelly and Jim waiting out the night as they are visited by what appears to be a Bigfoot. The rest of the film is just plainly delicious and the ending is unexpected so that when it does happen, it sort of shocks one. Though it does give a whole new meaning to the term “Forest Bride.” All I can say is poor Kelly. Alexie is just amazing in this and the audio commentary on the disc is so hilarious as Alexie is joined by Bobcat and Bryce, who is a Bigfoot aficionado.
We here at ALEXIE GILMORE ONLINE would like to express our greatest condolences to the family and friends of the great actor Robin Williams. Robin did a film with Alexie and director/actor Bobcat Goldwait called WORLD’S GREATEST DAD where Alexie had this to say about the great comedian:
“Robin was so gracious. You can get steamrolled when you’re working with people of that magnitude, but Robin always wanted to make sure I had my moments, too.”
Having watched Robin since the 70s on the ABC show Mork & Mindy (I could tell you a funny story about babysitting and Mork), I remember religiously sitting down each week to see what this amazing comedian would come up with. I knew there was something manic about him, but enormously endearing. Mork just wasn’t a character in a television comedy, he was Williams. An alien in a land that didn’t understand his brand of humour…but I did. I then watched as this man bent himself into whatever film he starred in to become a genie, a penquin, a psychiatrist, a stalker, you name it. Robin Williams was a great man and will be sorely missed. Not only was he a great man, but he was also an amazing humanitarian. After the accident that paralyzed actor Christopher Reeve, Williams paid all the mounting doctor’s bills Reeve and his late wife Dana accumulated trying to help Reeve overcome his disability. He also helped through Comic Relief to help raise money for the homeless. Robin also gave support to America’s troops, AIDS awareness…. The tributes coming out from across the spectrum of America’s strata aren’t just lame or empty platitudes, they’re heartfelt and heartbreaking for a man who made hearts grow and be a little kinder in light of his energy and dedication to what he did and those he made laugh. I’ll miss you Robin and whatever else you might have done in your next 63 years. As Lovelace once said, “You did everything penquinly possible….” Could we even hope to do as much as you did or give as much as you did over your short time on this earth? I don’t think so. Some hearts just aren’t that huge.
I have a really good interview with WILLOW CREEK director Bobcat Goldwait. Nothing really about Alexie except for the mention she’s in the film. Enjoy.
How to Scare People
Willow Creek: Bobcat Goldthwait Has a Bigfoot for You
BIGFOOT ARE GIANT APE-MEN who live at the fringes of our so-called civilization, and when one eats you, no one will believe it. So learn Kelly (Alexie Gilmore) and Jim (Bryce Johnson) in Willow Creek when they visit the notorious “Patterson-Gimlin site,” where, in 1967, two men claimed to have filmed Bigfoot.
Willow Creek is a mostly improvised found-footage horror movie that was shot on location—combined with the talents of Gilmore and Johnson and director Bobcat Goldthwait, that sparseness lends the film a surprising level of intensity. Goldthwait’s mostly known for comedies, but his past directorial work (like World’s Greatest Dad and God Bless America, along with episodes of Chappelle’s Show and Maron) boasts a keen eye for discomfort. He uses it to excellent effect in Willow Creek.
MERCURY: How did the project get started?
BOBCAT GOLDTHWAIT: Well, I knew I wanted to do a Bigfoot movie, and then when I actually went to Willow Creek, I changed my ideas. Originally I was going to do a comedy, but then it just seemed to lend itself to doing a suspense movie.I didn’t want to do a movie that was making fun of people who believed in Bigfoot. I consider myself a weirdo and an outcast, so I’m not about to pick on other people who are perceived that way. The goal was to try to make these people believable and characters you empathize with before terrible things happen to them. I think a lot of [horror directors] almost seem to resent the characters, and I wanted you to care about them.
How remote were the locations? Were you out in the middle of nowhere?
Oh my god, we actually went to the Patterson-Gimlin site, so we were. The town [Willow Creek] is 11 hours from LA, and then when you get to Bluff Creek, it’s about a two-and-a-half-hour drive down a 17-mile dirt road. So there’s nothing around. We saw mountain lions when we were filming. There was no craft service or hotel or anything like that.I thought, “Why are we filming this out in the middle of the woods? We should just do this in a hotel parking lot.” But I knew that in order to get the audio right that we’d have to do it out [there]. A lot of the sounds you hear in the movie were recorded live. Subconsciously, you’re not even aware of it, but the absence of planes or faintly heard traffic really added to the suspense.
There were only about 70 edits in the whole movie. There’s always someone turning the camera on or turning it off. I always have a problem with edited found-footage movies, because who “found” this? Just a creep who said “Hey, that’s sad your family died, but if we re-edit it there’s a tremendous picture here.”
Coming from a comedy background, what did you learn shooting a horror film?
That making people laugh and scaring them are really similar. There’s the misdirect, you know? You laugh at something because it’s not happening the way you’d perceive it would happen. Your mind tries to jump ahead. Turns out scaring people is the same thing. You set ’em up and then you make a twist.
A really good review on Alexie’s film WILLOW CREEK. Read on.
Willow Creek Well-honed horror from former stand-up Bobcat Goldthwait
Source: The List
Date: 29 April 2014
Written by: Matt GlasbyThey say there are no second acts in American life – then there’s Bobcat Goldthwait. A stand-up comic most famous for playing helium-voiced punk Zed in Police Academy 2 (1985), Goldthwait has since been busy making sly, often filthy, indie films such as World’s Greatest Dad (2009) and God Bless America (2011). And for his next trick? A found-footage horror about Bigfoot, of course.
Willow Creek is also a film of two acts, the first sunny and (seemingly) loose, the second precision-tooled for maximum creepiness. Holidaying couple Jim (Bryce Johnson) and Kelly (Alexie Gilmore) are on a sasquatch hunt around Bluff Creek, California (where the famous 1967 Bigfoot footage was shot), capturing their findings on camera.
To begin with their trip follows the format established by The Blair Witch Project (1999). Encountering eccentric locals (often non-actors) aplenty, they – and we – mock their small-town superstitions, while ignoring repeated warnings not to venture into the woods. ‘It’s not a joke,’ says an angry local. ‘You shouldn’t go there.’ But go they do and, well, you know the rest.
Except you don’t. Unlike most found-footage characters, Kelly and Jim are a charming, convincing couple. They’ve also brought a tripod, so their film is surprisingly easy on the eye. Goldthwait has some tricks up his sleeve, too, not least an astonishing 19-minute static shot of the couple in their tent, becoming increasingly terrified, as something stomps around outside.
It’s at this point you realise that nothing here is accidental. Though it feels improvised, this is a well-honed work, with details laughed off in the daylight becoming spookily significant once darkness falls. Funny, scary and over in less than 80 minutes, Willow Creek is so much better than it needs to be; it might be the start of a second act for the genre itself.
Limited release from Fri 2 May.
Bobcat Goldthwait is showing WILLOW CREEK at the Syracuse Film Festival. The film stars Alexie as part of a couple who go into the infamous woods to try to find proof of the bipedal creature. The article to fallow.
Bobcat Goldthwait shows ‘Willow’ Creek’ at Syracuse film festival
Writer-director Bobcat Goldthwait’s movie “Willow Creek” is screened during the Syracuse International Film Festival on Saturday, October 5, 2013, at the Palace Theater. Appearing on screen are actors Alexie Gilmore and Bryce Johnson.
A really good and positive review of Alexie’s film WILLOW CREEK. I like those. Enjoy.
FEARnet Movie Review: ‘Willow Creek’
After films like Shakes the Clown (1991), Sleeping Dogs Lie (2006), World’s Greatest Dad (2009), and God Bless America (2011), you surely know what to expect from writer/director Bobcat Goldthwait by now, right? Loud, colorful, perhaps even garish social commentary and raunchy farce from a stand-up comic turned actor turned surprisingly good filmmaker. Wrong!
The man’s latest film is a refreshingly matter-of-fact horror/thriller called Willow Creek, and to my eyes, it’s the best sort of “homage” you can do. Based solely on Willow Creek it seems plainly evident that Goldthwait is a fan of A) “found footage” horror films in general, and B) The Blair Witch Project in particular, and so he packed up a few (very good) actors, a handful of cameras, and hit the road to make a low-key scary movie that works for all the reasons I just mentioned.
Right off the bat I’ll “warn” you that the 78-minute Willow Creek is what’s widely referred to as a slow burn. As in, the first two-thirds of the movie are spent setting up the (simple) plot, the (cool) setting, and the (refreshingly cool) lead characters. Jim (Bryce Johnson) is an amateur filmmaker who wants nothing more than to document a trip deep into “Bigfoot” territory, and Kelly (Alexie Gilmore) is his sweet, smart girlfriend who comes along to help out.
That’s it. Two people, one camera, one goal: dig up some dirt on Bigfoot!
At its best moments, Willow Creek feels like someone (probably Goldthwait) was watching Blair Witch and thought, “Hey, that’s cool, but what if we tried a new angle, or went in a different direction, or what if we (I dunno) made the characters likable?” (I’m just kidding around. I love The Blair Witch Project, and the fact that it still inspires good filmmakers is a testament to its overt coolness.) Johnson and Gilmore bring an effortless chemistry to the film, which (it must be said) elevates Willow Creek beyond so many of its “found footage” ilk. For a horror flick in which, frankly, not a whole lot happens for 45 minutes, the actors do make it interesting enough.
The patient horror fans will certainly enjoy what the third act of Willow Creek has to offer, and soon there will be a lot of geeky discussions over the film’s one “super-long” (almost 20 minute!) take, but speaking as a guy who sees a lot of movies in which two people point a camera at dark shadows, I say Willow Creek is a calm, cool. creepy little winner. It coasts on the skills of the lead actors, and then it transforms into a powerful cauldron of legitimate suspense. Lots of indie horror flicks can steal a scare or shock you with some gore, but Willow Creek sustains actual suspense for an admirable amount of time. Straightforward, simple, scary. I like it.
