The movie left me more confused than entertained. Sanchez has proved himself not once, but three times as a master of the horror genre. When he announced he would tackle Bigfoot, I thought for sure he would bring his usual flair to a "been there done that" premise. What makes his films great are the emotional weight and deep characters that give purpose to the surrounding action. That is exactly what is missing in Exists. It isn't necessarily a bad film, but its generic, an almost worse crime. The characters are not only "by the numbers," they are badly written "by the numbers" characters. For the first half hour, the characters act so stereotypical that I wanted them all to die, and fast. Girls whimpering "OMG what is that?" as they huddle underneath their man's fully toned arm. "GET AT ME BRO" the man cries with defiance. Seriously? Luckily, once Bigfoot does show up and the film sees some casualties, it does pick up some speed. The characters react alright to what is happening around them, and you could tell it was Sanchez by the haunting music and emotionality brought to the film when a character does die. We don't care about who dies, but these people sure do, and that makes me feel for them a little more. It's not enough, though. The film still lacks that raw ingredient that every film needs. The found footage only works in spots, and is glaringly misguided in others. I have a feeling it wasn't originally written to be found footage and was only morphed into that during the development process. Some cameras magically appear out of nowhere in the woods. Where did it come from? Whose camera was it? It's not logical, and it brings the film down. I actually found the style to be degrading to the quality of the movie. Sanchez has style and I wish he upped his game. Now, let me talk about Bigfoot. Well, he's awesome. I haven't seen a film where he is so terrifying. He moves and looks just like he does in all those photographs you see. When he howls and rampages, you just want to curl up in a ball. He's that scary. I expect more from Sanchez, and this was a disappointment overall.
