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Movie Review: 'Hoax' Shows Dread Central as the Home of Modern Drive-In Horror

Dread Central puts their stamp on the Sasquatch horror genre.

By Sean PatrickPublished 5 years ago 3 min read
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Cheryl Texiera, Max Decker and Justin Johnson in 'Hoax'

A group of attractive young people are getting horny and high in the woods, as one of them begins to tell a campfire story. As the group splits into couples to indulge in their attractive young people-ness, a rumble emerges from the forest. The rumble becomes a roar, and our pretty storyteller is dispatched.

Soon after, each of the young couples, in various states of coital undress are also dispatched with gory aplomb. All indications point to something both unearthly in its evil, and all-earthly in its forest dwelling dangers. Sasquatch, or more informally, Bigfoot, has taken this group of campers for his viscera-based feast.

That's just the opening salvo of gore in Hoax, a new Z-grade horror movie from co-writer and director Matt Allen, who leans heavily into the drive-in horror aesthetic in an only slightly more tasteful fashion. Tasteful, in that the gore of Hoax is a slightly more off-screen than the kind fans of 70s drive-in or midnight movies might remember. Think of it as Z-movies for a more sensitive era.

The plot of Hoax truly kicks in when a disreputable television producer, Rick Paxton (Ben Browder), desperate for a way back onto television, and back into the good graces of his former network bosses, offers to find Bigfoot. He's mostly dismissed, but soon after, Paxton is recruiting a team to helicopter deep into the forest to find Sasquatch.

Joining Paxton is Dr. Ellen Freese (Cheryl Texiera), a veterinarian and primatologist. Dr. Freese doesn't buy the Bigfoot nonsense, but $10,000 is too much to pass up for a week in the woods. Dr. Freese joins a team that includes wannabe network anchor and diva Bridget (Shoshanna Bush), a pair of production assistants, Justin (Hutch Dano) and Danny (Brian Landis Folkins), and a security expert named Singer (Brian Thompson).

A surprise, last minute addition to the team is Cooper (Max Decker). Cooper is the father of the girl we met in the opening scene of the movie, our storyteller. Cooper reluctantly joined up with Paxton on the slim hope that his daughter might be alive in the woods somewhere. Notably, the bodies of the young campers have not been recovered.

Hoax is a clever title that helps to keep you guessing where the movie is headed. Does the movie intend to show you Bigfoot as a raging, murderous monster, or is one of our crew members a killer? Or is there another, even more sinister surprise awaiting us. You will have to watch to the end of Hoax to get something close to an answer.

The question then becomes, do I recommend you even begin watching Hoax, let alone watch to the end. I guess I do. Strangely, it was only while writing about Hoax that I began to appreciate the way the film acted upon my sensibilities. Don't get me wrong, the movie is a whole lot of low budget nonsense, but it is some fun low budget nonsense.

There is a sneaky bit of ambition behind the clumsy, low rent quality of Hoax. The movie picks up steam in the final act when all is revealed about whether we are dealing with Sasquatch or something else. I really got into the final act, and the nastiness that the film was holding back on a little throughout becomes more pronounced.

If you can appreciate old school, drive in style horror movies, Hoax is the kind of horror movie you might enjoy. Dread Central as a company has been hitting it out of the park lately by embracing the low budget B and Z movie style of the early to mid-1970s. Movies that Roger Corman might have made. It's a great niche for the boutique movie distributors, and they appear to relish it.

Hoax is now available on Blu-Ray, DVD, and streaming services.

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About the Creator

Sean Patrick

Hello, my name is Sean Patrick He/Him, and I am a film critic and podcast host for the I Hate Critics Movie Review Podcast I am a voting member of the Critics Choice Association, the group behind the annual Critics Choice Awards.

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