Tahoe Joe (2022) (USA)

⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

Filmmaker Dillon Brown heads into the Nevada portion of the Sierra Nevadas with his buddy and former Green Beret (now a survival expert) Michael Rock to document an attempt at finding a missing person. Mike received some troubling info from the missing man’s son after dad vanished while tracking down the titular Sasquatch, even catching some footage of the creature stalking through the background of his shots right before disappearing off the face of the earth. All the evidence is pointing to a fatal attack by the creature. The man’s son, Jaylin, joins them on their quest for answers (but decides he can’t do it after being flown out and revealing he sustained a neck injury the last time he was out there looking for his papa) as well as a “dude from the Internet” who also caught footage of the infamous local cryptid and rocks some solid mutton chops. Internet dude believes the government is up to no good in the area and the strange electrical issues seem to prove his point, as much as our two leads believe him to be full of shit. They hike deeper into the woods with Internet guy as their guide, trusting him less and less as they set up camp for the night in the area where he last saw the hairy hominid. A confrontation between the armed drunk man and the former soldier leads to Internet guy roaming off. They find him that night, bloodied and unresponsive and they decide to get the hell out of the area. Hiking in the dark blows but it’s especially awful when you’re being hunted by North American forest apes with a violent temper… trust me, I know. There’s not much action in the opening stretch but it doesn’t really hinder anything, it remains intriguing and on solid ground thanks to the interesting situation and a couple of leads with their feet firmly planted in reality. It may just be because I’ve spent so much time drowning in the ocean of diarrhea that is no-budget found footage horror but this one was solid.