MovieChat Forums > The Wild Man of the Navidad (2008) Discussion > Garbage. Amazing what free screeners ca...

Garbage. Amazing what free screeners can get you from some review sites


****SPOILERS******




"The Wild Man of the Navidad"


This was going to be the subject of a proper, screen caps and all, review. Now I've seen this junk though it ain't worth it.

Here be spoilers....as quite frankly (despite what some review sites who should know better may try to tell you after watching their freebie screeners) no one else needs waste their *beep* hard earned money on this.

Yes, the makers got the look right (cheap white-out contrast problems aside) to give this the style of a 70's Drive-In/Grindhouse flick and the compositions and framing are genuinely astute at carrying this off.
As were the great retro looking titles.

But that's as much as this lifeless, dull, badly written, just frustratingly weak and generally naff movie gets to the real thing.

I don't know of any 70's 'creature' flick that would let over half the running time go past without barely a glimpse, or one single attack (let alone death) from the creature.
At the very least these films gave us pre-credit/opening sequence establishing the creature's presence and threat the essential hook to thrill and pull in the audience while (YES) the often long build-up occurs to the next attack...here though we literally have nothing at all offered up to us.

At about 55 minutes (of an 83 minute film) in we finally have an attack, on characters we have spent a good five minute of constant screen time following.
And what are we given after this agonising wait?
A single shot of the creature, in the dark, bloodlessly attacking a tiny tent (the two characters are nowhere to be seen) with just dubbed on over screams to represent people being present.

Just over an hour in we finally have a tiny bit of real gore. Which is simply a bit of blood and some endlessly recycled, dried up looking, offal strips resting on the actor.
And as in all these weak, badly shot, attacks there are no meaty sound effects at all to represent what we are constantly not shown. Something real 70's movie makers were adept at providing to cover up their visual limitations.

Nothing much happens again then until the very end with one more attack that is once again just a splash of blood and bits of sad offal strips resting on the actor before the 'creature' is despatched, after a thrill free hunt by some bored and confused looking guys in sweaty shirts, in a totally bloodless fashion, by one single bullet, by what sounds like a cap gun.
The End.
Thank *beep*!

As a creature on the loose flick it utterly fails to deliver the thrills, kills or chills and even the gory fun.
The creature is a worthless looking, threat free, guy in a bunch of old rags and skins...that is never in doubt...and yet the makers still try to make out this may be a creature.
As such we get neither a successful rendering of a monster OR a successful rendering of a mad man.
Real deals like "Don't go in the Woods...Alone" shows how to deliver a wild man killer in a satisfying way (and a damn huge, gore-filled, body count besides) and yet that gets slagged off while this junk gets praised.

And even as a 'backroads' hick flick it fails due to the schizo writing and dull characters.
Shadowed plot points about the 'creature' are brought up (the main characters even know about it and - in endlessly repeated scenes of boredom - leave food out for it) with even the Sheriff knowing something even before any killing starts and yet he does nothing at all to stop any of it happening.

And exactly what retro movie world do the makers think a cheap Drive-In creature flick would be half in Spanish with subtitles?!
Make your minds up!

This also brings up the awful character writing for a guy named Mario who seems to be the live in (?) help to the main guy and his invalid wife.
One minute Mario is a total sleaze who tortures and sexually assaults the wife (even that's done in a dull fashion)...the next minute he's a wise friend to the husband and...wait for it...the moral backbone of the story!
But hold on! Next scene he's molesting the helpless wife again!
Worse, his eventual demise (basically he's the joint lead as far as screen time goes) happens off screen!

"The Wild Man of the Navidad" may have the look of a 70's exploitation film but it has NONE of the scuzzy energy, passion, wonderful characters, wonderful dialogue, cheap thrills, bloodlust, eccentricity or simple thudding violence of the real thing...and that's despite what the bogus quotes on the DVD may say to make you part with your cash.

Go watch the real deal. Don't be suckered like I was with this failed retro effort.


www.beardyfreak.com

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They must have been financed by Mexican narco's to put half the film in Spanish. What is it with Austin film makers trying to recreate grind house movies. Grind House movies were earnest, intelligent attempts at conjuring impactful films with budgetary constraints.
Its impossible to dissect the elements of grind house movies and mimic them and have it come off as anything other than a farce.

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The guy, carrying a dear antler in each hand and partially covered with pelts, just looked like a big, two-legged jackalope. How lame.

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