Gobblefoot — Gobblefoot ( DVD)

Gobblefoot is a US low-budget horror film from last year. It mixes eerie atmospherics, neat enough creature design, lo-fi splatter gore, quirky characters, with touches of awkward humour. The film follows the titular creature going on a killing spree in a village, with an ageing & troubled academic trying to find out what’s going on/ track down the creature. Here from SRS Cinema is a DVD release of the film, featuring a director's commentary track and a few other things.

Gobblefoot was directed and edited by Milan, Michigan-born Matt Jaissle. Since the early 90s, he’s racked up sixteen films, with five presently in production on top of that- so clearly a busy low-budget director. These go from the cheapy satanic horror of Back From Hell (1993), floating killer baby/ back from the dead serial killer– gore sleaze fest The Necro Files (1994) to the bad-action/ sci-fi of 300 Killers (2010), and more recently AI horror of Amityville VR (2024).

The film runs around the seventy-one-minute mark. We open with a nicely creepy/ mood setting pre-credits, as we get rolling text detailing the legend of Gobblefoot backed by eerie ambience & a picture of a collapsed building. We then see a thin/ rather frail man walking about a wild field, then into stark autumnal woodland, with a Super 8 camera. The ambient soundtrack nicely enhances the atmosphere, and as the man nears the wood, he hears the eerie call- he panics, rushes around & finally we see the first appearance of our creature- it’s a huge bird with a black-edged skull-like head, with feathered talons/ arms with claw/ hands on the end. The thing scratches at the man's face- quickly ripping it off to reveal a bloody/wide-eyed skull.

Next, we move to a snowy university grounds- where a tubby, grey, goateed & glassed professor has been sent the Super 8 film reel, and a pentagram-marked stone the frail man found in the field. After watching it, getting a PTSD combat flashback, and doing an internet search, he finds the legend of the creature relates to the village of Salem's Bluff- so he heads out there.

In the village, he meets a few quirky characters- there’s a grumpy gallery owner and a clown-nose-wearing local historian. He also heads into the wilds around the village to see if he can track down the creature. The film's mix of creepy atmospherics, creature sightings/ attacks, moments of splatter gore, and awkward comedy is largely well realised, and for the most part I enjoyed what Gobblefoot had to offer.

My only real issue with the film was the amount of fan/ talking head cameos they were- I’m guessing this is the folk that help fund the project- but there are way too many…there must be at least 15 plus…Anyway, I know it’s a means to an end, but there were just too many in the film.

On the extras side, we have a commentary track by director Matt Jaissle, and it’s a decent enough/ insightful affair. He starts off talking about the broken-down building in the pre-credits, and moves on to discuss the opening scene/ actor who appears. We find out this is the third film he’s made with SRS cinema. He talks about how he borrowed the film's character names from 1957’s Night Of The Demon. He discusses how the creatures' calls were created, and we find out where he got the pentagram-marked stone from. Later on, he talks about the creatures' POV shots and how its vomit was made, touches on scenes he likes, and more. Otherwise, we get: an uncut reel of the pre-credits shot, an around four-minute pitch video, and a trailer.

Gobblefoot was an entertaining blend of eerie atmosphere, neat lo-fi creature effects, some splatter-bound gore, and awkward humour. I do hope we get a follow-up to the film, as it’s a neat creature; I really dug the mix of horror sub-genres on offer here.