Wild Man of the Navidad DVD: Review By DVDExaminerTyson

The Wild Man of the Navidad is another supposed fact-based horror from the producer of the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre from 1974, Kim Henkel. This independent film directed by the duo who studied with Henkel, Duane Graves and Justin Meeks, is an interesting throw-back to the classic creature-features of the '70's that tells the tale of a creature lurking in the surrounding woods that terrorized a small town in Texas for years.

The film is mostly based on the journals of Dale S. Rogers (played by Meeks), who lived along the Navidad River near Sublime, Texas in the 1970's. The film focuses on Dale, his wheelchair-bound wife, and their Mexican care-taker, Mario. After losing his welding job, Dale needs to find a way to make ends meet. After some persuasion from the locals, he opens up his land -that has been closed off for years by his father before him- to the hunters. Dale knows that there is some sort of man-beast out there that's hungry for blood, but still allows people to go hunting on his property, for the right price. The hunters intruding on it's land angers the Wild Man and he starts to become increasingly more violent and bold in his attacks. After Dale and the town folk have had enough of the murderous beast, a hunting party is put together to try to rid the area of the beast, permanently.

What Graves and Meeks have done extremely well with The Wild Man of the Navidad is recreate not only rural 1970's Texas, but also recreate the 1970's creature-horror b-movie genre to great detail. This film was made on an incredibly small budget, so the crew (which if I recall correctly only consisted of less than 15 people) hired the actual locals from the town of Sublime, Texas to play roles in the film. Because of this you get two different feels: Some of the locals seem to be able to act well-enough, and others can't act at all. The latter is only a few occasions and by no means ruins the film. Meeks does a good job as the lead, he's a decent enough actor and plays a reluctant Dale Rogers well (granted, I don't know how the real Dale Rogers was, but Meeks portrays a likable guy that you sympathize with).

As far as the horror aspect of this film goes, there's not much substance to it -though, I believe this may be intentional recalling the few '70's b-movies that I have seen. Don't get me wrong, it's a fun -and at often times funny- film, and I appreciate what Meeks and Graves have created here, but I never felt "creeped out" or anxious about The Wild Man of Navidad at any point during the running time. I was really hoping for a good old fashioned horror movie that would get a reaction out of me, but what we get instead is a border-line campy, retro horror flick that's light on the actual "horror" aspect. Though, I will admit my expectations may have been a little misplaced. The Wild Man himself through most of the movie is a person walking around in animal pelts killing people with deer antlers and just isn't that intimidating; though, at the end of the film you get a good look at his face which is pretty surreal. What I found interesting is that a lot of this film, unlike most horror films, has a lot of the interactions with the beast take place during the day time. I would assume this may have been a result of how Rogers' journals depicted these interactions, but it still took something away from the "mystery" of the Wild Man.

Overall, I appreciate what Meeks and Graves created with this film and think that anyone who is a fan of the horror genre would like many aspects of this film. The Wild Man of the Navidad falls short in the actual thrills aspect in many regards though, leaving the viewer a little disappointed at its conclusion. I give this one a mild recommendation if this film sounds like it's up your alley. Despite this films short-comings, I certainly think that the writing/directing team of Duane Graves and Justin Meeks are very talented and will be checking out more of their past works, as well as films that they may produce in the years to come.

Special features on the DVD include an additional short film by Meeks and Graves, a short making-of featurette, and an introduction to the film by Kim Henkel.