The Wildman of Shaggy Creek (2025) Movie Review: Throwback coming-of-age creature-feature is harmless but entirely listless and forgettable

Movies about something strange in the woods only work if there’s some sort of intriguing myth and mystery around it. Jesse Edwards’ harmless coming-of-age film, “The Wildman of Shaggy Creek,” employs 80s throwback tropes to present a creature feature that becomes entirely listless because it is neither able to conjure up dread nor some form of mystery that would make it memorable. More than the ’80s nostalgic trip, the film feels like it’s borrowing from the already borrowed resurgence of the coming-of-age genre. Think “Stranger Things” without the dread of the demogorgon or the upside-down, and you get the drift.

The film follows Scott (Hudson Hensley), a middle-schooler who has to leave his lakeside house somewhere in California to move to a new one bordering the titular Shaggy Creek forest. His mother, Charlotte (Alle Sutton Hethcoat), is a workaholic who moved to the new home for her job — but also because she wanted more time to spend with her son, making the move entirely ill-planned in my opinion. His father is a house-hermit, a self-proclaimed wilderness expert whose Australian accent is the only thing working for him as a character.

The move must be huge for the adults – the moving van hasn’t shown up for a couple of days – but it is especially difficult for Scott as he has to leave his friends behind. In fact, Scott is so flustered with the sudden change that he decides to leave the texting group he had with his friends back in California, in addition to avoiding Bridger, his best friend, who is worried about his family suddenly uprooting their life in the middle of the school year. However, it’s not long before he meets the kids of the block – with BMX bikes and all.

One of them, Zach (Brycen Patterson), is older and the clichéd, designed bully in these scenarios. He is the self-designated leader of this group of four, which includes Zach’s older-than-her-age little sister, Hailey (Ayla Bullington), who has a soft spot for Scott, along with Brent and Emily. The group warns Scott about the Wildman, who has been living and preying in the woods behind the house, and possibly killed a kid who lived in the house that Scott’s family has moved into.

A still from The Wildman of Shaggy Creek (2025)

Now, sequences after sequences emerge, which puts Scott in the way of the woods and the woods in the way of Scott. The rest of it plays out like any of the creature features that you might have seen from the ’80s. It does not take a lot of guesses to know exactly where the movie will be heading next. And while that is not one of the major issues that the film suffers from, it’s always more intriguing if the film builds on some form of tension that is associated with the monster.

The said tension could come out of Scott’s temporal isolation or his lack of communication with his parents, especially his mother. However, director Jesse Edwards fails to imbibe the film with any such aspects. Despite clear throwbacks to classics of the same genre, he uses kids texting each other about what’s happening instead of allowing these characters to do those things. It not only deflates the basic scenario creation tactics, but also creates a lot of continuity issues that cannot be hidden under good cinematography.

Based on the novel by R.H. Grimly, the screenplay, co-written by Scott Baird, panders to young adults, but beyond elements that you find in family adventure films, there’s nothing unique in the way things play out in “The Wildman of Shaggy Creek.” Overall, it feels like an extended episode of Goosebumps – one of those filler ones that would cast actors who read lines instead of emoting them. The coming-of-age that Scott goes through also feels manufactured and inorganic to all the other proceedings in the film.

It’s hard to be too mad at the film, though. All it’s trying to be is a family-friendly adventure that is second-screen worthy enough for it to be playing in the background while the parents and the children are scrolling through their social media feeds endlessly. I just wish any of the people on screen felt like they were even remotely interested in the film and not barely sleepwalking through it.