It Goes on All Fours

The It Goes on All Fours Project

It Goes on All Fours opens on a ritual sacrifice performed by the cult.

Then, in a scene at a diner, we meet Stefan, Rayko, and Aharon. The trio is consoling Rayko, as he just suffered an intense breakup. To try and get Rayko’s mind off of it, Stefan offers that the group go on a hunting trip.

After the group decides to take up the offer, they stop at a gas station on their drive out to the hunting grounds. Here they encounter a strange woman and even stranger symbols.

The group carries on, and arrives at the hunting ground where they meet the other group and the people conducting the hunt: the cult.

The groups bond over getting rained out and a failed hunt… but things are getting suspicious and one of the hunters has gone missing.

After the rest of the group had gone to sleep one night, Stefan sneaks out and tries to find what he really came on the hunt for – the beast of legend he wants to take down.

Stefan has a close encounter with the creature, and finds out about the cult’s involvement with keeping it restrained. He keeps his mouth shut and hopes for another chance.

Soon enough, Stefan gets what he asked for – a face-to-face encounter with the skinwalker. Hunters become prey when attacked by the beast, and with a narrow escape Stefan is forced to confess the truth. He learns too late that he has been marked by the cult, and scrambles to try and find safety.

The trio approaches the cult in hopes to be saved, but after realizing they have control over the monster Stefan chooses to shoot the cult leader and free the beast. Once freed, it gets its ancient revenge, and kills everybody.

We end on a wall of rotting missing posters. The runes that once marked them are now gone. The cult has ceased to exist, and the beast now walks free.

The Monster

When watching a monster film, it’s expected that the main draw of the movie should be the design of the monster. The more unique and more terrifying the beast, the better.

Designed by renowned creature designer Keith Thompson, It Goes on All Fours features a “yee naaldlooshii” – a skinwalker, which has many specific design features to tell its story visually. Shackles leave marks on its wrists and ankles, pointing to the enslaved nature of the beast. It leaves frost where it steps, as its blood runs frozen from its torn-out heart of ice.

In Navajo mythology, a skinwalker is an evil witch capable of transforming between beast and human form. Our monster is stuck somewhere in-between the process, sporting a human face growing out of the front side of its’ vicious snout. When standing on its hind legs and peering at you from the darkness of the woods, you could mistake it as a fellow man… but once it goes on all fours, the beast reveals its true vicious nature.