The Unknown

This is just inane, boring, low-budget Bigfoot film #55, not scary once, and half as funny.

In fact, not until I read all the comments above from cast-crew members pretending to be Joe Public -- or maybe just ONE cast or crew member pretending to be Joe Public -- not until then did I realize that any of it was SUPPOSED to be funny.

90 minutes down the drain.

Sigh.

IMDb is telling me that the minimum length for comments is ten lines of text. I can't think of ten lines worth of things to say about this nothing movie. But I'm vamping in hopes of getting this up to ten.

How 'bout those Mets?

Another tiny-budgeted creature feature in which various campers, poachers and hunters find themselves tangling with the Bigfoot legend. I caught this one on DVD under the title CLAWED: THE LEGEND OF SASQUATCH and quickly wished I hadn't. The paucity of the budget is evident from the very first scene and what follows is entirely predictable. The creature itself isn't the worst you'll see, but it gets very little screen time and there's not much in the way of gore FX for the horror fans. Instead for the most part we're stuck with the annoying teenager characters and their inane chatter. Miles O'Keeffe, of ATOR THE FIGHTING EAGLE fame, makes a rare appearance.

Reviews Of Unusual Size!

Re: Sasquatch is killing people in the woods, so a few drunk hunters and stereotyped high school kids decide to dink around in the woods for an hour of my life.

Outstanding: The Bigfoot costume was pretty decent for a B-Movie.

Unacceptable: The music was overbearing, the acting wooden, the story non-existent and even worse, the whole shambling mess was as boring as watching plaster dry in a footprint casting.

Summary: It's a bad sign when the most charismatic actor in a movie is the "blond bimbo" whose only purpose is to take her clothes off and act as a plot exposition device. Which would have been fine, if the Sasquatch had been cooler or acted less randomly. And really? The native American deputy was named John Eagleheart? Was the name Indian Plentywampum already taken?

1/5

In the deep woods of Echo Mountain, Pine Creek, three poachers are slaughtered by a predator and the survivor, Ed, organizes an illegal hunting with three other hunters. Meanwhile, the teenagers Rich (Dylan Purcell) and Jay (Brandon Henschel) are assigned by their biology teacher to prepare a seminar about species in danger of extinction. Jay invites his girlfriend Shea (Casey LaBow) and his cousin Jenny (Chelsea Hobbs) to camp with Rich and him in the forest to research animals for their work. Meanwhile the Indian Ranger John Eagleheart (Nathaniel Arcand) is also in the woods tracking the Sasquatch. When Ed and his men are attacked by the Big Foot, the teenagers try to escape to save their lives.

"The Unknown" is a bad collection of clichés and completely disappointing. The story begins without any previous development of the characters, and we see a group of illegal hunters being chased by a creature. Then we see the Sheriff and his Indian Ranger trying to protect the locals while the Mayor preoccupied with the season of tourism, in a situation repeated in many movies ("Jaws", for example). The biology teacher joins a nerd with a bully in an absolutely illogical situation. The conclusion is silly and ridiculous. My vote is four.

Title (Brazil): "O Desconhecido" ("The Unknown")

Three poachers are ripped apart in a suspected bear attack in the woods on Echo Mountain. The town Mayor is on the scene, he tells the police that he doesn't want this getting out because it will put off the summer tourists (sound familiar? I'd bet that the script writer lifted this from "Jaws" (1975), and subsequent nature strikes back horror movies). Some good ol' boys head up the mountain looking for the bear, at the same time four horny teens are up there camping too. We get our first facial glimpse of the Sasquatch 29 minutes in, far too human looking for me. Looks like a Neanderthal Man on steroids. What's strange is that the creature wastes no time in tearing apart hunters yet when it comes to the kids it/he prefers to just spy on them. To its credit the acting was decent and the characters engaging. However some of the script sucked, for example one guy says to the group that they should set up camp because it's getting dark when in fact it was already pitch black. I do like film set in the great outdoors, plenty of wilderness here but nothing spectacular. On the gore front it's quite tame and despite some sex talk there is zero nudity. And as for the ending I found it disappointing. "Clawed - The Legend of Sasquatch" is a far better title than "The Unknown", however as Bigfoot movies go this one if unremarkable. Watch "Night of the Demon" (1980) instead.