"Sasqua" is practically the embodiment of the concept of 'bare bones filmmaking'. Virtually a no-budget production, made by people with little to no film-experience. Some exploitation or genre films made this way, went on to later become cult classics. But that's not the story of "Sasqua". The film got lost into obscurity shortly after its release. Even if "Sasqua" is not the 'forgotten masterpiece' amongst the 70's Bigfoot movies we all hoped for, it did not deserve this faith. So sometimes, even faith can use a helping hand. The hand of a Humanoid, for instance. And so it happened. After 3 decades, mainly thanks the crusade of one single devoted horror fan, not only a copy of the movie surfaced again, but also - with the help & participation of some of the film's principal crew members - the whole story behind the making of "Sasqua" had a chance to be re-told.
The synopsis has already been mentioned on these pages. I'll add some other thoughts that occurred to me while watching a screener of "Sasqua". One thing I am fairly convinced of, is that the version both me, Coventry & Humanoid watched, is only a (very) rough cut of the film. A work-print, I'm sure. Transferred to tape and now digitized. Some brief shots feature fragments of time codes. And according to other bits of info I've gathered left & right, there should exist more footage that's not featured in this version of the film (like the alleged flashbacks for some of the characters). Did Channon Scot never get around to shooting them, or are they part of a finished (theatrical) cut of the film? Even with the new attention the film has now received, clarifying a lot of the mystery surrounding this production, "Sasqua" has not revealed all its secrets yet.
Just a little bit about the actual film then... It's kind of hard to call "Sasqua" a 'real' horror film. The woods have their desolate atmosphere and there are Sasquatch creatures running around in it. A few characters die. A little bit of blood. But that's as far as the horror goes. At no point the film manages to build up tension. The Sasquatch beasts - even though we see enough of them, but never any facial closeups - never manage to be truly scary. The film is cut together with scenes & sequences in such a way that, as a whole, the movie fails to portray the Sasquatch horde as the true menace they should be. The script tries to play out an angle where, from the towners point of view, the hippies are to blame for the killings. But the hippies & the sheriff figure out about the existence of the Bigfoots soon enough. Why & how they know this? It's never really explained. It seems just a normal thing to them and unfortunately it also takes away a lot of the mystery surrounding these mythical beings, roaming the woods. Naturally, the hippie community & the local law enforcers make the logical decision that these creatures must be stopped. But I must advise you to not get your hopes up about this. The ending of the film is cool, in a very 'vintage' way, but the conclusions is also very underwhelming.
Still, "Sasqua" does have other merits. Channon & his crew actually tried to make a serious film here. While the film has no real pace to speak of and the timing of events is a bit off (most of the time), there's this hunting sequence in the middle of the film. The hunting party feels like a sudden adrenaline boost coming out of nowhere, especially because of the way it's edited together. A Sasquatch attacks, things happen fast and the death of some hunters comes as a hard-hitting surprise. Furthermore, the movie has a few stand-alone shots featuring (parts of) a Sasquatch that are pretty downright imaginative. "Sasqua" also doesn't incorporate any silly attempts at humor and even some racial & social issues are touched upon in the screenplay. This is very commendable - and also rather uncommon - in a supposedly exploitational genre outing about cannibalistic Sasquatch creatures, wouldn't you agree? The film doesn't even feature gratuitous gore, nudity or sleaze. Another respectable choice the filmmakers made, so it seems.
Let's wrap things up rating-wise, shall we? Essentially, "Sasqua" is just a tad bit too inept work of cinema to give it a pass. But Channon Scot made a personal dream come true. A dream which a lot of people might have at one point in their lives, but never set out to get it accomplished: Independently write and direct a first full feature film. He managed to gather enough like-minded people, all working together, devoted to getting this film made. And it turned out an honest subgenre effort. A whole extra star granted, with love & appreciation.
