Valley of the Sasquatch

You have to make sure that you have appropriate expectations if you sit down to watch this. Seriously - it's a movie about Bigfoot! It's not going to win any Academy Awards. It's not even trying to win any Academy Awards. So you don't come in to this looking for a great movie that's destined to become a classic. You come into this hoping to find a kind of cheesy, low budget, B-Movie at best. And if you come into this with that expectation, you can sit back and enjoy it - because that's basically what you get. It is low budget, it is cheesy and it features basically an entirely unknown cast whose performances are less than outstanding. It features an unfortunate stereotype of the sole Mexican character as a druggie, and it inexplicably includes a flirting scene at the start of the move as young Michael flirts with a girl in town. She gets credited in spite of the fact that she's on screen for probably less than a minute and is given absolutely no lines. She smiles and waves at Michael. That's it. The actress is named Jordan Neslund, it's apparently the only film she's ever been in and for the rest of her life she can rent this and show it to her friends as proof that she was once in a movie. Good for her. The movie accomplished at least that.

Otherwise the story revolves around four guys (a father-son, their brother/uncle, and the aforementioned Mexican Sergio) who find themselves staying at a run down cabin in the woods and then go on a camping trip to hunt. And, of course, they encounter Sasquatch - several actually, and not a particularly friendly bunch!

There were things I liked about this. Aside from the lifelong memory for Jordan Neslund, even though the performances were unspectacular, I liked the characters. The four guys were all very different from one another, which set up a lot of believable tension between them. That helped move things along. And somebody somewhere had done some actual Sasquatch research. I love Sasquatch stories (don't believe in the big hairy guy, but love the stories) and I appreciated the relationship between this movie and the "Ape Canyon incident" of 1924, when several miners in a cabin reportedly were attacked by several "ape-men." Actually, that story was even told around the campfire as a way to scare Sergio after he had the first encounter with "something" that nobody else believed was a Sasquatch. I would say that this was probably very loosely based on the stories of that incident - and to be honest, I'd really prefer if somebody actually made a serious movie about that incident - whether attributing it to "ape-men" or to local youths (which is the prevailing theory.) That could actually be a decent movie.

As for this one - just sit back, set your expectations accordingly, and watch this. It's not going to be the best movie you've ever seen. But it's not a bad way to pass some free time. (5/10)

After waiting for over a year for this movie to come I finally got to watch it. It's not that good. Bad acting and uninteresting characters. If you want to watch a really good Bigfoot movie I highly suggest watching "Exists". Now that's a Bigfoot movie. "Hunting Grounds" pales in comparison.

They taught us that if you're going out into the wilderness, you'd best bring everything you need to survive with you. And that still holds true today. I thought this flick was pretty good for a monster movie. About what you'd expect, maybe better than the average Big Foot story. I didn't 'get' the Sergio character, though. He seemed to me to be unnecessary and kind of annoying.

Following the loss of their home, a father and son eventually move to a small cabin in the wilderness to reconnect but when a group of friends arrive for a hunting trip they find themselves stalked by a ravenous group of sasquatch looking to protect their home and must get out alive.

This here was quite an engaging effort in this particular style. One of the film's greatest strengths is the fact that a lot of this rests on the father/son relationship at the heart of the story, and the first half here gets this done particularly well with the two of them at the cabin basically trying to reconnect with each other. The emphasis on them at odds with each other brings them to a state where they're not butting heads but a more realistic disinterest in each others' chosen activities yet still trying to reconnect and stay involved with each other's lives. It comes off rather nice and believable and is a great way to disguise the fact that there's not a whole lot of action for the first half of the film by getting to know these people. As time goes on and their hunting expedition turns slightly crazier and much creepier, that is paid off in fine form with the slowly-dawning realization that something is out there, watching and waiting. Eschewing the obvious sounds of grunting or loud, inhuman wails until they've already gotten good and freaked out, this one instead opts for the silent assassin waiting in the woods following behind them unseen or continually crashing through the bushes just out-of-sight which offers up a far creepier experience here. The scene where it all breaks down when they find Bigfoot has invaded their camp and go off chasing it through the woods works so well due to the hysteria of the moment, and that spills out into their series of encounters not only with the creature and each other. Given that there's all the action here in the later half, that's where this one really gets quite fun. The creatures have a rather fun, extended battle with the group trapped inside the cabin which has a lot of enjoyable action in this one, and their sense of hunting strategies and cunning makes for some fun times in their ambush on the cabin. Wrapped together with real practical effects and some nice gory kills from the creatures, there are some solid features throughout here. While it's all well and good, it does have a few minor setbacks to it. The low-budget nature of the film means that a lot of the time the darkness with which it's shot doesn't equate to a really easy time telling what's going on. Campfire scenes, in particular, are so dully lit that it's impossible to make out what's happening at times, and that these occur during the film's biggest moments is all the more frustrating. Even the final ambush comes under this problem as the film manages to really undermine the events where they fight against the creature is spoiled by the low light present and it really brings this one down when it shouldn't. Likewise, there's also the film's lack of action in the first half which is where the build-up to the father/son relationship holds the bigfoot action down to the point of featuring nothing for quite a while into the movie, and it can be a challenging introduction for some who don't really enjoy that kind of drama in their efforts. These here are what end up holding the film down.

Rated R: Graphic Violence and Extreme Graphic Language.

This movie starts out sorta typical with a Father / Son pair who lost the wife / mother going on a move to the cabin in the woods. Soon brother and family friend show up and tensions start to mount as the group begins a beer fueled hunting trip. Then the movie de-evolves into a series of idiotic plot moments as normal humans just don't make the type of decisions these people make. This is one to avoid. You'll be glad you saved your time for something more useful such as watching paint dry.