Bigfoot

I had a chance to attend a midnight screening of Bigfoot at local film festival here in New York. What impressed me most is that writer-director-co-star Bob Gray delivered a product far superior to the likes of, lets say "Sasquatch Hunters", on what I understand was a far smaller budget. Bigfoot is fun, effectively written and directed. OK, yes, it never fully escapes feeling like a B movie, but I think that's the idea. This movie knows what it is, a fun, at times campy, but always entertaining horror film about Bigfoot on the loose. The camera work is inventive, and some of the characters are far better performed written and performed than you'd imagine. In a supporting role, Bob Gray is terrifically cast as a county sheriff and friend of the lead. Peppered with some very funny moments, and effective suspense, Bigfoot is very much worth the watch.

Bigfoot (2006)

** (out of 4)

This low-budget horror film isn't going to be mistaken for a masterpiece but it's certainly much better than you'd expect it to be. The story is pretty simple as a man gets thrown out of the Army so he returns to his hometown where his father just recently died. The man strikes it up with his old friend who just happens to be the Sheriff now and soon they're thrown into a mystery surrounding several mutilated deers. When humans start showing up ripped apart they soon realize that it's not a bear doing the damage but instead Bigfoot. Is BIGFOOT a good movie? Not at all. What it is however is a pretty impressive "B" movie that really tries to be a throwback to the 80s direct-to-video titles and on this level the film works pretty well. Director Bob Gray does a very good job directing this film as he does the one thing great that usually kills these types of films and that's the pacing. A lot of these movies appear to have just been slung together and the pacing is all over the map but that's not the case here. I was really impressed with the way Gray kept the film moving at a good pace and even more impressive is that he actually tries to build up a story to go along with the horror elements. There's a backstory dealing with the main character's discharge from the Army and we even get a few bits and pieces from the other characters. Not all of these backstory works too well but at the same time at least the director shows he could add this stuff and work it into the material. The performances are another plus with Todd Cox doing a good job in the lead role and Gray himself is good playing the buddy/Sheriff. I've seen countless low-budget Bigfoot movies as the monster is without question my favorite "myth" character. The outfit design here of Bigfoot is without question the best I've seen. I really liked the wrinkled-up face and even the hair on the outfit looked believable. Just compare the outfit here to any other Bigfoot movie and I'll think even the most jaded person will be impressed. As is the case with a lot of these type of movies, the film eventually runs out of gas around the one hour mark and the final showdown with the creature isn't nearly as good as some of the earlier moments in the film. With that said, if you're a fan of this type of picture then it's certainly worth checking out.

This is not a good movie, although by low budget monster movie standards I would say it is far from the worst. The plot and the dialogue are no worse than average for such movies. One thing I liked was this: Usually in monster movies set in a small town, a significant percentage of the population are ignorant blockheads continually running off halfcocked and doing stupid, and usually trigger-happy, things. This movie had a few of those, but most of the major characters were actually decent, reasonable people. That was a pleasant enough change that in spite of the two star rating, I'm actually not sorry I watched this.

This was the worst movie I've ever seen...but it was so bad I had to 2atch the whole thing

The movie had a very good music score and kept moving along. Sheriff Tom Perkins (Bob Gray) carried the movie with pain in the backside Barkely Herd (Robert Antonelli) adding a little excitement. The rest of the cast was pretty good with no terrible acting anyway. It's worth a watch and there seems to be a lot of production value for 40K.