The Mysterious Monsters

There can no longer be any controversy. This film gives definitive proof that such things as Sunn Classic pictures actually existed in the '70's, and they were very cheaply made. They actually did employ inexperienced actors to reenact eyewitness testimony of Bigfoot, Yeti, and Nessie close encounters. They actually did use old Super 8 film with inconsistent sound levels. They actually did have the chutzpah to have some tall guy wander around in a cheap Halloween gorilla suit. They actually did advance the testimony of people like a few frightened boy scouts who were telling campfire ghost stories as irrefutable accounts.

Peter Graves's ultra-serious "Dragnet" type of stoic narration is priceless; his mission to keep a straight face and tone in light of this amateurish production was more difficult than any he had on the Mission: Impossible series. The "scientific experts" he interviews look like they got their academic degrees from a box of Cracker Jack.

Check your belief/skepticism at the door; opinions on the existence of the creatures have nothing at all to do with experiencing this film. This one is just for fun, to laugh at the shoddy production techniques. The film takes itself way too seriously, with various lines of "testimony" that are fun to imitate, and sequences, such as the guy "psychromitizing" a box to discover its contents (um, why not just open it?), which make you laugh so hard you miss half of it. It gets a grade 7 on its laugh value alone.

I can remember this movie coming to my local movie house as a child and I begged and begged my dad to take me but he refused knowing I would be scared senseless and I was.

I recently watched this movie again as an adult, and while not quite as scary, it was still charming and informative. The information presented is just as valid today as it was when the movie was made.

Especially entertaining is an ultra-serious Peter Graves who tries to convince the viewer that every bit of info presented is uncontestable proof that Bigfoot, the Yeti, and the Loch Ness Monster actually exist.

The re-enactments are fairly realistic and are not nearly as corny (or scary for that matter) as expected. The film is fast-paced and easy to understand.

While this isn't one of the all time great films ever made, "The Mysterious Monsters" is plenty entertaining, especially for true Sasquatch buffs. It is definitely worth a few hours of your time!

A very interesting film especially if you are alone one afternoon and have nothing else to do. I remember around Christmas time about 2 years ago I happened to catch this film on television. All I can say is it is a very good movie and keeps the interest in ones mind hoping for the film to never end! You can bet that this film is a definite Cult Classic! I have always been interested ever since I was little in the "unknown" and the "unexplained". This great movie was made in 1975 and we all have to realise that this is when the hype with all that stuff was big. It has even been shown and explained that the largest amount of sightings for Sasquatch, Water Monsters, and U.F.O's was in the 70's. The true "terror abductions" with aliens seems to of started in the late sixties, which was a big change from the previous "abductions of grandeur" from the 1950's. The 80's seems to be the "death" of the sightings for these phenomenon and throughout the 90's and even now these sightings almost hardly ever happen, what does that tell you? Of course one theory (which I agree with) was that when this mysteries were big, others wanted attention themselves and there was a "hoping on the band-wagon" effect. No doubt that some of these people were telling the truth or at least think they did. For example: when people are at a place that is infamous for having some type of monster or phenomenon; if they see something people will automatically jump to the conclusion that it was the monster and ignore the other possible explanations. But this movie overall is very good and nicely done, 'tis quite entertaining and I suggest one to see it one of these days. I still have some belief that there are many animals out there we haven't discovered yet, especially in the oceans! I give this movie 8/10.

Sunn Classic Pictures made some wonderful documentaries and this is by far the best. It is absolutely fascinating and i'm amazed at all they managed to cover about Bigfoot and Nessie in one film. The reenactments of the various sightings are very well done but may frighten kids. They frightened me when I was a kid and saw this film. I think the scariest scene was the one where the women is alone in her living room and Bigfoots shadow comes by and his hand crashes thru the window and then her husband opens the door and hes standing right there. This is the only documentary I have seen that includes a really inteligent detailed analysis of Roger Patterson's film of Bigfoot. Next to the Zapruder film, its the most famous home movie ever taken. Its also the only film I have seen that show's Patterson's film in its entirity. The only thing is that when the film talks about the Loch Ness Monster they show the famous "Surgeon's photo" of the head and neck of Nessie. In 1994, there was an old Englishman who confessed on his deathbed that picture was a hoax! Oh well, its still worth a look when it shows up on tv. Peter Graves is an excellent narrator.

...if you do a little research on the dying Brit, you soon discover that he was himself a hoaxer, while the man who made the "Surgeon's photo" was actually a very sober and upstanding gynecologist... and never given to hoaxes. Many Ness researchers don't believe the photo anyway, but not because it's ever been proven to be a hoax.

It has not been.

The "Loch Ness hoax" rumor is itself an urban legend, much like the so-called debunking of the Patterson Bigfoot film from 1967. A little research shows you that not only did the man (John Chambers) who was supposed to have faked the Bigfoot deny it to his grave, but the primary person who says he did it is filmmaker John Landis -- a known expert on simians, primates, and prehistoric humanoids... er, not quite. (Though he did make SCHLOCK.) Frankly, you only have to compare the Bigfoot material you get in something like MYSTERIOUS MONSTERS with the monkey suits on display in episodes of STAR TREK or KORG 70,000 BC from the same general timeframe to know that there's just no way any makeup artist from the time *could* have faked the suit! (Even the so-called "zipper" on the suit doesn't stand up to rigorous computer analysis. It's just a tuft of fur.)

All this by way of saying: Watch THE MYSTERIOUS MONSTERS and don't be too quick to believe every dying British con artist you read about, or every B-movie director who insists they can analyze film better than naturalists.