Sasquatch: The Legend of Bigfoot

The commercials for this movie are what sparked my interest in unexplained phenomena. I was six at the time, and one of the commercials featured a guy flying a plane over a Pacific Northwest forest. He looks down and sees a huge dark figure walking along the forest edge. The camera closes on the pilot's incredulous face, and the narrator ominously says, "What does this man see?". These commercials scared the crap out of me at the time. I only saw this movie about ten years later. It's pretty good, with dramatizations of several real sasquatch encounters, most notably the Ape Canyon incident (as told by Fred Beck in many Sasquatch books). In style, the movie is similar to Legend of Boggy Creek: low budget, creepy atmosphere, and the monsters are never directly shown. If you are into this sort of thing, and if you can find this movie to rent (good luck), I would recommend it.

This is the best bigfoot movie ever made. I went into it expecting the usual documentary with the usual "experts" and eyewitnesses swearing up and down that bigfoot existed. I was surprised to find this one was actually kind of scary. Bigfoot apparently isn't afraid to defend his turf in this one and terrorizes some loggers who spend the night in a cabin. I still remember scenes from it 21 years after seeing it in a theater. I wish I could find a copy on tape cause I would love to see it again.

Apparently there were a great many folks who thought this flick was a legit documentary and were disappointed when they discovered it was not. Merely a fictitious yarn put forth by B actors, retelling old wivestales about bigfoot. For example, (the supposedly), old mountain man, looks about as comfortable sitting on a mule as a Java caveman would look sitting on a Suzuki. But there are stunning views of the Pacific Northwest wilderness and the mountain lion attack is well done considering the lack of special effects.

In truth, there are very few chills and thrills even with strange, compelling music that unfailingly announces the imminent appearance of the Hairy One.

I saw this film back in Fairmont West Virginia in 1979 as a ten year old who had a typical little kid's fascination with Bigfoot. I guess I still do as a matter of fact. This film follows a fictional expedition into the woods to find this legendary creature and put a homing device on its neck so they can track its habitat (there is actually a law on the books providing a heavy fine and a jail term to anyone who kills a Sasquatch believe it or not!). The film opens with beautiful shots of the woods, the best you will ever see outside those wonderful National Geographic specials) THEN! this spooky Jaws like music starts playing and you hear HIM creeping thru the woods and the animals start to panic and run away and you hear this blood curdling call and you see the shadow of the Sasquatch. This is the Holy Grail of Bigfoot films, the best I have ever seen next to Sunn Classic's The Mysterious Monsters. The guys in this expedition are not the best actors in the world and its kind of funny watching them. I particularly remember this camp cook who was real clumsy and this old fart who was the last of the mountain men. The film is really scary in some parts. It gives you the feeling that the expedition is being followed as rocks keep raining down on them. The best parts of the film is where they go over actual historical sighting of Bigfoot. They even show the famous Roger Patterson film of the creature. There is a story in there that was written by President Teddy Roosevelt in a book he wrote about his days as a cowboy. He heard this from an old trapper named Bauman about how he and another man ran into a pretty mean Bigfoot and this other man was killed (this is the only case I have ever read where a Bigfoot showed a really mean nature, I have always wondered if maybe another person did it!). They also tell the famous Mount Saint Helens story about the miners in 1924 who were attacked in their cabin by a tribe of Bigfeet. The attack is pretty scary especially when one of the miners looks out the window and finds hes staring one of the monsters right in the face! I remember seeing this is the theatrical version of the film I saw but its not on the video version I bought. It was the part that scared me the most as a kid. It shows a little Indian brave out hunting alone and you see a Bigfoot stalking him. He comes face to face with the monster and it begins to chase him. It was horrifying to watch and maybe thats why they took it out of the film. The final scene in the film where they set up the trip wires and the Sasquatch attack is very well done even while the Bigfoot costumes look more like Chewbacca from Star Wars. This is a good film to watch on a dark night when you are all alone.

I finally acquired a dubbed copy of Sasquatch recently. Last distributed by VCA, the video is nearly impossible to find.

But my efforts payed off. I remembered this movie as great fun. It plays up on the scary idea of hairy giants running rampant in the woods yet it looks for all the world like a old national geographic documentary.

And despite noticing lots of obvious flaws through my considerably older eyes, I still had great fun watching it again.

Find a copy, make some popcorn, and turn off the lights........