Sasquatch Review

[Great Sage]

Okay, so I was at the video store and the title “Sasquatch” caught my eye.  This movie had B-movie written all over it (most movies which stars Lance Henriksen are usually B-rated), so naturally I picked it up.  Here’s what I thought.

SYNOPSIS
A plane carrying the daughter of Bio-Comp President, Harlan Knowles (Lance Henriksen) crashes in the forests of the Pacific Northwest.  In an attempt to search for survivors, Knowles leads an expedition into the seemingly dangerous region of the Northwest.  What they find are clues suggesting that they may have stumbled upon one of the enigmas of life â€" the Sasquatch.

CINEMATOGRAPHY
The opening credits are very annoying with a blurring in-and-out effect.  This idea seems to prevail throughout the entire film.  There are endless scenes that just fade to black for no apparent reason.  The films seems to suggest blood and gore, but there’s hardly any to mention...  More disturbing is the sexual content that is blatantly used without any purpose.  The viewer is suggested that perhaps Sasquatch is interested in one of the female party members, who happens to flaunt her naked body at every turn... However, he ends up killing her.  So what was the purpose of Sasquatch stalking and dragging her away?

CHARACTERS
The acting is subpar...  We get the usual from Lance, a la “Pumpkin Head”, “Man’s Best Friend.”  What doesn’t work for the film is that everyone seems to know everything or figures everything out so easily...  Not two days into the forest and we know all there is to know about Bigfoots.  We also learn that they’re aware of technological advances.  Gosh, I wonder how all those Bigfoot hunters in the past could have missed all the clues...

It’s really rare in these type movies to see the adversary/monster right away.  This movie should have followed the prerequisite.  The mystic is lost because we know exactly what we’re looking at.  There could have been some creative way of making the viewers guess about Sasquatch’s nature, or something...  You do get the usual character wandering off and getting killed bit.

The Sasquatch itself is disappointing.  The costume is very home-made and one has a hard time imagining that this thing could really drag an airplane.  It doesn’t look intimidating, fast, athletic or even a bit frightening.  I had envisioned something massive, large and bulky, but instead we get a man in a monkey outfit.

CONCLUSION
It’s a movie to rent with all our B-movie buddies around drinking beer.  The movie sort of moves right along without really exploring its content.  There’s no gore, but the nudity was used to get an adult rating, and probably some much needed attention.  

This movie suggests that it was based on actual events...  Whatever that means, I’m not so sure.  But the end credits offer a good hint â€" Harlan Knowles was a pycho that got put away.  So much for the credibility of his story.  Altogether, not a great movie, but bearable.

[Brother Ragnarok]

I actually liked this movie.  I wasn't expecting to, but I did.  While it still has all the goofy B-movie elements, it seemed to have more heart than a lot of DTV fare these days.  And the bigfoot suit, while not what you'd expect, was pretty groovy too.  I dug the jet-black skin.  Hey, if you want to rag on a crummy bigfoot costume, go rent Night of the Demon.  Or don't and save  yourself $2 and some pain.

Brother R

[JohnL]

I just watched this movie last weekend. I didn't hate it as much as some of the people on the IMDB, in fact I thought it had some great atmosphere at times. The film effects were incredibly annoying and overused though. Barely a minute went by without some kind of an effect, slo-mo, blurred, rotating camera, fade out, fade in, heat vision. It was like a two hour demo tape for film effects.

As for the creature suit, I thought it looked like the mutant offspring of Swamp Thing and a giant poodle, painted black.

It was nice to see Andrea Roth in something new though.

(yes, I did a search for the title rather than starting a new thread)

[cheeky-monkey]

I liked this movie.
The sacrafice lance made at the end to keep the monster safe was kinda touching.

[JohnL]

I got the impression he was saving his own ass.