A team of scientists and rugged mountain men go on an expedition into the Canadian wilderness to track and hunt down a Bigfoot. Along the way they encounter many strange adventures, including being attacked by a mountain lion and watching two bears fight to the death. Eventually, they find the Bigfoot, and more, and their little journey ends in a night of total terror. Will the company find and capture a Bigfoot, will they kill one, or will they be slaughtered for venturing into forbidden, dangerous territory?
There’s a lot to say about this one and I’m not even sure if I can organize my thoughts. The movie plays like a real documentary, but it’s quite obvious it’s not. None of the people are convincing as real scientists or even rugged mountain men. The cook is straight out of a 50s Western, cantankerous and “funny.” There is a Native amongst them but he’s obviously white and wears an awful wig (if I am wrong about his ethnicity then I apologize but damn…) and speaks in that racist kind of halting dialogue. There’s also the big factor that they show real animals dying. If you’re against that sort of thing (and I hate it, myself), here’s your warning. I’m pretty sure they really shoot and kill a mountain lion, and there’s no way the footage of two bears fighting to the death is staged. There’s your warning. It is impressive that they got that mountain lion to attack a horse. I don’t know how they did it to be honest. It felt real and I suppose it was. The final sequence, where multiple Bigfoot attacks the group is pretty good, although that’s mainly due to the editing and the darkness of the images. When you see the actual Bigfoot monsters, it’s rather comical. They look like guys in ape suits. Still, the terror was authentically done, and kudos to the moviemakers for reenacting the real-life Ape Canyon encounter. Even if goofy, it gave them some street cred.
Overall, this movie fairly dull. There’s lots and lots of scenes of the group riding through the mountains, shots of trees and hills and nature. The banter between the characters is stiff and boring. They throw in the animal attacks to liven things up but it’s so repugnant that it just turned me away. It’s still interesting if you want to see this kind of long-gone exploitation flick, and the theme song is kinda awesome. Enter at your own risk. You’ve been warned.
Two Stars out of Four