With ol' Sasquatch back in the news, an info-hungry community yearns for blood and knowledge. I am here to provide the latter, at the very least, with a look at just some of the cryptozoological-themed viewing available for the home.
Bigfoot Terror collects four — count 'em, four — motion picture features on Sasquatchian themes on a single two-sided DVD. At least half of it is worth the time of the connoisseur of bad film and worse hygiene.
The title The Capture of Bigfoot (dir. Bill Rebane, 1979) is a bit of a misnomer, since the Arctic-furred protagonist seen here is more often known as a Yeti or Abominable Snowman. Sex-crazed skiers and fuzzy-browed bounty hunters are caught in a blanket of snowy acting and writhing with a beast - or two! - on the loose. Capture's is the best-dressed beast on the marquee, but really, what makes this picture worth saving for posterity is the ski chalet party scene. Attended by the mustachioed and spandexed elite of a bygone era, the beast-doomed celebration is cooed to by the disco strains of the what-shoulda-been-a-hit, “You’re Just A Sensuous Tiger.”
In Shriek of the Mutilated (dir. Michael Findlay, 1974), a pair of fey professors lures a team of coeds to the woods for a weekend of expanded consciousness and exposed cartilage. This motion picture unleashed Hot Butter's smash disco hit "Popcorn" on the world, except that the company that released this DVD was unable to secure the rights for it. Thus was substituted some generic electronic disco for the unforgettable party before the storm, a curious leitmotif in the Bigfoot cinematic oeuvre. Redeeming qualities? Probably not, but it made for compelling bad cinema for reasons which I don't recall at the moment.
Lacking both redeeming and compelling qualities is The Search for the Beast (dir. R.G. Arledge, 1997) a straight-to-VHS mediocrity unworthy to wash the Big Feet of even the mediocrities that accompany it. Of some note are a Bigfoot sex scene and what is perhaps the least sexy shower scene ever photographed. Bad Bigfoot!
Article comments
1 - James A. Gardner
"4 Blood-Freezing Features" says the DVD cover, so I was expecting something cryogenic! Not really.
Great review! I'm pleased to see a film critic who writes to the long-neglected "connoisseur of bad film and worse hygiene"! As part of your target demographic, we demand more!