SASQUATCH HORROR TRIPLE FEATURE

By: BRIAN THOMAS
Review Date: Monday, June 20, 2005

All evidence suggests that the smelly, hairy, unidentified bipeds reported to be roaming remote areas of the Earth are at worst defensive, and at best benign. That might be good for a few kiddie shows, but it doesn't really sell tickets, so most of the movies made about them make them out to be hostile, bloodthirsty monsters, ever ready to slay (and perhaps rape or eat) any camper or explorer unlucky enough to cross paths with them. Here, Retromedia collects three such films into one handy dandy program.

SASQUATCH: THE LEGEND OF BIGFOOT
The high point of sasquatch movie production was in the 1970s, just after the controversial 1967 film by Bigfoot hunter Roger Patterson was put on the market after his death. This footage, real or hoax, brought the focus of sasquatch interest on the northwest part of the North American continent, and this 1975 feature is one of many films to cash in on this interest.

After a set-up meant to make the viewer feel they're about to witness typical Bigfoot documentary, employing a clip from the famous Patterson film and several photos, we launch into pseudo-documentary style telling of an expedition to hunt down and capture a sasquatch in northwest Canada. In reality, the film was made in several mountainous spots in Oregon. "A wolf nurses her pups," intones narrating team leader "Chuck Evans" (George Lauris) as the expedition begins, "until a nosy badger comes too close for comfort." Among the party are a full range of stock characters: a befuddled anthropologist (William Emmons), a skeptical journalist (Lou Salerni), a humorous old tracker on a mule (Ken Kenzle), and a wise and hunky Aborigine guide (Joe Morello), and a goofball cook (Jim Bradford). A cougar attacks their party. Various tales of the sasquatch are recounted and reenacted. We see otters playing and grizzlies fighting. It's certainly dull enough to be believable. The nature travelogue continues until they reach the "Peckatoe River", and the reporter is injured by a bear. Finally, 72 minutes into the feature, they hear the scream of a sasquatch and find footprints. Reaching a valley covered in prints, they get their tracking equipment set up and the sasquatch attack.


The acting isn't too bad, considering the remote locations and obviously rough shooting conditions, and the climax and animal attacks pack some punch, but the entire feature is crippled by the fact that it takes so long to get down to business. Fortunately, the wilderness photography is beautiful enough to could stand on its own, or else any viewer would be long gone before the action starts. Retromedia's transfer takes advantage of the pretty widescreen pictures, though the print is understandably worn.

SNOWBEAST
Turning to side 2 of this flipper disc, we find a 1977 NBC TV-movie that may as well be called JAWS IN THE SNOW. When a ski bunny disappears from the slopes, witnesses report seeing a horrible half-man half-beast creature. But ski lodge owner Carrie Rill (Sylvia Sidney) decides to keep the whole thing hushed up so as not to ruin the annual Winter Carnival. Bodies start to pile up, and Sheriff Cole Paraday (oaken Clint Walker) is called in. Rill's grandson Tony (Robert Logan) ex-Olympic skier Gar Seberg (slab-like Bo Svenson) as the lodge's new pro in part because he's a good enough shot to kill the creature. Gar hasn't been back on skis since he won a gold medal, but he overcomes his fears when his reporter wife Ellen (Yvette Mimieux, looking smart in her ski outfit) sticks her nose into the murders and goes missing. The four leads plan to hunt down the creature in secret, but before they can, it openly attacks the town high school, slaying several soccer moms and pom-pom girls.

The brief monster scenes are done well, without showing too much of what must have been a shabby costume, while the soap opera sequences are obvious filler. One of the oddest aspects is that no one seems to be too impressed with the sensational scientific find in their midst. For all the excitement shown, it could just as well been a large bear. With all the implied gore and blood on the snow, this could have been a great shocker if made for theaters. The print looks much like it did when first broadcast.

THE SNOW CREATURE
The Bigfootmania of the '70s wasn't the first wave of interest in such creatures. In 1951, footprints photographed by the First Everest Reconnaissance Expedition fanned the flames of conjecture about the Himalayan yeti, commonly known at the time as the "Abominable Snowman", and interest increased when Sir Edmund Hillary spotted the same sort of tracks on his way to the top of Everest. While his brother Billy was directing SABRINA, poor W. Lee Wilder was filming this, the first known movie about the yeti.

Botanist Dr. Frank Parrish (Paul Langton of INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN) and his alcoholic photographer Peter Wells (Leslie Denison) go on a Himalayan expedition in search of rare plants. When their guide Subra (Teru Shimada of REVOLT OF THE ZOMBIES) hears that his wife was abducted by a yeti, he forces the expedition to hunt down the creature. They find a yeti and soon after it's trapped under a cave in, allowing the men to capture it and fly it back to Los Angeles. But while Parrish argues with customs and immigration officials about his import item, the yeti breaks out of its icebox cage and goes on a rampage. The scientist and cops throw out a dragnet for the critter, ending up in a prowl through the sewer drains.

Wilder, who made the awful but fascinating KILLERS FROM SPACE the same year, cranks through the project as efficiently as possible, creating minimum interest on the minimum budget. The creature itself is rumored to be played by Lock Martin (THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL) wearing a shaggy, ugly fur costume. As a title card informs us, the materials used in the transfer were assembled from several different sources. It's speckled and scratched, but it may be the least murky and most complete version of this title released on home video.

The quality of the films may vary, but the idea of gathering together movie with a sasquatch theme onto one program is a fun one. Some suggestions for a second volume of SASQUATCH HORROR:
BIGFOOT (1970)
BIGFOOT: MAN OR BEAST (1971)
THE CAPTURE OF BIGFOOT (1979)
CREATURE FROM BLACK LAKE (1976)
CURSE OF BIGFOOT (1976)
HALF HUMAN (1957)
IN SEARCH OF BIGFOOT (1976)
LEGEND OF BIGFOOT (1976)
THE LEGEND OF BOGGY CREEK (1973)
RETURN TO BOGGY CREEK (1977)
BOGGY CREEK 2 (1985)
MAN BEAST (1957)
NIGHT OF THE DEMON (1980)
REVENGE OF BIGFOOT (1979)
SHRIEK OF THE MUTILATED (1974)


Copyright © 2005 Brian Thomas, author of the massive book VideoHound's DRAGON: ASIAN ACTION & CULT FLICKS.
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