I have been reflecting back on my days as a reporter on the independent film a lot recently. Those were good times and I got a chance to meet and interact with a lot of cool people who had a passion to create films that in many ways paid homage to the movies many of us grew up watching on weekend afternoons and after midnight on cable television. These creative film makers were so determined to get their movie projects done that they didn't let things like having little to no money or even zoning laws stand in their way.
For a brief period of time between the years 2009 and 2011 it seems that all of these film makers became hyper focused on one subject matter at one time and surprisingly independently of each other. I am of course talking about Bigfoot the legendary man-beast that allegedly inhabits remote areas wilderness all around the world.
The concept seems simple enough, you put a guy in a gorilla suit and have him chase a bunch of young women in bikinis around the woods for an hour and a half. Though some of those films were just about monsters and girls there were others that turned out to be quite good suspenseful horror movies.
I don't want to give the impression that all of these films are low-grade exploitation films. That's not the case at all.
Here is a brief list of some of the movies produced during this Bigfoot movie craze:
Nightbeasts
Broken Spectre
Abominable
Snow Beast
The Mountain Wailer
Yowie
The Bloody Rage of Bigfoot
The Devil at Lost Creek
The MOMO Monster
The Legend of Grassman
Sasquatch vs Chupacabra
Savage
Boggy Creek
Trailer Park Geocachers Meet Bigfoot
The Shrieking
That is quite a list and I'm sure that I missed a few. There were even a couple of pornographic Bigfoot movies made at the time, though their names escape me.
The Bigfoot movie craze lead to a Bigfoot television craze that still has some hangers on airing on cable today. It seems like there are a ton of people out there looking for Bigfoot, but he always seems to evade them. Of course I have always noted that if someone actually found the monster there would no longer be a need for the program. If the creature ever walked out in front of one the many teams out there stomping around in the woods they would have to run in the other direction to save their jobs.
I have to give a special shout out to director James Baack who produced one of the craziest Bigfoot movies of all time entitled The Bloody Rage of Bigfoot. Check out this synopsis:
Bigfoot contracts rabies from a half-dead raccoon hit by a car. As the rabies progresses, so does the deterioration of his mind. He wanders deep into the woods and encounters a Ku Klux Klan / Militia Group conducting training and that's where the body count starts. Expect a lot of guns, shootouts, explosions, and gore.At the same time, a group of young "Goth" girls from a local high school are experimenting with black magic and through numerous attempts, they use a human sacrifice as an offering (they sacrifice the "pimp") and they successfully conjure up a hideous demon that is even MORE blood thirsty than a rabid Bigfoot. The film will climax with both monsters involved in a vicious and blood soaked battle to the death."
I'm not giving Baack any special treatment because he featured me as a character in one of his books. Giving me special kudos doesn't get you any favoritism around here - but then again it doesn't hurt either.
Oh, and for the record I still don't know what a Trailer Park Geochacher is. I also don't care enough to Google it either. So there you are.
Check Out:
Was A Baby Yeti Captured in Azerbaijan?
California The Monster State: A Hulsey Family Monster Tale
Comments
Post a Comment