Creetcher Feature
Sasquatch Horror Collection
Retromedia/Image DVD
New on DVD this week, and just in time for camping season, comes the eagerly anticipated Sasquatch Horror Collection.
Bigfoot is part of the national psyche, and over the years there have been enough Bigfoot movies released to consider it a legitimate subgenre. The Abominable Snowman, The Legend of Boggy Creek, The Creature from Black Lake, The Capture of Bigfoot, Sunn Classics' The Mysterious Monsters-there are more Bigfoot movies out there than most people care to realize. Even long after the infamous "home movie" of Bigfoot tromping through the woods of Northern California was revealed as a hoax, people are still making Bigfoot movies (consider the unfortunate Lance Henriksen feature, Sasquatch and the surprisingly funny They Call Him Sasquatch, both from 2003).
That's why, to purists at least, calling the three-disc set the Sasquatch Collection might be pushing it a bit, as only one of the films actually deals with Sasquatch.
The earliest of the three, 1954's Snow Creature was directed by Billy Wilder's less-talented brother, who had a minuscule budget, a cast of unknowns and a simple plot-yet made a more interesting movie than you might expect. Researchers in the Himalayas stumble across a cave full of Yetis, capture one of them and return it to the U.S. While Customs officials in Los Angeles debate how the Yeti should be classified, the creature escapes from its crate. Havoc aplenty ensues.
My favorite of the trio, Snowbeast, at least has the benefit of a bigger budget and an all-star cast (Bo Svenson, Yvette Mimieux, Clint Walker). The 1977 made-for-tv extravaganza finds a hairy, bloodthirsty monster terrorizing a ski lodge. Sadly, most of that big budget seems to have gone into renting the lodge and paying the actors, leaving little left over for "special effects." In fact, they couldn't even buy a whole monster suit, having only enough money for one scruffy paw (the only part of the monster you see.)
Finally, there's Sasquatch: The Legend of Bigfoot, the only true Sasquatch film in the lot. Even as a kid in 1977, I found the movie's poster much creepier than the film itself. Ed Ragozzino, directing the only feature he would ever make, decided to use a tiny budget to his advantage, making the film a docudrama, a la Boggy Creek, allowing him an excuse for the bad sound, bad lighting and lack of a script. It concerns (as usual) a group of researchers heading into the woods to find Bigfoot. Sadly, when they do, they learn he's not too keen on being found.