Sasquatch


release year: 2002
genre: horror
viewing setting: home DVD, 11/11/03

synopsis: A small plane is lost iver the deep wilderness, so a rescue party goes in after them...and encounters a big, hairy monster.

impressions: How can I tell you what needs to be told without spoiling the movie for you? Hmm. Let me just put it this way: when you set out to make a scary, bloody movie - which is what I assumed they set out to do based on the previews and the first five minutes - you need to have violence and death. Some movies just fail to deliver on the premise; Lake Placid was one of them, and this movie is another. In addition to this, the monster's behavior was inconsistent...by the end, I was thinking "wow, this monster's smart enough to kill all the annoying people but spare all the good guys." In the movie's defense, I think it was trying to show us what an intelligent Bigfoot-type monster might act like. Hell, the monster was smarter than the humans, who seemed not to be bothered by repeated evidence that something was hunting them. One more problem: unusual camera work (soft or out of focus at times) coupled with oddly short scenes (sometimes less than ten seconds.) Literally. It would be daytime, then the movie would cut to a dialogue-less night scene for ten seconds, and then it would fade out, only to fade in to daylight of the next day. Huh?!?

body count: 2 onscreen, a few others implied, plus one bear.

things to watch for: Much as I hate to say it, the attack at the beginning was the most suspenseful part.

something this movie has that no other movie has: A Sasquatch that uses rocks to kill bears.

acting: Lance Henriksen is mediocre as the CEO whose daughter and prize invention are missing, but his behavior is inconsistent, plus sometimes he sees things with the same infrared vision as the Sasquatch...huh?!? The others are stereotypes: supposed wilderness guy who is actually useless, actual good wilderness guy, good female scientist, bad female lawyer, computer geek. The bad wilderness guy reminded me of a balding Bill Paxton. The good wilderness guy and the computer geek did a pretty decent acting job. The good female scientist was barely there.

final word: Watchable once, but it doesn't deliver the goods and isn't something you'll need to own.

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