Clawed the Legend of Sasquatch (2005)

So lately I’ve been on a role of reviewing some pretty damn good movies for the site.  But of course I couldn’t leave well enough alone and just had to pop a Big Foot movie into the old DVD player.  The one that I chose (mostly because it was on the top of the stack…) is called Clawed the Legend of Sasquatch.  The move opens up with a group of hunters tracking a bear on protected land.  One of them takes a potshot as something in the woods and before you know it all but one of them is dead.  The hunter makes up the story of a killer bear, mostly so everyone won’t think he is crazy I think.  But this killer bear story brings a group of High School students looking to get an A on their project, as well as the surviving hunter with another crew.  While the hunters are intent on killing the creature the students just want to get out of the woods (once they see the big furry feller that is!).

In many ways this movie was exactly what I expected of it.  The characters are over the top and hard to believe.  Really who would go unarmed into the woods where a grizzly bear has already supposedly killed several armed men?  Not only do they go, but one of them is a typical jock character.  Which of course means he is obsessed with sex and beer.  The hunter characters range from inept to homicidal.  This is kind of odd since the homicidal hunter really doesn’t have any motivation for it.  I was also sort of disappointed that after the initial attacks Big Foot is a no show for the next 30 or 40 minutes!  How can you make a Big Foot movie without Big Foot? 

That said I did find myself surprised a bit by this movie.  While the movie is really slow before the Big Foot shows back up, once he makes his reappearance things do pick up.  I was also surprised at the tone of the movie, as the Sasquatch makes his intentions known, sort of.  The movie becomes more about the human characters then it is about the creature.  Normally that would be the final nail in the coffin for a movie like this one, but that isn’t the case here.  I sort of like the turn the plot takes, and the twists (especially the last one) are a bit “family channel” for my tastes, but they do work. 

We can’t talk about a Big Foot movie without talking about the creature.  This is your typical guy in a suit movie.  But the suit does look good and this is further helped by the filmmakers keeping the suit off camera as much as possible, always a good choice.  The kills are pretty tame and there isn’t much gore or blood.  To be honest this really isn’t that kind of movie. 

A decent looking Big Foot and an interesting twist to the story aren’t enough to make me recommend this movie.  It is far too slow and I’m fairly certain that fans looking for some mayhem are going to be disappointed where the story in this one goes.  Mediocre at best, fans should pass on Sasquatch Hunters.

2 out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer

© Copyright 2010 John Shatzer