The Sasquatch Gang Sets Bigfoot Studies Back 30 Years
Posted by: Loren Coleman on October 28th, 2007
A promotional photograph for The Sasquatch Gang may say it all.
From what I’ve seen after an extended view of all the trailers I could find, the contemporarily-framed film The Sasquatch Gang may be one of the lamest Bigfoot movies ever made.
The Sasquatch Gang sets back serious Bigfoot studies and Sasquatch research by 30 years to the era of bad Bigfoot paperbacks, fake footprints and mullet haircuts. (If that’s the endorsement they were searching for from me, there it is.)
Beginning November 30, 2007, in limited release, to be followed by broad national screenings, The Sasquatch Gang hits theaters between the eyes and in the funny bone. Formerly called The Sasquatch Dumpling Gang, the film stars Justin Long and is the brainchild of the same people that brought you Napoleon Dynamite, a motion picture I admired for creativity and humor. The Sasquatch Gang was shot in Oregon and won the 2006 Audience Award at the Slamdance Film Festival.
The review site, Film Threat, declared the film a five-star (out of five) success back in 2006, saying it was a “runaway hit.”
Film Threat noted the plot is enjoyably complex, but basically is about a group of teenage friends who discover what appear to be Sasquatch footprints in the woods near the lead character’s home. Soon to visit them is Bigfoot expert Dr. Artimus Snodgrass (whom Film Threat calls “a pretentious, over-the-top scientist played by Carl Weathers”). Ah, is this just what the cinema world needs: a terrible cryptozoologist role model?
The movie allegedly takes some twists down the path of Bigfoot fakery. Are you surprised?
Critic Sally Foster wrote on January 23, 2006:
Working from an absolutely airtight script, writer/director Tim Skousen and producer/editor Jeremy Coon garner amazing performances from an extremely talented cast…Carrying an absurd yet totally deadpan tone reminiscent of Napoleon Dynamite, nothing is too strange – yet it is the script that really makes this film a success. Full of quotable lines and totally unique characters, Sasquatch Dumpling Gang blends classic elements of fantasy, teen-angst and coming-of-age tales to create a genre all its own.Sally Foster, Film Threat
The Sasquatch Gang stars Justin Long, a Vassar graduate and known as the “Mac guy” in ads. Long (above) also starred in Jeepers Creepers, a movie about a Mothman-type creature attacking people, usually teenagers.
Below are various YouTube clips from the movie, when it was titled The Sasquatch Dumpling Gang. They seem, in essence, no different than the repackaging of the long trailer than can be found on the new The Sasquatch Gang site, here.
The Sasquatch (nee: Dumpling) Gang clips, which while having humor, apparently are not going to do anything positive for the popular cultural image of cryptozoology and Bigfoot research:
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
Aside from looking really annoying, the movie won’t be setting back bigfoot studies back 30 years. It may however set comedy back 30 years.
I can’t believe the Mac guy is apart of this. that looked like a movie strictly for brand new “actors” willing to do anything.
It looks fun, I plan on seeing it. It appears to be more centered on quirky character development (A’la Napolean Dynamite, or even Raising Arizona) than proof of bigfoot. I predict there will be no image at all of a squatch in the movie, except possibly a question mark scene at the very end.
I don’t think squatch research will be affected at all by this, any more than the perennial twits claiming they were the “one in the suit” to put the legend to rest “once and for all” have stopped sightings.
If we can’t laugh at ourselves, at least once in a while, then we certainly will look all the more psychotic to the scoftics. All of us who have had an experience or know someone we trust who has, won’t be affected by a harmless b-movie.
hey loren & everyone very interesting new update article about the new movie called the sasquatch gang. i realy like the above opinions as well. thanks bill green 🙂 p.s. when is this new movie comeing out on dvd im just wondering.
bill green said:
Oh, I’d say about a week after it hits theaters!
I have to agree. If this were meant to be a serious film, then I would say “Yeah, that is a setback.” But it clearly is not. It has some actors I like so I will probably see it, when it comes out on DVD.
Wow… Intresting… uhh…. Your right, Loren. Looks lame….
Loren and friends,
Come on now guys. The movie looks funny. Napolean Dynamite was a great movie, hopefully this one will be too. I have been visiting your site for about 8 months now and have to this point found it to be quite entertaining and informational. I think maybe you have just started to take yourself a bit too seriously. I know you have devoted your life to your research and that it is very serious to you, but you have to be able to see that they are not making fun of you. They are making fun of the people they are portraying. I would think that you would know better than most, that people just like those shown in the video clips have always attached themselves to the subjects that you take so seriously. Ignoring them won’t make them go away. I think that perhaps if you want to be seen as serious scientists and be taken seriously as a scientific website, you should focus on “news” items and hard evidence and not worry on your blogs about what others think about you, or if they are mocking you. If you are right you are right. No amount of mocking can make you wrong. Being defensive about your beliefs only make you seem unsure of them.
Have a great day
Forty lashes to tombombadil and others for taking me so totally seriously.
This movie further confirms Mike Judge’s “Idiocracy” theory
I saw The Sasquatch Gang the other day and couldn’t stop laughing. I’m a big Napoleon Dynamite fan and was pleasantly surprised to have liked it just as much. I was in the mood for a silly lighthearted comedy – and that’s exactly what I got. Plus, my friends and I have been quoting from it ever since! It’s out now in select theaters and I believe it comes out in NY today, Dec. 7th. Check out their homepage at: http://www.thesasquatchgang.com