Best & Bottom Bigfoot Flicks

David Coleman (above, no relation) is one of the founders of BijouFlix and author of the novel, Ancient Lake.

As a distributor (shameless plug!) of Bigfoot movies, I am biased. But as a lover of Bigfoot films, I can’t help but feel the Best & Worst List is something I simply have to ‘wade’ into however deep the ‘swamp waters’ may be!

3. THE ABOMINABLE SNOWMAN OF THE HIMILAYAS — Terrific photography (rent the Anchor Bay widescreen version if you’ve never seen it), good script, taut direction, and intelligent realization of the Bigfoot themes.

2. THE LEGEND OF BOGGY CREEK — A tough call not choosing it number one, as it is the progenitor, but… despite the terrific scares, the sense of documentary realism, and the often ‘mostly true’ aspects, the acting (many actual locals used by Charlie Pierce, the writer, director and narrator) is a bit subpar, and some of the lighting lacks, well… lights? Still great but not as great as…

1. SASQUATCH, THE LEGEND OF BIGFOOT — For overall scares, a truly haunting score, and closest ever to fact over fiction? This hard-to-see 1978 indie film (which also was one of the highest grossing indie films ever released in America) has it all: the Patterson/Gimlin footage, recreation of famous Bigfoot encounters, and the infamous ending wherein the crypto explorers set a wired perimeter around their encampment which the unsuspecting tribe of Bigfeet set off when they invade. Scary, with some minor bad acting but a lot of great cinematography to offset that, this remains my favorite of All-Time Great Bigfoot Movies.

Yipes, so many films to choose from, so little time in life to watch them all the way through without falling asleep!

3. IVAN MARX’S THE LEGEND OF BIGFOOT — Ivan Marx was one of the early Bigfoot ‘serious researchers’ along with Rene Dahindren and others. Alas, he had a falling out (evidently) and resorted to making this godawful excuse for a ‘documentary’ about Sigfoot. SEE: Ivan Marx don a very unconvincing suit and make his wife shoot footage of him prancing about with the exact same hitch in his recognizably lanky gate as we see Marx as human employ throughout the doc! SEE: Marx fly around killing way too much time ‘in search of’ filler material. Ugh!

2. INDIAN YETI. This is so bad it’s beyond belief and nearly impossible to see — LUCKY you! Bigfoot flick is a lot like HALF HUMAN only was shot in India, has atrocious effects, lasts over 2 and 1/2 hours, and — worst of all! — uses Enio Morricone scores from various spaghetti westerns throughout in ‘unofficial’ (read: stolen!) music cues! So bad you’ll swear off Indian cuisine for a year, which is a real shame, imho! 😉

1. THE SNOW CREATURE. Directed by none other than W. Lee Wilder (Billy Wilder’s brother!) this ‘rank’ effort to capitalize upon All Things Yeti in the 50’s is more padded in running length than the chintzy footage which repeats over and over to pad out the film to an almost unendurable 70+ minutes! While most ‘foot flicks are at least watchable, this one takes all the fun out of the proceedings with plodding pace, non-direction, no story, and a terrible Yeti suit. It is said Billy Wilder often tried to pay his brother not to make films; it’s easy to see why!

For Best Bigfoot Movies: THE SASQUATCH HUNTERS (the comic version made independently not the serious one with bad c.g.i.);

SNOWBEAST (admittedly not great but at least Joe Stefano wrote it — author of PYSCHO screenplay!);

[Footnote by Loren: Half Human is *the* film that got me involved in hominology and cryptozoology; very rare in its original Japanese edition due to the filming of Ainu in this classic motion picture.]

YETI: GIANT OF THE 20TH CENTURY (Italian KING KONG combined with Yeti as 15-stories tall!);

THE CAPTURE OF BIGFOOT (Bill ‘THE GIANT SPIDER INVASION’ Rebane strikes out again!); and all kid-friendly Bigfoot movies EVER MADE including but not limited to:

and any other ‘gee, it’s just a lovable, huggable plush toy’ effort in this sub-moronic genre.

Hope you all had as much fun reading about these cryto cinematic master- and minorpieces as I did writing about ’em!

Loren Coleman 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.

Email • Facebook • Twitter •