Bigfoot and “The Descent”
Posted by: Nick Redfern on April 9th, 2015
“The Descent is a 2005 movie that deals with what happens when a group of women, all old friends, get together to do a spot of caving in the wilds of North Carolina’s Appalachian Mountains, and become the victims of savage, cannibalistic humanoids that lurk deep underground.
“Given the fact there are suspicions that Bigfoot’s uncanny ability to elude us on almost every occasion is due to it being a creature which may spend most of its time living in caverns and caves, The Descent is a movie that Bigfoot enthusiasts should watch and think about carefully. There may be more truth in it than anyone might guess.”
That’s how one of my two latest Mysterious Universe articles begins…
About Nick Redfern
Punk music fan, Tennents Super and Carlsberg Special Brew beer fan, horror film fan, chocolate fan, like to wear black clothes, like to stay up late. Work as a writer.
Many people seem to think that because Mammoth Cave is at least 400 miles long, it should be possible to travel underground from Cave City, KY, to Chicago, IL. In fact, the cave doesn’t extend more than a few miles horizontally, but it branches off into so many side passages and has cave at so many levels it adds up to 400 miles. Caves are by no means nature’s subway system.
On top of that, many places that have plenty of caves — Florida in particular, which is home to sightings of the “skunk ape” — have almost no dry caves; most of the caves are flooded with water and useless to an air-breathing primate.
Frankly, none of the rest of this makes any sense, either. No reports of Bigfoot indicate that he has any adaptations to cave life; he has never, as far as I know, been seen inside a cave; a dozen or so “mummies” of Native Americans have been found in Mammoth Cave, but no Bigfoot mummies; the footprints of Indians have been found in the cave, preserved for about 2000 years, but again, no Bigfoot prints; whether in reference to the “crawlers” or to Bigfoot, a large primate would food in more quantity and a steadier supply than caves offer; etc. Maybe a Bigfoot would have reason to go into a cave from time to time, as a man might have a reason to climb a tree from time to time, but this would be the exception, not the rule.
Ivan Sanderson (whatever you may think of him), was a big proponent of Bigfoot using caves, from what I’ve read.
Personally, most caves don’t really seem to have the capacity to house something as large as Bigfoot–and certainly not in a highway of tunnels . . . at least not that has been discovered yet.
However, if you do some digging, there are several Indian tribes that speak of little people who live in mountains–tying back into the Descent discussion, so perhaps there is something else using cave systems that is smaller and more adapted to cave living. . .
I put a lot more stock into Indian traditions and history–they did live on the land for centuries and they had a much better understanding of their environment than they get credit for–after all, Bigfoot was no shock to most Indian tribes.
@SpringheeledJack — Yeah. I was reading a collection of Maya folktales a year or two ago, and it struck me that their little people living in hills sounded a lot like certain types of European fairies — so much so that one has to wonder if this is a case of cultural diffusion, as their Flood stories are generally regarded as being.