Valley of the Sasquatch (2015)

The Age of Commercialism

hyped garbage

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

The film consists mostly of four individuals in a cabin in the woods. When the mother dies, husband Roger (Jason Vail) drinks himself out of house and job. He lives in Uncle Will's (D'Angelo Midili) abandoned cabin along with his college age son Michael (Miles Joris-Peyrafitte) who is not exactly a man's man. The cabin has been ransacked as the proverbial logging company is entering Bigfoot's territory. Roger, who reminds us, "There is no such thing as Bigfoot," invites Will and his drinking buddy Sergio (David Saucedo), the most obnoxious Latino outside of Florida, to come up and hunt and drink...my two favorite combinations. And as you might guess, they encounter some guys in big hairy costumes.Bill Oberst Jr managed to get top billing for his late cameo role. Maria Damey was cut from the film as the older sister. Film had a hokey ending. Most of the film consisted of needless conflict within the group. A me-too Bigfoot film.Guide: F-word. No sex or nudity.

Before I begin reviewing this film, let me say I LOVE creature features. I am so tired of all the scary movies coming out these days that are focused on the paranormal. Those films are generally horribly boring and rely 100% on jump scares to try and make it 'scary.'Anyway, on to this film. The general premise is a widowed father and his son move up to a small cabin/shack in the woods. The dad is immediately portrayed as a jerk/loser because he can't relate to his son, doesn't want him to go to college, and invites his jerk Spanish friend up to get drunk. Anyway, we're introduced to these 4 characters and there's really no character we are rooting for with exception of maybe the Uncle who seems to relate to the son well enough and stick up for him. The 4 set out to go hunting and long story short discover big foot. Big foot chases them back to the cabin where they have to put up a final fight and try to escape. They are met by another survivor we are introduced to at the beginning. That's about it. Typical creature feature with a fairly predictable plot.That said, the movie has totally implausible and unconvincing acting/reactions by the characters. When David Saucedo's character (who acted terribly in this movie) goes to take a leak out hunting and sees a Big Foot coming after him (honestly looked more like a giant squirrel moving through the shrubs/ground cover) he fires off multiple shots. Then he falls down into a landing and sees blood and flesh all over the place. He meets back up with everyone and DOESN'T even bring it up or agree with the son/uncle they should go back to the Cabin!Then the son and David actually SEE Big Foot after being woken that night, one is like 2 feet away from the son's face. And their reaction is COMPLETELY nonchalant after. Like, "OMG big foot is real. Hmm well that's cool. I guess we should leave?" And then are running around the forest with seemingly zero concern for the thing.Lastly, the Uncle/Son/Mexican guy are all back in the cabin after the Dad gets taken by Big Foot, and the Uncle wants to get the keys to get the car and go get help. Seems COMPLETELY logical to me and these things are scared of guns. Yet the Mexican guy has a HUGE issue with this (why?) and then TWICE STABS and KILLS the Uncle right in front of his nephew. Then has the son help him haul him into the bedroom!? WHAT IN THE WORLD!? Are you kidding me? Who would act like this!? The creature effects are practical (no CGI) but not great. There is really no shot with suspense and the creature on the poster was what I was expecting. These honestly just look like a weird gorilla and obviously men in suits, they don't seem that big or threatening at all... The creature is also revealed way too often, something that Abominable got accurate (although the creature's face needed some work in that movie). The thing just didn't seem that scary, especially early in the film when one captured guy tricks it into eating tobacco chew and then bashes it's head in with a rock. Problem solved? Honestly a Grizzly bear seems more terrifying than this thing. The gore effects were pretty laughable - one guy gets his arm ripped off and they come apart like jello - see the lion scene from The Happening. Cinematography/Isolation just wasn't there. Some films are VERY good at creating an isolation feel to it, or danger to going outside. This film just didn't have it. Hell the Big Foot ran off after a couple shots were fired initially. The movie Exists (2014) did this very well IMO for a big foot movie. Other films like The Thing (re- make), Tremors, Alien, Jaws (ending), made VERY good use of this and made you afraid of the environment and lack of resources available to escape. This movie had that setting in the Forest/lack of tech but just didn't utilize it well. The score/sounds/music is basically non-existent. There is no uneasy tune or score to keep you on edge. Even Arachnophobia which was touted as a comedy/horror had some very unsettling musical scores. The light hearted music that quickly changed to a more creepy tone. This movie basically didn't have any music. Some of the monsters roars are heard early on but they didn't give me unease like the howl from the wolf in American Werewolf in London. That howl still gives me chills... that was a horror film that didn't really have a score but didn't need it with the creepy POV shots and lack of monster reveal (until the end). Overall not worth your time. The acting is TERRIBLE, the main scare feature (monster/environment) is not there, and the story is a recycled bland one that does NOTHING new to a genre that has tons of these films. I dunno why this has more than 5 stars. Either the producers family/friends came on here and all voted it a 10 or I am missing something HUGE here. And I know I'm mentioning some all time greats/classics, but it's just to compare and show that this movie didn't even come CLOSE to nailing on ONE of the aspects. For Sasquatch scare movies, Abominable and Exists are far better. The former has good gore, believable acting, and great pacing. The later sets up a scarier atmosphere and some great shots (namely when the Bigfoot is chasing the guy on the bike).

After waiting for over a year for this movie to come I finally got to watch it. It's not that good. Bad acting and uninteresting characters. If you want to watch a really good Bigfoot movie I highly suggest watching "Exists". Now that's a Bigfoot movie. "Hunting Grounds" pales in comparison.

This film was the last to be screened at Horrible Imaginings Film Festival in San Diego where it won the award for Best Cinematography in a Feature Film.Monster movie by a local San Diego filmmaking team, this could be classified as a "B" monster movie with Bigfoot as the monster. The movie takes its time in developing its cast of characters and the circumstances which brings them to the setting where the monster mayhem is to take place. The cinematography is nice in making good use of the woods in the state of Washington, and the setting in the woods makes use of its own claustrophobia when out in the woods, especially at night. Scenes taking place in the cabin were oddly reminiscent of the original Night Of The Living Dead with the confined space that our humans have to deal with. The gore factor does increase after a time which creates uneasy laughs in the audience. Bigfoot itself looks rather poor at times, but since Bigfoot arguably doesn't exist (although the filmmaker would argue) we must accept what the movie presents. The tension is fun and the final confrontations with the family of Bigfoot is a good payoff for a monster movie of this type. If there is a downside to this movie is that the film's most likable character is the first to die. What breaks with cliché is how it happens. Other than that this is a fun late night/midnight monster flick.