I have had an enduring love for cryptids, particularly Bigfoot, from my youthful days. I had never genuinely accepted their existence but was captivated with the tales of such beings and the possibility of their existence. Therefore, when I watched Nathan and David Zellner’s film Sasquatch Sunset, I looked forward to seeing what is essentially a family drama about sasquatches. I was let down however with a film that had a very slow pacing and which overdone everything in what you may call a ‘dramatic’ fashion.
Divided into four segments, Sasquatch Sunset takes the audience through a year in the life of this family Sasquatch through the four seasons. Each season represents a key turning point for this particular family which is very small in number. The social structure is the alpha male (played by Nathan Zellner), a younger male who is weak voiced (Jesse Eisenberg), one female who is alone (Riley Keough) and a smaller Bigfoot (Christophe Zajac-Denek). They naked and act like the most primitive people, grunt talk, have countless bowel movements and copulate openly in the forests. They understand hierarchies and who gets to mate with who like in a normal society as Keough’s Sasquatch does not allow any males nearby to have their way with her. Yes, the mother of these beasts too has male oppression to worry about.
This is a movie that deals with loss and struggle against inevitable demise, and it is also one that unfolds at an incredibly slow pace. Even if the climax does deliver ferocious shots back-to-back in the third act, it is still too late to win over the apathetic audience. Sasquatch Sunset is a rather typical case of you either get it immediately or never find the proper frequency for it. Unfortunately for me, that is the former as I was never given an opportunity to appreciate NAME’s story-telling method. I am sure the shit and all the other excreta were supposed to be read as an allegory to humanity. Unfortunately, they did not seem very relevant or strong enough for that purpose.
With the actors trained to move and perform like humanoid primates, this contributes to the fact that the performances of our four actors underneath massive hair suits do indeed feel primal. It works to their advantage that they have all eight yards of prosthetics on them, and yet each of them is again able to present very intricate emotions through their grunts, their faces, and their hands. Admittedly, it would be quite difficult to be able to deliver a decent performance on such a set, but Keough manages to build an extremely relatable female Bigfoot who is all graphed up in her face, on top of her head. As a voice of authority, she feels the pressure of always having to over control her own body. If anything, even the cryptids are not safe from the cage of the patriarch, I guess. And here I was thinking that being a legendary creature, liberates you to a great extent.
Overall, the film is a visual delight too with beautiful panoramic views of the forested areas accompanied by an outstanding score from the Austin-based experimental rock group The Octopus Project. You could simply bask in the beauty of the sights depicted in Mike Gioulakis’ shots of pristine landscapes, but, alas, they too will be affected by both the changing seasons and the protagonists’ adventure across the Appalachians.
Sasquatch Sunset’s reception might not meet your expectations. No matter the case, so little gets distributed in cinemas these days that I do take pleasure in seeing something as odd as this getting the theatrical treatment. I was, however, not impressed with the arcs featuring the Sasquatch family, though everyone involved in making this film earns my admiration, since such dedication is clearly visible on-screen. It’s humorous, zany and visually inventive in its take on real world problems via the prism of a subculture of a micro-cryptid race. For people wondering what movie to watch during the upcoming 4/20, this one should probably be added to the list.
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