Jack Sullivan (Todd Cox) has recently come home from the service. His wife has left him to try her luck as an actress and his father has passed away, so he takes his young daughter, Charlie (Brooke Beckwith) to live in the home that his father left him. They drive to the small Ohio town and soon meet up with Jack's old pal, Bob (Bob Gray), now the town sheriff. As they get reacquainted and Jack and Charlie settle into their new digs, strange things start to happen. After Jack drops Bob off from a night of drinking, he sees a giant hairy creature that looks like bigfoot hanging out on his front lawn.

Jack tells Bob about it but the sheriff isn't so sure that his fears are real. Thankfully the cute park ranger in the goofy brown pants, Sandy Parker (Liza Foster), has got no shortage of mangled deer and animal carcasses to support Jack's story. It does seem that there's something out there killing creatures, kids and townsfolk, be it a sasquatch or a giant bear. The local hillbilly brigade, made up of guys like Bubba, head into the woods with their shotguns to take care of the problem but soon learn the hard way that whatever is out there is tougher than they are. Soon it'll be up to Jack, Bob and Sandy to save the great town of Mentor, Ohio from a monstrous threat.

Written and directed by Ohio native Bob Gray (the same man who plays Sheriff Bob in the movie), Bigfoot was made in 2006 but feels twenty years older than that. The whole film feels like its stuck in a time warp of some sort, from the complete (and refreshing) lack of CGI effects to the rubber suit employed to bring its titular monster to life to the fashions and buildings that make up the town. This isn't a bad thing, mind you, but it is surprising in that you don't really get the impression that it was intentional.

The film is played very tongue in cheek and despite some grisly gore effects in the latter half of the film, it's got a lot of goofy, cornball humor in it. A perfect example is when the hillbillies head into the woods to hunt whatever's bothering the townsfolk. The aforementioned Bubba has to go take a dump. When he doesn't return and the others hear him screaming, one guy asks 'What happened to Bubba?' and the other answers 'Oh, he had tacos last night.' This is followed by a weird electric guitar riff (there are a few in the movie), presumably to let us know that we're supposed to laugh and it's done in such a completely goofy style that you can't help but do just that. Somehow the cornball and somewhat lowbrow humor fits right in.

As a horror movie, Bigfoot isn't really that impressive. While there are some okay gore effects and the monster suit is actually pretty impressive, the film is almost completely devoid of tension or suspense. Right from the opening scene where we see a monster grab a cute woodland creature from his serene existence to feast upon, we know Gray's film isn't really meant to be taken all that seriously and although you get the impression that the attempts at horror and suspense are honest ones, they don't always mix with the comedy so well and they usually don't work. But hey, for a low budget movie, Bigfoot isn't half bad. If nothing else, this dopey throwback to the seventies/eighties golden years of low budget drive-in monster movies is an entertaining time killer. It was made with an obvious love and affection for films like The Legend Of Boggy Creek and it's a fun film, warts and all.

Video:

Troma's transfer is a soft one, but the movie was shot on video so it's doubtful that it'll ever look much better than it does here. The interlaced picture shows frequent sawtooth artifacts but is free from print damage. Detail isn't particularly strong and colors look a bit muted in spots but there isn't much in the way of print damage to complain about. This transfer isn't exactly good, but given the film's micro-budget origins it is at least watchable enough. Bob Gray previously released the movie on DVD on his own but I've no idea if this is the same transfer or not.