Just wondering how many of you have encountered something of a cryptozoological nature? I'm talking Bigfoot, Nessie, or just something like no animal you've ever heard of. I think I have and I'll get to that, but the true question is, how much do you like a good televised journey into that type of unknown? It's a perennial favorite that in my world started with terrifying/fascinating broadcasts of In Search Of in the '70s. Eerie music, Leonard Nimoy's dire, gravelly narration and spooky subject matter make this show the one to beat. The Learning Channel aired a two-part documentary now on DVD called Monster Hunters, a work less about the monsters, and (maybe not so obviously) more about the hunters.

Profiling those who creep about in the woods looking for legendary beasties is an unique twist on the journey into the unknown genre, a twist made more bankable by the success of The Blair Witch Project and others that wring tension from the reality that the monsters are hardly ever seen in real life. Monster Hunters is a magnanimous, straight-faced look at six groups of cryptozoologists and fanatics on the prowl for the Jersey Devil, Big Cats in Great Britain, Chupacabras, Cadborosaurus (a Canadian sea monster), The Australian Sasquatch known as the Yowie and the Tasmanian tiger. British Big Cats and the thought-to-be extinct Tasmanian tiger are quite possibly real concerns while the others are all apocryphal, thus those hunting the aforementioned two come off as most believable, while the rest merely sincere, earnest and avocationally battling uphill.

Though all of the hunters are presented minus the light of skepticism - through interviews and camera-crew-accompanied footage of their travails - the Jersey Devil hunting crew is the most endearing, young believers better off creeping through the woods with camcorders than kegs.

For my dime, I'd like more showmanship, and more monsters. By default we're going to get a lot of monster hunters - they're the only ones proven to exist so far - but I (and I think most fans of this stuff) are in it for the monsters and the mordant malaise. Where is the spooky soundtrack music? Where are the ominous voiceovers? Where are all the bits of questionable footage and photography we armchair cryptozoologists crave? Monster Hunters deserves praise for its equanimity, but such an attitude can easily be maintained while still doling out the thrills and chills. Some presumed Chupacabra livestock gore, chilling old photos of the Tasmanian Tiger and tiny amounts of possible Big Cat footage is mostly bolstered by droll interviews, stretched-out Puerto Rican newsreels, oddly colorized on-site footage and the odd drawing or sculpture of a beast.

In the end Monster Hunters is earnest, fairly educational and unsatisfying - like watching a video of someone Yowie hunting - a lot of talk and not much action. As for myself, my late-on-a-moonlit-night, drunken walk along the shore revealed something the size of a small deer sitting down in the waves. When I was about ten yards away it got up and ran into the scrub and pines faster than anything I'd ever seen. I tried to keep walking but got too creeped out and turned back for our camp. Was it a crazed deer or cougar out for a late-night soak? I'll never know, but it delivered the chills in a way that the Monster Hunters DVD can't - but should - match.

The DVD

Video:
The documentary is presented in widescreen ratio for 16 x 9 televisions, except that lots of the news footage hasn't been adjusted, ending up looking weird and stretched out. The transfer is relatively sharp and clear, but it's not the greatest, with a bit of mostly background detail lost to softness. There are no glaring compression artifacts, however. Colors are decent, excepting the odd colorization schemes that don't quite make the nut regarding eeriness. I think the overall presentation would have been better in a standard fullscreen format.

Sound:
Monster Hunters was recorded with 2 channel stereo PCM audio quality, and was mixed in stereo for the television broadcast,which is how it is presented on the DVD. It sounds fine, with all dialog easy to understand and non-intrusive music in the background. No complaints to be made here, but likely not a challenge for surround sound systems.

Extras:
A 28-image, self-navigated Stills Gallery features mostly shots from the film, with a few illustrations of the monsters rounding it out. That's it for the extras, however.

Final Thoughts:
Monster Hunters earns kudos as an even-handed look at the daring and intrepid folks who risk not only money and time, but also reputations and possible injury exploring the unknown. Inherent in the human condition is the belief in the unseen, (for most of us anyway) it's a desire that can border on mania, but understandable, necessary (from a survival standpoint) and increasingly eroded as our culture marches on. On the other side of the unseen coin is the seen, in this case, those who hunt the monsters. While interesting people, they're a bit less fascinating than notions of their quarry, and one would like to see a bit more In Search Of style scary-scary, perhaps some creepy music, or grainy footage, even more harrowing first-hand tales, to make a documentary like Monster Hunters really thrilling. Nonetheless, cryptozoologists and fanciers probably ought to Rent It - and see for themselves.

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