It began in earnest when they spotted a large, red “X” spray-painted on a tree.
The four Sasquatches couldn’t actually say what they were thinking. They didn’t even know that the mark was called an “X.” But through their grunts and hoots it was plain that they all saw that brightly colored mark as something monumental.
Long have they sought some sign that they were not alone in the massive forest of life. Each day, each season, each year came and passed as they plodded along (and did everything else natural for a large and hairy bipedal creature) in this woodsy world. They had never seen or heard any other sign of something else like themselves.
But now here it is: a mark, a sign. It’s everything they’ve been looking for.
They touch the mark. They jump around, slap the tree. They pee on the tree’s roots. And then they move on and quickly forget the tree and its mark.
Maybe there’s a good leafy bush up ahead to wipe with. When you’re incredibly hairy, a good and thorough wipe is essential.
Hey, even Sasquatches have priorities.
Though nothing is ever said, there is an obvious emotional connection between the four members of the Sasquatch family (or tribe). They sometimes frolic and play together. When one dies, the others are visibly shaken. They also fight as a group to protect one another.
Though not directly spiritual, the Sasquatches will from time to time bang on trees in unison with large sticks or branches. Then they pause, look skyward and listen as if waiting for an answer of some sort. (They may be seeking an otherworldly answer, or perhaps just an answer from someone else like themselves.)
If one of their number dies, the Sasquatches gather, dig a hole and bury the body. They then sit together in a mourning circle, of sorts.
Sasquatch Sunset is rated R for “some sexual content, full nudity and bloody images.” And indeed, all of that is a part of this pic. The creatures are fully covered in hair, however.
That said, the woman’s breasts and the men’s genitals are visible. And the camera gazes closely at the female’s very hirsute backside as one of the males lusts over her. As this same male later gets sick and vomits, the camera gazes at his hairy bottom and hanging genitals.
We see two of the creatures rutting and grunting noisily. They then collapse after copulating. (The female is, later, obviously pregnant with swollen abdomen and breasts.) Two different males approach the woman (and another creature) with visible erections.
A sexually aroused and intoxicated (from eating mushrooms and berries) male approaches a mountain lion to have sex with it. We later see the male dead and bloodily torn open, the mountain lion eating him.
A large log in the water rolls over on a Sasquatch whose foot is trapped. It drowns. We later see large birds eating its corpse.
The female goes through an obviously painful birthing process. And at the end, the infant and its afterbirth plop down from her to the ground. After chewing through the umbilical cord, she throws the afterbirth to distract a growling and attacking mountain lion. The Sasquatches also trek through winter and the infant is on the verge of death before the female shakes “life” back into it.
A snapping turtle latches painfully onto a young Sasquatch’s tongue. The Sasquatches kill and eat fish and animals, the meat bloody and raw. They find a large metal trap with the chewed-off leg bones of an animal sticking up out of it.
There’s no dialogue in the film.
An older Sasquatch finds a bush covered in a hallucinogenic or inebriating berry. He keeps it to himself. The berries make him vomit all over himself and pass out. He also eats odd-looking mushrooms that make him rage and vomit.
Scenes of urination and defecation are, uh, sprinkled throughout this pic. A Sasquatch picks his nose and eats what he finds. A female repeatedly rubs her crotch and smells her fingers. The Sasquatches also throw their excrement to scare away some animals. The camera watches a Sasquatch birthing process as a baby slowly protrudes from its mother and is pushed out.
Sasquatch Sunset is an odd, grunting and hooting movie about the mysterious bigfoot cryptids and their bodily functions. It reminds me of one of those pieces of “art” created from a fetid or fecal smear on a canvas, one that some will gaze at and nod their heads over agreeably. Yes! they murmur, I get it!
Meanwhile everyone else is wondering where the emperor’s clothes are.
I mean, I suppose you might find some slight whisper of anthropologic or comedic value in watching actors defecating, copulating and tossing poop while covered completely in head-to-toe hairy prosthetics. But frankly, I’m very hesitant to call this gross pic deep or satirical.
Is it satire or metaphor when a female bigfoot scratches her privates and sniffs her fingers? And then shares that wince-worthy pleasure with others. I’m not sure. Somehow, brothers David and Nathan Zellner made a movie of that sort of stuff, though. A whole 90-minute movie, in fact.
Grunt.
After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.
