Sasquatch, The Legend Of Bigfoot (1976) is the product of producer Ronald Olson’s lifelong belief in Sasquatch. The film, made on a low budget, was destined for the regional drive-in market. Sasquatch, The Legend Of Bigfoot is a pseudo-documentary film that for the first ten minutes gives the illusion of being a legitimate documentary like In Search Of Bigfoot (1975). Olson’s film takes the sincerity of In Search Of Bigfoot and marries it with the sensationalist gestures of a genre film.
Sasquatch, The Legend Of Bigfoot is part wilderness adventure film and part horror movie. Nature scenes, grizzly attacks, and wildlife mischief dominate the first two acts of the film while the final act plays like a monster movie. The film operates on the assumption that the infamous Patterson footage is not a hoax and that, when provoked, the Sasquatch will become violent.
The ending of Sasquatch, The Legend Of Bigfoot and the flashback episodes earlier on in the film recall both The Legend Of Boggy Creek (1972) and Creature From Black Lake (1976). Both these films imagine the Sasquatch as a kind of primordial monster. Like The Legend Of Boggy Creek, Sasquatch, The Legend Of Bigfoot reenacts episodes where encounters with Bigfoot become dangerous while the film draws on Creature From Black Lake for the terrors of the final encounter.
The filmmakers of all these Bigfoot films use their low budgets to their advantage. They obscure glimpses of the monster and operate with a generally tight narrative economy. Sasquatch, The Legend Of Bigfoot is unique because of its extensive nature footage and accompanying misadventures. Sasquatch, The Legend Of Bigfoot is more adventure than horror.
