Directed by: Mark Balunis Written by: Mark Balunis Genre: Drama / Science Fiction 22 min |
THE BIGFOOT HUNTERS
"The Bigfoot Hunters" is one of those films in the same vein as "The Toxic Avenger" or even, to some extent, "Mars Attacks" and any of the B cult classic films you may remember off hand. It has the look and feel of a schlocky film straight out of the early 1980s. A movie like this should either be a lot better, or a lot worse. It's rare to find an indie title that manages to hang on somewhere right in the middle.
The movie opens with a scantily clad woman running for dear life through a dense wooded area. Why on Earth she happens to be almost naked? Your guess is as good as mine but more importantly, what is she running from? Bigfoot of course. Duh. She is running half naked, through the woods from Bigfoot. If you hadn't guessed that already, you probably should have. After that, the bulk of the film takes place during an AA meeting of sorts. This one geared to folks surviving an encounter with one of the Bigfeet themselves. The crazy characters manage to wall themselves into the meeting hall, and await the inevitable final battle with Bigfoot, which also happens to take place in the same room. I couldn't help but notice this short film plays more like an introduction to a larger film, should one ever get made. This was both a good and bad setup in that nothing was really accomplished, and if a future film is never made, it makes the entire story kind of pointless. Sure. Maybe entertaining but pointless none the less. We do get to have some fun with this band of crazy characters but in the end, what's the point of introducing them as our "heroes" when nobody will ever see them again? However, one true question still remains. Was this short film funny? Well yes and no. A person can't deny seeing such odd people is comedic. Yet very quickly the humor gets old. Thankfully, since this is a short film, just as that begins to happen the movie is over. Leaving you to ponder what's coming next if anything at all. I could also point out that right when things start to get interesting, regarding the plot, again, the film is over. In defense of the narrative itself, it does technically have a start, a middle and an end. It's just that the end feels like the beginning. The film itself plays more like a a series of comic inspired representations of cliche weirdos, than a serious independent undertaking. What does come through loud and clear is that the cast seemed to have a blast making this movie! The perceived joy these actors had at the chance to be so ridiculous, actually makes the movie that much funnier. When it's all over there really is hope for a follow up, that would actually be really good, if the same band of people remain. This short film really does make a good introduction to a larger universe. What would make it even better would be to shave off about half the film, and focus on these characters as an entry piece, to whatever form the production ended up taking. I'm sure a good few minutes could be removed if you just cut the countless "traveling" inserts. One of the funniest moments in the film, the small closet that ends up being a massive warehouse, where our heroes "stock up" on supplies, is the best representation of the humor of the movie. Offbeat, zany, over the top and maybe a little insulting. In a fun kind of way. It's an idea that could turn into something much bigger than it presently is. Ditching the hand held camera style and traversing a more standard approach, would hugely benefit the excellent actors clearly loving their roles. I would have also loved to see more of Bigfoot himself. With an excellent makeup such as he had, why was he so absent from the film? |
