Curse of Bigfoot

THE CURSE OF BIGFOOT and TEENAGERS BATTLE THE THING are actually two different films. From what I can make out, TEENAGERS BATTLE THE THING was made in 1958. A VHS tape was released in 1997. It's in black and white and runs 60 minutes. I don't believe this version was ever released theatrically. THE CURSE OF BIGFOOT added newly-shot footage (some of it being needless padding) to the beginning and end of the film, leaving the TBTT footage basically intact in the middle. The new introductory scenes, shot over a decade later, use one of the actors from TBTT as a guest lecturer in a high school classroom. He recounts his amazing story of his encounter with Bigfoot. The TBTT scenes are then used as a flashback. Either version of the film is fun, although the new framing footage in BIGFOOT is a hilarious plus.

A short (terrible) student film from the '60s is combined with some mid-'70s (also terrible) docudrama footage about Bigfoot and the result is this classic late-night insomniacs' favorite! The "monster" featured in the original flick is NOT Bigfoot, but rather some kind of mummy thing unearthed by a bunch of stupid teenagers digging in an Indian burial ground. A lot of very (unintentionally) funny dialogue and some of the worst acting ever committed to celluloid are highlights of the '60s footage, and make this sleep-inducing film worth watching.

In the tradition of such celebrated anticlassics as THEY SAVED HITLER'S BRAIN and VAMPIRE MEN OF THE LOST PLANET, this mongrel concoction haphazardly conjoins a barely released amateur monster movie of the early 60s(about a student archaeological field excavation besieged by a resurrected mummy monster) with a noticeably more recently filmed wraparound involving Sasquatch lore. The older material is modestly amusing in the praxis of regional horror schlock, but the add-on seems to be both a means of padding this garbage to fit TV time slots, as well as a feeble attempt to incorporate Bigfoot into the story(a wet squib topic highly marketable at the time).

A positively horrible Scotch tape and rubber-band mess, although the older part has a naive, campy charm...sadly, fate would decree its unfortunate metamorphosis as a component to this throwaway picture. 2.5/10

At some point in about 1962 a film was made which revolved around the misadventures of a group of high schoolers on a weekend field trip to Pahrump, Nevada searching for Indian artifacts. What they find is terror at the hands of an ancient mummy. Badly acted and shot poorly this film resembled a made-for-students travelogue. It moldered over the years as it sat unwatched and unappreciated in some vault somewhere. And then, like the Pahrump mummy it rose to terrorize us all again.

It would appear that the director of the previous footage asked the main player from that film to appear in the new film as his old character being asked to tell modern (70s) kids about his experiences with "The Great Man-Beast of North America," which he reluctantly does. The older film is used in its entirety as a flashback vehicle to the supposed Bigfoot encounter. But, of course the creature isn't a Bigfoot at all, it's just an Indian mummy.

This is a bizarre melange. Just for fun, check out the end of the film where all the students are standing around the bonfire, and note that they are all pretty much acting normally, then remember the words of Roger Mason, that, one of those students will have to spend the rest of her life in a mental institution!

Long live paper mache monsters!!

Growing up in 1960s and 70s Montana I first saw Curse of Bigfoot on a classic late night movie program called Creatures Features hosted by Bob Wilkins and later John Stanley out of Stockton California. Curse of Bigfoot was of course made like other cheap horror films of the day, like The Creeping Terror, on a shoestring budget in B&W with the cast also the same people making the movie. But I do remember being scared by the monster in Curse of Bigfoot. If I remember it right it had a cooked egg like thing over each eye. This movie was great fun and very funny. It is currently about to be released on DVD with documentary on the making and other behind the scenes materials. If you are a fan of this movie email me for details about the upcoming DVD release..I believe it is in January 2002.