Cry Wilderness

Cry Wilderness is the kind of film that gets made because some writer / director had an idea that nobody else believed in (with good reason). Instead of waiting for a better idea, the script gets filmed on a shoestring budget. The minimal plot gets heavily padded by stock wilderness footage, which makes the constant changes in terrain (forest, scrubland, mountain) and season (snowy winter in one scene, bright greens of summer in the next) obvious to a bright three year old. Then there is the acting, which makes me wonder if the next door neighbor's kid and a few drinking buddies were assembled to round out the minimal cast. Then there is the Bigfoot costume, which looks like somebody took a set of hair clippers to a Chewbacca halloween costume and called it a day. Do not attempt to watch this without the cast of MST3K. Given a choice between watching this film and viewing your second cousin's home movies of a trip they took to Yellowstone back in 1978, pick the latter.

This movie appears in my nightmares. I wish so badly to go back to the time when I never saw this, but unfortunately I'm stuck with knowing it exists. It made me ask many questions: Who greenlit this monstrosity? What were they high on? Did they owe a favor to someone? Letting this dumpster fire become an actual movie should have resulted in criminal punishment. Jail time at the very least.

I place this movie in my personal category of movies that cross into an area of unusually poor film-making, and in doing so, leave you unable to pull yourself away. Even telling friends, you have to see this movie because it is SO bad. I have to tell myself that this is the goal of those who make movies like this. I just can't honestly accept that someone wrote this, thought it was good, and was able to make the movie, with the honest intention of having it be good. So, if you are considering watching this movie, chances are it's because you've found it at a library, (I've never seen it in any video store), but if you have made the unfortunate decision to pay money to rent, or, heaven forbid, buy it, I suggest a healthy dose of your preferred inebriant and low expectations. REALLY low expectations.

From out of focus shots, to shots you couldn't connect with Legos, to acting so wooden you look for termites 🐜... This is BORING, plot less, and totally disjointed, with inadvertent time travel as the film constantly jumps from fall to winter (snow ❄ in one shot, gone in the next). A complete waste from start (at the world's worst museum) to finish (at a raccoon filled cabin) THIS is cinematic torture!

A Bigfoot-type creature befriends Paul, a young student. His father is a park ranger trying to capture an escaped tiger. Everyone in town is on edge and wants the tiger killed. David tries to keep Bigfoot a secret.

Maybe 3 is a little high to rate this film, but I don't feel right giving it a 1 or 2. Unlike some truly awful messes, it never suffers from the biggest sin a movie can make: boredom. The nonsense of the plot and background actually sort of helps. Coherent? No. But all the more entertaining.

What was most interesting to find out is that a couple of the actors involved have actually appeared in real, very successful films. How they were tricked into this (beyond the easy paycheck) is really beyond me.