Upon looking at the dvd, Savage initially stood out to me the most. It's dvd cover is a hand slashing the disc. The disc looked cool so I looked on the enclosed paper that accompanied the discs. Reading the synopsis, I saw that Savage was a "bigfoot" horror movie.
Upon reading this, I was stoked. I'm a big fan of bigfoot movies, such as "Legend of Boggy Creek" and even recently with the crapfest "Sasquatch" to an extent. I didn't necessarily have high hopes for it, but was excited to see what they could do with it.
Basically the story is ..........
A blazing fire rips its way through Bear Valley National Park. As the firefighters try to contain it, the animals are being forced out of their habitat including a beast that was better left undiscovered.
Decent, yet simple setup for a bigfoot movie. They managed it well, and I immediately noticed how polished and professional the flick was. I don't know if this is because the production was very good or because I have been watching nothing but shot on video 80s horror for the last week. Nonetheless, I was happy to be seeing something that actually looked good.
The opening credits, which I rarely talk about, were pretty awesome. I like the whole art style and it was pretty unique. Onto the movie, when it started, I was pretty shocked at the caliber of actors in this flick. I immediately noticed Martin Kove (The Karate Kid) and of course LISA WILCOX! Most, if not all of you should know Lisa Wilcox from Nightmare on Elm Street 4 & 5. Well, this is her return to the big screen and it's great to see her back. Both her and Martin shine in this flick, easily being the main reason you need to watch this. The acting caliber is really good considering its still a smaller budget flick.
Tony Becker (Little House on the Prairie, The Waltons) headlines the movie as "Owen Fremont", a small town sheriff whom initially doesn't believe the whole bigfoot "nonsense" but eventually has to protect the people around him from the creature. He, like Kove and Wilcox, do a great job in the flick and really portray a sense of "realism" with their acting. I really enjoyed him in this flick.
Now, to Bigfoot/Sasquatch/Wooly Booger. The creature is practical effects aka a guy in a suit, and I really liked that. I was nervous they would go the SyFy Originals route and CGI everything to death, but they didn't. I dig the suit, it looked pretty sweet and although the face of the creature was pretty cheesy looking, I dig that. The walking and overall movements of the creature are something to see, as he lumbers quickly (if that makes sense) through the woods with ease. He's big, hairy and powerful.
Now, i've said a lot of good about this flick, but don't get me wrong, there are some bad. Such as unanswered story lines (wanted to know more about Gabrielle's husband), wanted more out of the relationship that was building between Gabrielle and Shane, wanted to know more about the burning of the forest and the land developer, wanted to know more about the guy that was going to sell his store, etc. It seemed like they didn't flesh out the characters quite as much as I would have liked either, save for Kove, they do a good job with his character development.
One thing that REALLY bothered me went like this. Through the whole movie the creature is a beast. He's powerful as hell. Hits people and they fly like 15 feet , and even pushes a big truck over with 2 people inside. He's tough, BUT at the end of the movie, they have to keep him in the house to blow it up, so the smallest girl (Gabrielle) handcuffs herself to the creature and holds him there??!?!?! How is this little, skinny (albeit really cute) girl going to hold this massive beast from leaving? I just kept expecting the creature to rip her arms off, but that didn't happen.
The gore in the flick is minimal, but its definitely there. You see blood, a skinned woodland creature, dismembered parts/head, etc, but its definitely not a overly gory movie.
I gotta say overall I enjoyed the movie. Surprisingly it kept my interest, had its fair share of good scenes, and had a fun take on the bigfoot lore. I was telling a friend and fellow critic that it "Harkens back to the days of 90s Vidmark flicks." This is a great time waster, just come in for the fun, and put story and development on the back burner. Recommended.
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