THE CAPTURE OF BIGFOOT (1979) movie review

Capture of Bigfoot, The (1979) d. Bill Rebane (USA)

Looking at the 2.4 IMDb rating and the guy in the director’s chair, I was bracing myself for a serious bout of eye-clawing ineptitude, but the good news is that this isn’t the Rebane of Invasion of Inner Earth but rather the boisterous low-budget monster movie savant that gave us the wonderfully cheesy Giant Spider Invasion. In a small Wisconsin mountain town, two mysterious creatures have been spotted in the woods, sparking the interest of unscrupulous businessman Richard Kennedy who hopes to snag the hairy beast for monetary gain.

Square-jawed heroic lawman Stafford Morgan, when not making time with his best waitress gal Katherine Hopkins, tries to preserve order in his peaceful burg, but he’s got his hands full between marauding monsters, speeding snowmobilers, bellowing backstabbers, and low-budget mainstay George "Buck" Flower.

As clunky as some of the staging and performances are, there’s a cheerful energy that pervades throughout (with a couple wingding auto stunts in the final reel) and the albino bigfoot suits/masks are actually pretty darn impressive. (They probably could have sprung for a better yeti growl, but that’s a minor complaint.)