I must admit I had never seen this movie before and was expecting a movie that was so mind numbingly awful that you couldn't help but enjoy it. Instead, what I got was this. A movie that starts out as cheesy fun but ends up excruciatingly dull with the tedium only relieved by the hilariously bad monster effects. Unfortunately, this film is nowhere near as much fun as its so bad it's good reputation suggests. You see this film was originally made back in 1959 as "Teenagers Battle the Thing". It was re-released in 1976 with new footage under it's current title. It starts out well with a typically entertainingly kitschy early 70's ripoff/pastiche of "Night of the Living Dead" and Bigfoot movies involving a Bigfoot zombie(!), a hippie teen, and his hilariously confused dog. In fact, the dog looks so confused, he seems to be pleading for the director to give him some sort of command so that he can get an idea of what his motivation is supposed to be. As it comes to an entertainingly silly end, this vignette is revealed to be a Hollywood movie being screened by a High School Mythology teacher (!)and his students, who seem to be incredibly stoned. The teacher goes on to discuss supposed real-life encounters with Bigfoot leading to the obligatory reenactment scenes that were so common in 1970s b- movie docudramas. This does provide some low-brow entertainment value. However, the film quickly goes downhill once the teacher introduces a former colleague of his who has had a traumatic experience with the creature thus bridging the new footage with that of the 1959 movie. The movie thus begins to turn into something of a snooze-fest as we travel back to the remembrances of the elder colleague. It's never a good sign when the newer footage is vastly more entertaining than the older footage, guys. But, that's what we get here as the movie morphs into a completely different film about the colleague and his archaeologist students discovering an ancient mummy and accidentally bringing it back to life. Only the colleague and the hilariously awful creature costume remain the same. In fact, the only entertaining moments in the second half come from the truly terrible creature costume and the overripe acting by much of the amateur cast. This is because the director literally kills the film with his leaden pacing and ham-fisted technique. It leaves you with more yawns than yucks. Which is sad. Because, if this film had more energy, it could have been up there with "Plan 9". Entertainingly bad, but entertaining nonetheless,
Review of Curse of Bigfoot
