The Bigfoot Tapes   Starring: Stephen Stewart, Dave Youngblood and Shy Pilgreen Signature Entertainment RRP: £15.99 Certificate: 15 Available 06 May 2013

Two men and a girlfriend decide to make a serious documentary investigating the existence, or otherwise, of Bigfoot. There have been more than 900 sightings reported in the last 25 years, mostly in and around Siskiyou County. Through talking to a number of people, they track down the originator of a 911 emergency call about a huge attacking beast. Initially aggressive and suspicious, the highly religious hunter/tracker agrees to take them into the vast woods. Around seven hours later, he shows them a destroyed tent and signs of violence. Inexplicably, he then panics and flees into the trees, leaving the trio alone and lost. They camp overnight, but are terrified by noises and disturbances. The girl falls down an incline, and is dragged off by something unseen. The two men are caught between trying to find the girl, and escaping the woods to find help. They lack the skills to do either, and their backpacks of supplies have been stripped...

A number of these fictional documentary-style films have emerged over recent years. Although attempted before, this horror sub-genre properly took-off with the release of The Blair Witch Project, which had already been hyped-up on the internet with supposedly genuine footage. I have never heard such a concerted sigh of disappointed as I did at the cinema at the conclusion of that film. A lot of running around, and nothing to show for it at the end. Since then other filmmakers have adopted the same point-of-view style, most recently Troll Hunter. But is The Bigfoot Tapes any better? Well, no, frankly.

Although Troll Hunter just ended, in a similar way to The Blair Witch Project, it at least showed a troll - more than one, in fact. Aside from a cheap cop-out ending, The Bigfoot Tapes is in no way, shape or form about Bigfoot. The central characters use regular reactionary expletives, and the script simply wastes the time of the viewer. I am not a fan of this style of filmmaking, and The Bigfoot Tapes achieves nothing in endearing me to it. Incidentally, doesn’t the front cover break some sort of trade description act? Because it depicts a giant beast which quite clearly is not in the film. Although it’s quite possible I may have fallen asleep amid all the excitement...

3

Ty Power