“Sasquatch Sunset” comes from brothers David and Nathan Zellner and follows a year in the life of a bigfoot family of four as they survive in an increasingly inhospitable wilderness.
No stranger to sasquatch stories, the Zellner brothers took on a risky mission with their latest feature. The sasquatches mainly communicate through grunts and hand gestures which, though not inherently a counterproductive choice, does inhibit the film’s throughline. Without dialogue, the film feels less like a cohesive story and more like a collection of scenes.
To the film’s credit, the cast’s chemistry serves as a much needed emotional epicenter, along with the truly stunning practical bigfoot suits. The four actors — Jesse Eisenberg, Riley Keough, Christophe Zajac-Denek and Nathan Zellner — are completely encapsulated by their suits to the point of unrecognizability, a stunning accomplishment by costume designer Steve Newburn. The combination of the detail-oriented costumes and the commitment from the cast work in the film’s favor.
On a larger scale, the film offers stunning cinematography of the dense forest the sasquatches call home. Expansive wide shots show the film’s beautiful greenery, and close-ups on the actors’ faces and eyes help give the film an intimate feeling it needs in order to connect with audiences emotionally as tragedy strikes the family.
On the other hand, the film can go too far off the rails at times. While one might argue that the purpose of telling a human story through non-human characters aims to bring out humanity’s true underlying animalistic nature, parts of the film feel grotesque for the sake of shock value rather than for the sake of the metaphor. Multiple scenes feature unsightly bodily fluids, not presented in a way that makes audiences confront why they harbor negative feelings toward normal bodily functions, but in a way that risks putting viewers off.
“Sasquatch Sunset” proves a fun watch for the first hour or so before the gross body humor grows repetitive and stale. The film offers great costume work, impressive commitment from the cast and gorgeous cinematography at times, but lacks the clear central theme about human nature it seems to think it’s portraying.
3 smelly skunks out of 5
