The Capture of Bigfoot (1979)
** (out of 4)
A couple redneck hunters capture a baby Bigfoot but before they can get him back to town a much larger Bigfoot shows up. One of the hunters is killed but the other makes it town where he tells the people about a mysterious creature. Pretty soon more bloody murders are happening and it becomes clear that the legend is real.
THE CAPTURE OF BIGFOOT from director Bill Rebane has a very, very bad reputation but I must admit that I don't know why. I will freely admit that I love Bigfoot and the myth around him so I've read countless books, magazines and of course seen plenty of movies. Sadly, with just a few exceptions, the majority of these films have been very bad. THE CAPTURE OF BIGFOOT has a very bad reputation with some people calling it the worst Bigfoot film ever made. I certainly don't agree with that for a number of reasons.
For starters, a lot of monster movies pretty much hide the monsters in the shadows or just don't show them enough. A lot of Bigfoot movies from this era are guilty of that but I give Rebane credit for going all out and constantly having the monsters on the screen. I'm not sure why they elected to go with a white-haired monster over the traditional one but either way the film remains entertaining because of him. It was great getting to see the various attacks and if you're a fan of such movies then at least you've got one that keeps the monster on the screen.
As far as the story goes, yeah, it's nothing original or overly great but it's at least entertaining enough for a low-budget "B" movies. None of the performances are overly great but none of them are bad either. They're basically what you'd expect out of a movie like this. Another plus is that we're given some beautiful and snow-covered location shots of Wisconsin.
THE CAPTURE OF BIGFOOT has several flaws including some bad pacing issues but I think its reputation as being one of the worst Bigfoot movies is a bad rap.
