Sasquatch Sunset

Indie filmmaking, brothers. Nathan Zellner and David Zellner (Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter, Damsel), rework their Sundance Award-winning short film Sasquatch Birth Journal 2, and could have easily just left this bonkers of a feature as a short film. Obviously, they still feel strong creative urges to expand their idea. A raunchy, uncomfortable, and surreal comedy, Sasquatch Sunset, produced by Jesse Eisenberg, who also co-stars as one of the four sasquatches, holds some compelling ideas about the drudgery of nature and that these Sasquatch beasts are no different than humans as we observe them eating, mating, sleeping, scratching themselves, picking their noses, building shelters, and repeating the same daily rituals. While the film is very hit-or-miss, it actually works better when it explores its ideas about nature, where some of the gross humor grows tedious after a while.

The film follows a Sasquatch family of four (Riley Keough, Eisenberg, Christophe Zajac-Denke, and Nathan Zellner), and we follow them over the four seasons of a year in the Pacific Northwest. The camera observes their daily routines, and there are some hilarious gags involving them getting attacked by a turtle, picking up skunks, and enjoying the scents from the bottom of their tails. Nathan Zellner plays the father sasquatch, and he ends up getting ill after selfishly eating some hallucinogenic berries. The sasquatch family ends up facing some severe adversities against nature, and they must attempt to survive.

Courtesy Bleeker Street

The film aesthetically matches the look of a Werner Herzog movie; it can even match a nature documentary, and the low-brow humor echoes the Farrelly Brothers. There is a cheeky sensibility to the film, along with some very memorable scenes that are both strange and oddly compelling, one of which involves one of the Sasquatches getting trapped by a log in a lake. The film doesn’t work on all levels; some of the humor grows tedious and isn’t as amusing as it thinks it is. One unfunny scene involves the sasquatches discovering a road, and they defecate and urinate on the road, which is ungainly and eye-rolling. But with one bad scene come a few great ones, especially one where they walk into a campground. I could have also lived without all the Sasquatch-erected dongs in the film, which are desperate and ungainly.

Despite knowing where the film is going and bodily function humor falling flat, the Zellner Bros. at least keep the film interesting. They stay true to the Bigfoot lore, and each of the actors embodies their roles as Sasquatches quite well. The body language between all the actors feels effortless, where all the primal instincts, animal behavior, and expressions all play off convincingly well. There are even small nuances of what Sasquatch life would probably be like. Even the way they ate leaves, berries, and fish felt vivid in the film. There is a strange, magical beauty to this film, and it is unlike anything you will ever experience.

Courtesy Bleeker Street

I suspect this film will gain a cult following in the years to come. Strangeness aside, the film cleverly examines how human life and sasquatch life really aren’t too far apart if they were indeed real. To what degree Sasquatch Sunset works or doesn’t work will certainly depend on the viewer. Indeed, the flaws are easy to find since some humor is gross or uncomfortable. Watching this movie is more of an exercise; it feels transporting, and perhaps the closest thing we will ever get to seeing how Sasquatches would actually act and react in their environment. The bigger question is, what will old-school conspiracy theorists think?

SASQUATCH SUNSET is now playing in theaters