Review: On the Trail of Bigfoot: The Journey

Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films, 2021
Images from the Internet

On the Trail of Bigfoot: The Journey
(aka On the Trail of Bigfoot: The Legend and the Search)
Directed by Seth Breedlove
Small Town Monsters; 1091 Pictures
96 minutes, 2019 / 2021
www.smalltownmonsters.com
https://onthetrailof.tv/

Who is the cryptozoology king creature in popularity? Is it Mothman? The Jersey Devil? Arguably, the big macher is Bigfoot, aka the Sasquatch (with its cousin, the Yeti, a close second). There are dozens of fictional movies about the mythical woodland beastie, often with it being a killer monster often stalking teens in wooded cabins. So, who better to do a self-involving documentary about the true legend than the leader in cryptid mythology films than Seth Breedlove, and his Small Town Monsters brand?

Seth Breedlove and tattoo on right

Starting off in Wadsworth, Ohio (I once stayed near there on a voyage to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in the early 2000s), Breedlove and some friends take a road trip to Upper New York State, specifically to Wells, New York (an over 7-hour drive), in the heart of the Adirondack Mountains. Apparently, this truly majestic range is a hot-spot for the hairy one, dating back to Colonial times when he was known as “The Wild Man.” Through the course of the film, they travel to various connecting free spaces, including the Green Mountains of New Hampshire and the Berkshires of Western Massachusetts. It’s easy to tell which one of the intrepid travelers is Breedlove by the “Small Town Monsters” logo tattoo on his arm. But I digress…

Breedlove wisely starts the film with both positing his reasons for the trip and this film (which I will discuss later), and as a expositional foundation, presenting some talking head experts on the topic, such as Aleksandar Petakov, who directed the 2016 television documentary “Sasquatch: Out of the Shadows”, Bruce Hallenback, author of the 2015 book, Monsters of New York: Mysterious Creatures in the Empire State, Paul Bartholomew (who also joins the Small Town Monsters group at some point), writer of 2020’s Bigfoot Encounters in New York and New England: Documented Evidence, Stranger than Fiction, podcasters Emily Fleur (“The Forest Fleur”) and Mark Matzke (“Monstoropolis”), as well as Dr. David Floyd, an English Professor at Charleston Southern University, who did a Bigfoot in Literature podcast (HERE). 

This gives the viewer a solid basis of why they picked this particular area, and its history with The Wild Man. One of my favorite parts is these historians telling stories they had heard about sightings. There is a fine mix of second-hand stories, with some first-person eyewitness accounts, including one anonymous tale (thanks to being hidden behind a COVID mask) by a guy originally from Brooklyn(!), but they were all fun to hear.

Joining the crew in this self-shot doc for the nearly a week in the area around Buck Mountain to Whitehall, New York, near Lake George, is a number of investigators of various types, including Steve Kulls, Michael Anne, and Ted Varamogiannis, one of whom claims to have had an encounter with the 8-foot, hairy creature about five years earlier.

Our crew has lots of adventures traveling around various areas, including Kinderhook, NY and the Savoy Mountain State Forest in Western Mass, where they talk to a group of enthusiasts called the Sasquachusetts Group.

The Journey also presents a number of really nice animations and illustrations, as well as a few short re-creations of encounters. The format of the documentary reminds me of paranormal search shows, where the participants walk around often after dark in green night vision lights with glowing human eyes, trying to find something out of place. For example, one of the investigators noticed that there had been some kind of “disturbance” among flowers. Could it have been Biggie? Sure. But it could have also been a dear, a bear, or a coyote (whether you pronounce it Kai-yow-tee or kai-yout). Amusingly, one of the trackers gives a howl out to try and attract the creature, but my question is, how does he know what the mysterious Bigfoot sounds like, to “imitate” it. While this seems kind of silly to me, I have to admit it is also part of the charm of almost innocence of the team, and the entire documentary (and is a motif of previous Small Town Monster cryptozoology-focused releases, as well).

You may ask, at this point, whether I believe in Bigfoot. Honestly, I am 100 percent on the fence. I feel there is a possibility, but I am skeptical, which I believe is an appropriate approach about any cryptid phenomena. Could there be a Sasquatch? Sure. Could there be a Mothman? Why not? The thing about cryptids, especially Bigfoot, is people seem to think of it as a singular, like the Loch Ness Monster. But there must be a troop of them unless they are immortal. They would need to breed, which means the ones sighted in the 1970s would be at least the grandparents of any that would be sighted today.

It seems odd to me that if they are that big, and even in a wide expanse of the Adirondacks through the Green Mountains, there should be more evidence of, say, sleeping places, if a number of them were together, especially in the winter. And with modern technology, motion sensor cameras are relatively inexpensive and could be placed in suspected spots, which are often used by human hunters to find prey like deer. Hunting season is generally in October through early December, if I remember correctly, and what are the odds of hunters not coming across them or their camps, even with the thickness of the woods?

All that being said, I am not arguing for or against their existence. Personally, I think it would be cool if they did, and also fear that they would be mercilessly hounded by those who would wish to exploit them, and put them in cages in zoos and circuses, or do experiments on them. Perhaps it would be better if they were not found?

And do our travelers on their quest find the hairy grail? Well, I will not say, but there is a feeling of satisfaction of the venture. Besides, the scenery is absolutely breathtakingly beautiful, especially on the last day when Breedlove rents a helicopter to fly him over the very heart of the vast wilderness of the treed and rock-faced mountains of the Adirondacks. I actually replayed that part over because it made me smile so much. Part of the reason for that is, like much of the cast – which ties in COVID-19 – as this was filmed in the summer of the rise of the pandemic and the following isolation, there is the desire to be out in nature after being locked up for so long.

Emily Fleur

There are many who have the Squatchitude of wanting to find the creature and learn about it, Jane Goodall style, as so beautifully expressed in the film by Fleur. Yeah, I would love if Bigfoot was proven as long as they get the respect they deserve. And the love for both the beast/s and its/their environment, is present and strong here, which is part of what makes this documentary so compelling, and a love story for the natural creature.

On the Trail of Bigfoot: The Journey is available on various platforms from 1091 Pictures, including iTunes, Amazon Prime Video, Vudu and FandangoNOW.

Trailer is HERE