Sasquatch Sunset 2024

Four hirsute figures stagger out of Bigfoot mythology for a journey of survival through North America’s beautiful Cascadia wildlands in this unique story of curious cryptids. With threadbare folklore as a foundation and a backdrop of gorgeous landscapes, the film tracks a pack of Sasquatches as they struggle to subsist through the seasons and grapple with human intrusions into the wild.

The fuzzy family communicates entirely in grunts and yelps, and an absence of subtitles challenges the audience to acclimate to an entirely different mode of storytelling. Like observing the behaviours of any wild species, the dynamics of the group are slowly revealed through interaction, problem-solving, and primal urges – not to mention a good dose of scatological humour. Scenes arch variously between hilarious and heartbreaking and, while we will never know their names, by the end of this tight 90 minutes there’s a clear sense of exactly what drives each of these creatures.

Unrecognisable beneath exceptional costuming and monster makeup is a very capable cast. Riley Keough (Zola) plays the sole female Sasquatch in the group, Jesse Eisenberg (Vivarium) and co-director Nathan Zellner are two mature males, and Christophe Zajac-Denek (Twin Peaks) is the pack’s youngest. All four are called to give expansive performances, scoring laughs via Chaplin-like physicality while acting through masses of prosthetics to sell emotive scenes.  

The film’s distinct language, grubby gags, and rich emotions build to an affecting climax. A soulful tale equally interested in matters of the heart as fluids of the body, Sasquatch Sunset is totally dedicated to its high-concept strangeness and rewards an audience that can match the commitment. — Adrian Hatwell