Steve Nyland (Squonkamatic) Peter Graves sonorously narrates Sunn Classics uproarious Bigfoot documentary with all of the authority of Captain Crunch. The film is best remembered in my circle for a genuinely hair raising segment where Bigfoot rummages through the belongings of a group of "Boy Scouts" out camping without adult supervision. Attention is also given to the Loch Ness Monster and indeed, Graves is able to conclude with authority that it is a population of aquatic dinosaurs who have somehow escaped the ravages of time. He also concludes that Bigfoot is actually a population of 200 or more bipedal creatures who exist at one with nature, and have only come to our attention as mankind has cruelly encroached on their habitat with all our unwelcome riot & clamor.The same approach is found in Sunn Classic's "In Search of Noah's Ark", which taught us that the Ark split in two and rests half submerged in a glacier on Mount Ararat, just waiting for earnest Christians to free it from the ice. Sunn's "The Lincoln Conspiracy" also finds in favor of a complex conspiracy to assassinate Lincoln centered around super spy / traitor Union Colonel Lafayette Baker, who would have made Oliver Stone blush with embarrassment for his ham-fisted script for "JFK". And the overlooked "The Bermuda Triangle", which posits with authority that ships, airplanes and whole civilizations have been sucked into the very bowels of the Earth itself by a misfired Atlantean particle beam accelerator, lost somewhere off the coast of Bimini.The films are classic Americana, made with working class families who went to the movies two or three times a year in mind, demanding otherwise wholesome G-rated fare suitable for all-ages and fueled by a bizarre zeal to have it all be true even when flying in the face of common sense. "Mysterious Monsters" succeeds admirably, cashing in early on the Bigfoot craze that even "The Six Million Dollar Man" got caught up in and demanding our acceptance by appealing to our conscience rather than science. Forty years later there's still no hide or bones to study and it's to my personal disappointment that garbage films like this sort of got shoved under the carpet as people realized how stupid it all was. It is the right of earlier eras to be as slack-jawed and backward as they like. I for one marvel at garbage such as this film, celebrating with forthright authority man's unending quest to sucker each other out of a couple dollars — In this case, movie tickets, and it worked brilliantly. These movies all made gobs of money with almost nothing up front, though don't sell the talents of the filmmakers short. They knew exactly what they were doing just like the guy at the carnival sideshow knows what he is doing. It's called show business.The results are actually highly entertaining, the one slow spot in the film being a sequence where a "psychiatrist" is shown "hypnotizing" his "patient", who relates a tale so filled with mystery as to sound not just poorly scripted, but unrehearsed. Yet that's half the fun. Not just marveling at how bad, dumb or outrageously idiotic the movie is, but in knowing that it was the best they could manage under the circumstances. Which means there's hope for the rest of us, or at least those of us who refuse to stop believing in Bigfoot and the Bermuda Triangle, UFOs or "Ancient Aliens". Take your pick, spark up and just enjoy being smarter than the dimwits who paid money to see this, ate it up whole, and went home wanting more. Now that's funny.

MartianOctocretr5 There can no longer be any controversy. This film gives definitive proof that such things as Sunn Classic pictures actually existed in the '70's, and they were very cheaply made. They actually did employ inexperienced actors to reenact eyewitness testimony of Bigfoot, Yeti, and Nessie close encounters. They actually did use old Super 8 film with inconsistent sound levels. They actually did have the chutzpah to have some tall guy wander around in a cheap Halloween gorilla suit. They actually did advance the testimony of people like a few frightened boy scouts who were telling campfire ghost stories as irrefutable accounts.Peter Graves's ultra-serious "Dragnet" type of stoic narration is priceless; his mission to keep a straight face and tone in light of this amateurish production was more difficult than any he had on the Mission: Impossible series. The "scientific experts" he interviews look like they got their academic degrees from a box of Cracker Jack.Check your belief/skepticism at the door; opinions on the existence of the creatures have nothing at all to do with experiencing this film. This one is just for fun, to laugh at the shoddy production techniques. The film takes itself way too seriously, with various lines of "testimony" that are fun to imitate, and sequences, such as the guy "psychromitizing" a box to discover its contents (um, why not just open it?), which make you laugh so hard you miss half of it. It gets a grade 7 on its laugh value alone.

AbeStreet I remember watching this as a kid back in the late 70's and early 80's. As a child I wanted to believe that bigfoot existed and so I bought into all the "supposed" evidence that this documentary brought out. In 1985 I taped this show off of late night tv. The picture is pretty bad, not due to the age of the tape but the condition of the film when it was broadcast. The colors are very muted, everything seems to have a green tint to it and most colors are not identifiable. About once a year I still watch this show. It brings back memories.However, when I now watch this film I can't help but to chuckle at the so called "evidence" that is displayed. Most of it is open to interpretation and not concrete proof and some of it has been, evidently, proven a hoax since this film was released. I believe most of the so called witnesses either were out and out lying to the interviewers so that they could get their 15 minutes of fame or they so wanted to believe in bigfoot that they convinced themselves that what they saw was a bigfoot. In many ways it's like those who believe they have come in contact with aliens or seen a space ship. Have you ever noticed that most of us never see an alien or space ship but those who have seen one of them once have usually seen one of them more than once. What I enjoy most about this film is Peter Graves interviews and narration. If you are able to view this film watch and listen to Peter Graves as he creates a fact out of a thin air. For example, Mr. Graves will ask a person who has witnessed a bigfoot sighting about their experience and then he will make a statement of fact something like this: "...now that we've established that bigfoot does exist..." and then he'll move on to his next point. In other words he takes an unverifiable event and treats it as fact. Now, as a 33 year old adult, I can't help but to chuckle at how this film attempts to sway the viewers opinion on the existence of bigfoot. This so called documentary does try to appear unbiased by interviewing professors and experts in various fields some of which believe in bigfoot and some that do not. Again, this is not what it appears. Watch how the comparisons are made. Peter Graves usually asks someone who believes in bigfoot to explain why he believes and then he asks another person why he doesn't. Once the person who does not believe gives his reasons Mr. Graves goes back to the first person and gives him a chance to refute what the person who does not believe in bigfoot has said but Mr. Graves never gives the person who does not believe in bigfoot a chance to respond to the first persons refute. Thus the person who believes in bigfoot gets the first and last word.For some reason I still enjoy this film. I guess I don't really believe in Bigfoot or the Lock Ness monster anymore. With today's technology I think we would have more concrete proof that these two entities exist. That being said this documentary is fun to watch. It's kind of like Santa Claus for an adult. You no longer believe but it's still fun to read or watch the stories and remember when you did believe! Not that it will happen anytime soon but I do wish they would release this film in DVD form.

dtucker86 Sunn Classic Pictures made some wonderful documentaries and this is by far the best. It is absolutely fascinating and i'm amazed at all they managed to cover about Bigfoot and Nessie in one film. The reenactments of the various sightings are very well done but may frighten kids. They frightened me when I was a kid and saw this film. I think the scariest scene was the one where the women is alone in her living room and Bigfoots shadow comes by and his hand crashes thru the window and then her husband opens the door and hes standing right there. This is the only documentary I have seen that includes a really inteligent detailed analysis of Roger Patterson's film of Bigfoot. Next to the Zapruder film, its the most famous home movie ever taken. Its also the only film I have seen that show's Patterson's film in its entirity. The only thing is that when the film talks about the Loch Ness Monster they show the famous "Surgeon's photo" of the head and neck of Nessie. In 1994, there was an old Englishman who confessed on his deathbed that picture was a hoax! Oh well, its still worth a look when it shows up on tv. Peter Graves is an excellent narrator.