User Reviews

Many of us are Bigfoot/Sasquatch enthusiasts or just enjoy the idea that some furry monster walking fairly upright, half-man/half-beast (a throwback to the prehistoric Neanderthal), is somewhere out there lurking in the wilderness, its habitat often threatened by evolved humankind. MANBEAST: MYTH OR MONSTER is a documentary exploring the notion that a Sasquatch indeed exists and is essentially a series of re-enactments regarding reported sightings or other mysterious situations involving our furry myth. Like an expert skier who vanished after possibly encountering the Bigfoot, a husband-wife Sasquatch hunting team who answer phone calls of sightings (who investigate and make casts of the footprints they find) or a little girl seeing one while traveling in the cab of her lumber-truck driving father. Peter and Celia Byrne, the husband-wife Sasquatch hunters (not in the violent sense, mind you), figure prominently in this documentary—particularly Peter who narrates. Peter, once a professional hunter who killed game in Nepal and the Himalayas, became an animal conservationist and pacifist who preferred to help wild life than destroy it. Peter would travel to places overseas to hear of tales reported about Bigfoot, such as a Russian farmer's raising of a female human-beast, an audio recording which provides the voice as not recognized to be either human or any known animal by expert analysts. Hell, we even visit a "Sasquatch conference", which has those who are obsessed with the Bigfoot gathering together to chat and discuss the creature, both believers and skeptics, enthusiasts and scientists. There's also a "green" message about man's destroying the forests for lumber, reducing the living environments which allow the Bigfoot to remain hidden. I think this documentary will be of interest more to those who remain fascinated with the Sasquatch than the average viewer. Beautiful scenery and locations are an asset for this documentary which recounts eye witness accounts of coming face to face with them (one camping, another fishing, a zoologist awakening to find a Bigfoot in her bedroom). There was even an instance when a carnival sideshow attraction, a supposed Sasquatch contained in ice, which Peter sought after, denied access to study the creature (perhaps a sign that it was merely a fake) much to his frustration and dismay. During the re-enactments, the Bigfoot are presented as men in ape-like costumes as a separate narrator—other than Peter—also takes us through various stories of possible encounters.

Drink every time that Peter C. Byrne says, "I believe in the Manbeast"

At some point in 1978, Peter decided to pretty much remake the In Search Of episode about Bigfoot as this movie, taking his wife Cecelia out for the ride. In fact, director Nicholas Webster would go on to direct three episodes of that syndicated Leonard Nimoy-hosted show that would often give me nightmares. But he can't hide perhaps the darkest of secrets, as Webster also directed Santa Claus Conquers the Martians.

This was written by Anthony Potter (whose resume is hard news and documentaries for the most part) and Diana Webster, who wrote nine episodes of In Search Of as well as appearing in movies like Death Ray 2000 and playing a nurse in two early Marvel movies, Dr. Strange and Captain America.

As we watch a Rob Bottin-created Manbeast interact with people and appear in reenactments, we get to hear stories like the Russian farmer who kept a female Manbeast - a Fembeast? Femalebeast? Ladybeast, shout out to Pittsburgh metal?!? - for years, one that even gave birth and accidentally killed her children by washing them in a frozen stream until the farmer's wife started raising the children for her own and the kids looked very human and wait, was the farmer putting it on the female Manbeast because yes, I totally believe that story as well as a skier straight up murked by a Manbeast.

That said, Peter is the most sympathetic person ever toward the lost species, saying that man has destroyed the forest and that we have to help the Manbeast to survive. And then some insane scientist shows up and says, "Look, they're going extinct. Or maybe they don't exist. I don't care. But if I do find one, I'm going to kill it and do an exhaustive autopsy and enjoy every moment," and I'm absolutely certain that that man is a serial killer. Or an actor. Or an actor who is a serial killer.

This is not anywhere near The Mysterious Monsters or The Legend of Boggy Creek, but it's better than The Legend of Bigfoot, a film in which Ivan Marx talks about himself just as much as he discusses sasquatches.

I just found out an interesting bit of trivia researching this movie. There was another film that came out in 1964 that has been called one of the worst ever made. Its title was Santa Claus Conquers The Martians. Nicholas Webster directed that master piece and he also directed this documentary about Bigfoot boy what a stretch (I also saw where he did some directing on my beloved In Search Of series with Leonard Nimoy). This is a pretty average documentary its rather short and doesn't cover a lot of new ground. They interview Bigfoot expert Peter Byrne who also searched for the Yeti and also have a terrifying reenactment where a woman in Nepal wakes up to see a Yeti hovering menacingly over her bed. However, that is nothing compared to something else about this movie I remember when I first saw it on tv back in the mid 1980s. I swear that at the end they have a dramatized segment about three hunters who finally corner three Bigfoot and shoot two of them. Then the third Bigfoot charges the hunters roaring in rage and it ends with a gunshot as the screen fades to black. The version of this film I saw on youtube has a totally different ending. Does anyone else remember the scene with the hunters?