A storybook forest is traversed by four tall, scruffy beings. They walk, eat and build shelter repeatedly. Their conversations are a collection of wordless screams, grunts and whoops that we cannot understand just like in silent movies; however, physical actions, pitch changes and facial expressions help us to determine what is being said. Through the experiences of four sasquatches, “Sasquatch Sunset” is a poetic animal documentary-like tale about survival as well as meditation on nature and our relationship with it. David and film may feel like they’re from another world—a different time, dimension or even planet—but actually, the background isn’t far away at all. This is how things are right now. The way we treat nature or the puzzles in it barely matters anymore but what can any of us or our families do?
The sasquatches will have to speak up for themselves because this isn’t your typical nature doc with an omniscient narrator voiced by someone named Richard Attenborough . That work falls to its furry cast and Nathan Zellner instead. Each one creates her own character through layers upon layers of prosthetics and costumes thereby bringing it to life. His creature appears to be an older outcast who seems annoyed by his younger friends’ happiness. Zajac-Denek’s beast looks like the youngest since he wonders around with wide opened eyes naïve too often for his own safety. If she does not die first before the baby arrives Keough’s matriarch usually saves him while safeguarding everyone else’s life in their group. In order of playfulness Zajac-Denek’s spirited creature is only exceeded by Eisenberg’s patriarch who is gentle than either Keough or even Zellner’s sasquatches.
Despite being charming on one hand these mythical bipeds face actual threats as the darkness within the jungle quickly reveals itself. Just as dangerous to us, as it is to them, panthers, poisons and general mortal danger. Finding human beings for the first time during their sasquatch wanderings triggered an overwhelming wave of rage like wild apes awakening from a bad dream. One thing about nature documentaries that Zellners like to show for laughs but others shy away from is when animals have sex with each other or excrete waste by scratching and smelling themselves. Although maybe not everyone’s idea of a good time at the movies, there might be more sasquatch bodily fluids in this movie than any other film the Zellner brothers ever made.
Given that there is no dialogue in “Sasquatch Sunset,” our thoughts are free to meander through the woods with these huge-footed beings, catch the early morning sun streaming through the branches of trees, admire the way fog twists through mountains, watch other forest inhabitants, and understand what sort of chill synth notes accompany this wacky trip by Sounds of…, a band from Austin. Lovely sun-drenched cinematography could be taken as an advertisement for tourism albeit probably one requesting humans not to go into such natural spaces. who wrote the film, gives the sasquatch family enough to cope without human costars, but our intrusion in their space is undoubtedly felt. Their tale might seem like a far-fetched fantasy for many people: surviving on found berries and fresh fish guts; however, at its heart it struggles with survival itself and finding companionship while keeping one’s family safe are very relatable experiences. But once you move past those fuzzy outfits and find yourself watching an hour of something where nobody seems to be speaking at all.
However, believing in Sasquatch Clan requires quite an amount of suspension of disbelief and some parts became too over-the-top for my liking hence I couldn’t stay in it thoughtful mood anymore. It was only after a second viewing that I began appreciating what Zellner brothers did here even though others may still find things like this note really weird about this movie. A movie called “Sasquatch Sunset” is a project that has its eye on achieving big things like struggling with reality versus fantasy or familiar versus unfamiliar territory with just four actors who appear to be in very uncomfortable costumes indeed. However, there’s something interesting about this Bigfoot sighting curiosity arousing enough if it were fictionalized.
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