Wordiezett So much average

Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

Stevecorp Don't listen to the negative reviews

CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

r-lefrancois I remember "Sasqua" very well, though I had not seen the film in many years. It was a cool fall night in Dracut when my father noticed a lot of lights in the back of the town library. He called my brother and I to go out with him and check it out, and low and behold we walked right onto a movie set. A local producer was filming a low budget horror flick in our area--and of all the place to film he was within walking distance from my backyard! "Sasqua" was released in 1975, but this filming was probably a good year or two before the release date. I got to meet some of the actors (smaller, supporting roles) and Scot himself. I ever got to be in on a blink and you miss me cameo. It was a turning point in my life, since then I've really been interested in film production, and twenty some odd years later I actually made my own low budget horror movie, a direct to video never to be seen tale of terror that was probably a product of my childhood encounter with a movie crew.But back to "Sasqua." I finally saw the film again a few days ago. To be honest it was actually better than I remembered, although from what I understand the film has about twenty minutes of footage and probably seen some reediting. Regardless the concept is still a good one. A group of hippies are forming a commune in town, and are quickly viewed as creeps by the towns people. The film was made in the early seventies, so this negative stereotype was probably pretty accurate. Evidently the hippie arrival has infringed on the turf of a group of Sasquatches, and before you know it they are killing both hippies and town folk alike. The town naturally blames on the hippies and sets the police after them. In the end the challenge is will the town and the hippies co exist and turn their attention on the sasquatch problem, or will hate and prejudice prevail? Prejudice is a big theme is "Sasqua." A major conflict in the movie is racial intolerance, where one particular member of the hippies doesn't like the black members of the commune, and one particular member of the black group doesn't like the white guys. Intolerance really is the core theme of the film, which is kind of reminiscent of George Romero's "Night of the Living Dead," which also featured a racist subplot.The acting in "Sasqua" is hit or miss. The lead actors--the ones with actual experience--is fairly decent. A lot of the other actors were pretty terrible. The dialog is decent at times, cringe worthy at others, but the pacing is fairly good and the sasquatch outfit not shabby at all. The film has virtually no gore effects, which is probably a good idea since the budget likely wouldn't have allowed for that.In hindsight, having worked a bit in film and video myself through the years, I think Scot made some good decisions in this movie. I kind of learned the hard way to avoid spending cash on great special effects that can not be maintained throughout the movie. I had a professional make up guy do the effects for my monster, and while he looked great for two or three scenes, I never got the guy back to finish the job. I ended up with lots of talk and little action. Scot kept things simple and consistent and ended up with a better movie as a result.It is kind of a shame this film was never professionally released on DVD. It reminds me a lot of the old "Creature Feature" films that used to play on local TV on Saturday afternoons. It is not a great film, but I've seen many movies on DVD that are legitimately much worst than "Sasqua."

Vomitron_G "Sasqua" is practically the embodiment of the concept of 'bare bones filmmaking'. Virtually a no-budget production, made by people with little to no film-experience. Some exploitation or genre films made this way, went on to later become cult classics. But that's not the story of "Sasqua". The film got lost into obscurity shortly after its release. Even if "Sasqua" is not the 'forgotten masterpiece' amongst the 70's Bigfoot movies we all hoped for, it did not deserve this faith. So sometimes, even faith can use a helping hand. The hand of a Humanoid, for instance. And so it happened. After 3 decades, mainly thanks the crusade of one single devoted horror fan, not only a copy of the movie surfaced again, but also - with the help & participation of some of the film's principal crew members - the whole story behind the making of "Sasqua" had a chance to be re-told.The synopsis has already been mentioned on these pages. I'll add some other thoughts that occurred to me while watching a screener of "Sasqua". One thing I am fairly convinced of, is that the version both me, Coventry & Humanoid watched, is only a (very) rough cut of the film. A work-print, I'm sure. Transferred to tape and now digitized. Some brief shots feature fragments of time codes. And according to other bits of info I've gathered left & right, there should exist more footage that's not featured in this version of the film (like the alleged flashbacks for some of the characters). Did Channon Scot never get around to shooting them, or are they part of a finished (theatrical) cut of the film? Even with the new attention the film has now received, clarifying a lot of the mystery surrounding this production, "Sasqua" has not revealed all its secrets yet.Just a little bit about the actual film then... It's kind of hard to call "Sasqua" a 'real' horror film. The woods have their desolate atmosphere and there are Sasquatch creatures running around in it. A few characters die. A little bit of blood. But that's as far as the horror goes. At no point the film manages to build up tension. The Sasquatch beasts - even though we see enough of them, but never any facial closeups - never manage to be truly scary. The film is cut together with scenes & sequences in such a way that, as a whole, the movie fails to portray the Sasquatch horde as the true menace they should be. The script tries to play out an angle where, from the towners point of view, the hippies are to blame for the killings. But the hippies & the sheriff figure out about the existence of the Bigfoots soon enough. Why & how they know this? It's never really explained. It seems just a normal thing to them and unfortunately it also takes away a lot of the mystery surrounding these mythical beings, roaming the woods. Naturally, the hippie community & the local law enforcers make the logical decision that these creatures must be stopped. But I must advise you to not get your hopes up about this. The ending of the film is cool, in a very 'vintage' way, but the conclusions is also very underwhelming.Still, "Sasqua" does have other merits. Channon & his crew actually tried to make a serious film here. While the film has no real pace to speak of and the timing of events is a bit off (most of the time), there's this hunting sequence in the middle of the film. The hunting party feels like a sudden adrenaline boost coming out of nowhere, especially because of the way it's edited together. A Sasquatch attacks, things happen fast and the death of some hunters comes as a hard-hitting surprise. Furthermore, the movie has a few stand-alone shots featuring (parts of) a Sasquatch that are pretty downright imaginative. "Sasqua" also doesn't incorporate any silly attempts at humor and even some racial & social issues are touched upon in the screenplay. This is very commendable - and also rather uncommon - in a supposedly exploitational genre outing about cannibalistic Sasquatch creatures, wouldn't you agree? The film doesn't even feature gratuitous gore, nudity or sleaze. Another respectable choice the filmmakers made, so it seems.Let's wrap things up rating-wise, shall we? Essentially, "Sasqua" is just a tad bit too inept work of cinema to give it a pass. But Channon Scot made a personal dream come true. A dream which a lot of people might have at one point in their lives, but never set out to get it accomplished: Independently write and direct a first full feature film. He managed to gather enough like-minded people, all working together, devoted to getting this film made. And it turned out an honest subgenre effort. A whole extra star granted, with love & appreciation.

HumanoidOfFlesh A bunch of hippies move into an abandoned farmhouse out in the woods in rural New England. Deputy Richard (Dick Bryan) is always hassling them and of course when the bloody Bigfoot murders start the hippies are blamed. At the very end the hippies had all gone away, leaving the farm to the Bigfoots. A sheriff walks into the empty barn and when he is inside, you can see the outline of the monster step into the doorway behind him. The group of hippies is led by Big Jim (Jim Whitworth), who forms a commune. The first one to die is Diane (Carmella Gallien). The girl is mauled to death by Sasqua. The slasher style murders begin. Another local girl is savagely killed. Three local hunters are devoured in the deep forest regions of New England. Tension among the members of the commune rises. The fights between them are erupting. After discovering Diane's bloody corpse it's time to stop the terror of Sasqua. Sheriff Tom (Wayne Woodruff), Big Jim and his family decide to pursue an elusive creatures. A female member of the commune sees a group of Sasquas sitting around the fire and eating tasty human flesh. Deputy Richard is killed by Sasqua and the fight between hunter Joe and the creature becomes lethal. Big Jim and his family finally decide to leave the farmhouse. Sheriff Tom is the last one to meet with the wrath of Sasqua. "Sasqua" is a fine piece of low-budget regional horror filmmaking. The acting is surprisingly decent and there are some eerie scenes of Sasqua stalking its human prey. We don't really see the creatures - "Sasqua" relies more on suggestion than gore. But one thing for sure: they are mean and cannibalistic monsters. The overall tone of the movie is extremely memorable, as it shares a lot with slasher sub-genre. I particularly liked POV shots of the monster. Channon J. Scot directs with a sure hand and manages to create some suspense. The cinematography is grainy and the editing is quite abrupt, but the quality of my copy is not very good. Still "Sasqua" was regarded lost for many years and I am possibly the first person, who truly noticed its existence. After 35 years of obscurity "Sasqua" simply deserves to be seen and appreciated. http://www.cultreviews.com/interviews/the-story-of-sasqua/Now it's time to find "Revenge of Bigfoot" (1978).

info-19588 I found this web site recently. I was involved in the production of this film. I have background information and copies (duplicates of duplicates) of the film. I was the "still photographer" for the movie, a featured player (actor with lines), and a production assistant. I am familiar with the location shooting and local people involved in the filming of the movie. I would love to obtain an original copy, DVD or crisp copy for my archive. A local re-showing would be welcome by the community. People still remember the movie and several of the local talent are still around. Massachusetts is still a great place to make movies.