On the Trail of Bigfoot: Land of the Missing is the latest documentary from Seth Breedlove (On the Trail of Bigfoot: Last Frontier, On the Trail of Bigfoot: The Journey). Like last year's Last Frontier, this one takes place in Alaska, and sees Breedlove interviewing various eye witnesses to apparent Bigfoot creatures. While the director begins by saying fear sells and that wasn't the point of this documentary, he later states that overwhelming accounts of aggressive creatures shaped the path this doc took. Initially planned to try and explain the huge number of unexplained disappearances in Alaska, this became more focussed on accounts of attacks.
As always, it is the people that Breedlove interviews that makes up most of the content here. Also as always, there was never a sense that the people being interviewed are making their stories up, they seem to genuinely believe what they are saying. This includes the more 'out there' story of a man forced to defend himself with a gun against a pack of Bigfoot while at a remote cabin with two family members one long night, and more measured stories, such as a park ranger who encountered a bizarre trail in the woods.
Breedlove is never firmly in the camp of firmly believing what he hears, he goes at lengths to say the idea of there being multiple species of Bigfoot seems a bit hard to believe, while he states that due to the huge number of disappearances in the area, to attribute even a minor number of them to Bigfoot killings would be too much. He does want to believe in the creatures though, with the amount of documentaries in the On the Trail of Bigfoot series, that backs up his interest.
Breedlove is never firmly in the camp of firmly believing what he hears, he goes at lengths to say the idea of there being multiple species of Bigfoot seems a bit hard to believe, while he states that due to the huge number of disappearances in the area, to attribute even a minor number of them to Bigfoot killings would be too much. He does want to believe in the creatures though, with the amount of documentaries in the On the Trail of Bigfoot series, that backs up his interest.
Many of the people he speaks to believe in what they are saying, but there is often a balanced counterview. One section that detailed an account of a sixteen year old boy who went missing in 1975 is counterbalanced by an anonymous source saying it is far more likely the boy died due to the harsh environment, rather than his father's belief that Bigfoot was the thing responsible. For a documentary titled Land of the Missing, the focus is more on accounts of violent beasts. There is a little side tangent that talks of legends of little people and giants also in the area, as well as links to U.F.O sightings, secret military bases, and an intriguing legend of a gigantic black pyramid structure deep in the wilderness. Many of the testimonies are set to art of the creatures (art mainly created by Michael Broom). I thought at least one recreation would have been interesting. Outside of Breedlove's narration and interviews, there isn't much of him out exploring. It opens on his account of staying at a remote cabin for a few days, but that is never gone back to.
With legends of hairy men dating back to Native American myths and legends, I like to think that there could have possibly been something there at some point in time but find it hard to believe there could be anything like that around today. Bigfoot is one of my favourite cryptids if only due to my father believing in them, a man that I respect a lot. Land of the Missing didn't do anything to change my viewpoint, but it was interesting to watch, adding more of an element of horror to what these docs usually provide. On the Trail of Bigfoot: Land of the Missing comes to Cable VOD and Digital HD from 1091 Pictures and is available on Blu-ray exclusively from Small Town Monsters on August 22nd.
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