Bigfoot Unleashed, Part VII (2023) - Short Comedy Horror Film Review

Seven minute short comedy horror film Bigfoot Unleashed, Part VII is taken from feature length horror The Haunting of Prince Dom Pedro, a film that is currently expected to be completed by 2025. In that film, this short will be referenced and parts of it shown, but to my knowledge it won't appear there in its full form. Directed by Don Swanson (Occurrence at Mills Creek, A Wish for Giants, What Was Lost), and written and produced by Joe Fishel (Occurrence at Mills Creek). The low budget may have been an actual constraint, but a low quality look and feel was purposely chosen, so in that respect it is a perfect match.

An opening text prologue states this is about a construction company whose development deep in the woods of Appalachia has angered a Bigfoot creature who has up to this point assaulted the construction site six previous times. This short chronicles the creature's seventh attack, shown from the viewpoint of a long suffering secretary (Valena Zitello - Massacre Academy), who appears to have been the sole survivor in each of the creature's previous assaults. Will she manage to survive this time however?

The intention was low quality and that is what you get here, with the short mainly concerned with the secretary attempting to flee the creature. Bigfoot itself plays the part of a slasher type antagonist, with it shown to be in pursuit, but always just parts of the creature glimpsed, such as a paw dragging its way along the wall of a tunnel in a Freddy Krueger type way. I thought the best part of this was the montage summary of the previous attacks, basically the same character screaming in the same location, with the same wounds, but wearing different outfits, was amusing. The makeup effects are basically red lines on the face and arm to simulate a claw attack, with no special effects really to speak of. The Bigfoot is a man in a suit (played by Fishel), that looks perfectly fine.

Designed to be basic, Bigfoot Unleashed, Part VII was a decent enough short, if lacking in too much really happening, certainly nothing original. Again, I expect this was all purposefully done, and I did think its low budget indie vibe had its charm.

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